"Principal hired for Davis High"
By Jeff Hudson | Enterprise staff writer | August 13, 2010

The Davis school board filled the school district's highest profile opening on Thursday, hiring Jacqui Moore as the new principal at Davis High, just in time for the start of the new academic year.

Moore is coming from Florin High School in the Elk Grove Unified School District, where she has served as vice principal since 2008. She also was an interim vice principal at Florin High in 2007.

Davis school board president Tim Taylor said Moore 'is going to be joining us, hopefully, within the next week. We are extremely excited to have her take over the leadership role at Davis High, and we are confident that she will inspire our students, faculty, staff and community - much as her predecessor (Winfred Roberson) did last year.'

Taylor added, 'She is supremely qualified for this position because of her educational background and her extraordinary experience working with underprivileged students and those in need of greatest assistance.'

Superintendent Roberson, who served as DHS principal for the past year, said Moore 'has experience working with the Advanced Placement Board and as a trainer of AP teachers. She has a good understanding of academic programs, and she has experience working with students who fall in the achievement gap.'

Roberson also mentioned Moore's work 'forming and organizing professional learning communities for teachers, which work to the benefit of students' and said she has 'the qualities to make connections with students, collaborate with teachers, provide instructional leadership and build community partnerships.'

The principal's job at Davis High opened up in midsummer when the Davis school board tapped Roberson as the new superintendent, to replace James Hammond, who took a job in Southern California. A search for a new principal began almost immediately, with Moore emerging as the standout candidate in a field that included more than two dozen applicants.

Moore completed her educational doctorate in educational leadership, equity and reform in 2009 through UC Berkeley, focusing on organizational structures and networks that enhance educational attainment and equity, including students who are not reaching their potential.

She told The Enterprise that her six years as an administrator with the Elk Grove district gave her the opportunity to work with staff, students and parents in this area.

'Some of the work I've done, for example, is to not have a 'gatekeeper approach' to having students involved in AP and Honors courses, but to have a 'transition approach.' I designed a five-semester humanities program that students could take for regular credit or for honors credit - they would talk about math, science, religion, literature ... everything that would make up a culture.

'There was always something that kids were excited about, and once kids are excited, they do their best work,' she said. 'We used that as a point of entry for students who were not typically involved in AP or Honors classes.'

Moore's résumé also includes duty as a summer vice principal at three high schools in the Sacramento region - Franklin, Florin and Sheldon - and a stint (2004-08) as vice principal at James Rutter Middle School in the Elk Grove district.

She also was an academic program coordinator at Rutter Middle School in Elk Grove in 2003-04; curriculum leader and department chair at Laguna Creek High School in the Elk Grove district in 1994-2000; and a department chair at River City High School in West Sacramento in 1987-89.

In the classroom, she served as an English teacher, AP English teacher, humanities teacher and mentor teacher in the Elk Grove district from 1989 to 2003. She also has taught at the high school level in three other states - New Jersey, Arizona and Nevada. She grew up in New Jersey.

In addition to her doctorate from UC Berkeley, she holds master's degrees from Sacramento State (English, as well as educational leadership and policy studies), and a bachelor's degree from University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

In her free time, Moore is a rock climber and mountaineer - an activity she has enjoyed 'for about 25 years.' Last week, she and her daughter, a water polo player, were part of a group that made an ascent on the steep eastern side of Mount Whitney in Inyo County, the highest point in California, in the southern Sierra Nevada.

- Reach Jeff Hudson at jhudson@davisenterprise.net or (530) 747-8055.