2 Area Principals Receive Awards

Janie Taylor, principal at Reseda Elementary School, is not one for recognition.

Neither is Granada Hills High School Principal Kathleen Rattay.

But on June 4, Taylor and Rattay will find themselves the centers of attention when they receive Administrator of the Year awards in the categories of elementary school principal and high school principal, respectively, by the Assn. of California School Administrators Region 16, representing the Los Angeles Unified School District.

“At Reseda Elementary, all the people who help with the school--the plant manager, the cafeteria manager, office manager, teachers and parents--work together to ensure that we have a wonderful education for all students,” said Taylor, 59, who has been principal at Reseda Elementary since 1986.

“So this award is in essence really a school award,” Taylor said.

Rattay, 51, also credited her colleagues.

“We’ve worked pretty hard as a team at Granada Hills High to improve the instruction for our students,” Rattay said. “Although it’s an honor to be recognized by my colleagues, I didn’t do it by myself.”

The awards are based on administrators’ involvement at the school level and in the association, said Jose Rodriguez, president of the association. The two were notified last month in a letter from Allan J. Weiner, president-elect of the 500-member association.

During her five years as principal at Granada Hills High, Rattay began a math, science and technology magnet program that now has an enrollment of 443 students.

Taylor currently heads the association’s Equal Education/Diversity Opportunity Committee, which works to ensure equal education for all children throughout the state.

At the school level, Taylor is especially proud of a program she started six years ago to promote higher education. Through College is Possible, Reseda Elementary students go on biannual field trips to Cal State Northridge, where they can learn about campus life and the value of college education, she said.