Happy first week of school Whittier families! I would like to welcome each student and their families to Whittier for the new 2026-27 school year. I am so excited and honored to have the opportunity to work with such a wonderful school community of parents and staff that are committed to supporting each of our students in their growth socially, emotionally, and academically! Together, we are going to make it a great school year!
Our school theme this year is ‘Full Sail Ahead.’ It represents Whittier’s collective TEAM alignment
towards continuous improvement to ensure that each Whittier student receives high-quality learning opportunities, feels valued in our community, and is empowered to be a leader. And all students will
continue to lead through “The Whittier Way: Be Safe, Be Respectful, Be Your Best!”
We have new staff members who I would like to introduce for the 2026-27 school year: Eric Valadez is our new assistant principal, Jill Anneberg is our new 2nd/3rd grade Highly Capable teacher, Andrea Barhanovich is our new Social Emotional Learning Specialist teacher, Jeongwon Hyun is our new Multi-Language Learner teacher, Kim McAllister is our new intermediate Achieve teacher, and Joseph Thompson is our Speech and Language Pathologist. Here are our new special education paraeducator support staff: Melissa Adkins, Courtney Baker, Mounika Challagundla, Mihyun Choi, Joanne Johnston, Sheren Khalil, Amy Lennstrom, Amy Mehlos, Olivia Schonaerts, and Tyler White. Welcome new Whittier staff members!
Whittier’s Curriculum Night will take place on Tuesday, October 6 from 6:00 to 7:00 p.m. Whittier’s Book Fair Family Night will also take place the same evening in the gym & cafeteria from 5:30 – 7:30 p.m. The Whittier Curriculum Night session with your child’s teacher in the classroom will run from 6:00 – 7:00 p.m. and it will be a great opportunity to learn about the classroom learning systems, the grade level learning expectations, and the classroom community. It will also allow families to strengthen partnerships with our teachers.
Finally, I wanted to emphasize to parents that student safety is the highest priority at Whittier. Please remember that the Whittier campus doors are locked until 8:15 a.m. Please do not drop your child off by themselves unsupervised before 8:15 a.m. as we do not have supervision for students outside of the entrance or outside of the 10th street playground fence area in the morning.
I encourage families to use the back gate entrance and exit on 10th street for older students during AM arrival and especially PM dismissal, as we have a very small parking lot and limited space for cars since our special education buses also park in the parking lot. The back gate entrance & exit point is a quicker and more efficient location for drop off and pick up, especially in the afternoon when we have inclement weather.
I am very excited about working with you and your children this year. Thank you for a great start to
the 2026-27 school year. I look forward to seeing you at our upcoming events this month. Have a
wonderful first month of school!
-Tony Wentworth, Principal
