My name is Doug Kaplicky and I am honored to serve as Adams Elementary School’s next principal. I was beyond blessed to start my teaching career at A.C. Davis High School in the late 1990s, a few years before that I graduated from Eisenhower High School. It is with great pleasure to return to this amazing community as a servant leader and educational teammate. 

After 12 years in school administration, I was humbled and honored to be named the 2017 Washington State Principal of the Year.  This recognition was a direct reflection of an amazing, certified, and classified middle school staff, who valued students’ individual needs, teamed with parents, celebrated peers while collaborating on a district vision.  The staff put themselves on the map in July of 2014, when our team was given 42 days to create a school that had sat empty, with limited resources and employees coming from eight different locations. Surprisingly, twenty months later in 2016, this talented staff was named a Top Innovation School by OSPI.

Three of my twelve years of administrative experience were at the elementary level. I was extremely proud to team with a talented staff in the Richland S.D. (Lewis and Clark Elementary). In 2013 and 2014 the staff, students, and parents were recognized by OSPI as a State Distinguished Achievement School.

 

My first lead Principal job was in the Warden S.D. that allowed me five years to extend my learning curve in Spanish immersion programs, find success in a high poverty region and help create a daily mantra of social-emotional learning for students and staff.  Teaming with the Center of Effective Education helped reinvent our school culture, which later leads to national recognition in 2009. The following year I was recognized as the ESD 171 Regional Principal of the Year, which was a direct reflection of a great school community.

Over the last couple of years, I had a chance of a lifetime to travel to over 30 States as an educational consultant and public speaker. This gave me a chance to grow a ton personally and professionally, as I observed many leadership styles. This work was usually based around; The Cards You Are Dealt (Leadership), Unpacking Social-Emotional Backpacks (Students-Staff), promoting equity, and developing educational leaders.  While on the road, I fell in love with the research of school trends and regained a passion for writing that opened up an opportunity to be published later this year.  I am also very blessed to be a dad of two great teenage kids.

I am beyond excited to join the school-family of Adams Elementary.  I look forward to teaming with staff, meeting parents, and most of all inspiring students.  Go Bulldogs!

Source: Yakima School District