The Port Townsend School District is hiring after Blue Heron School’s principal announced her resignation April 10, effective at school year’s end.

“This has been a great experience,” Diane Lashinsky, 57, said of her three years of leading the school, which serves about 390 students in fourth through eighth grades. “I am very sincere when I say it’s going to be hard to leave and I am very grateful for my time here.”

Lashinsky told her staff of her intent to resign on April 8. The next morning, she told a group of parents during a monthly Coffee and Conversation meeting. On April 10, she sent her letter of resignation to Superintendent David Engle.

“My resignation is more for personal reasons than professional,” said Lashinsky, who intends to continue her career in educational leadership. “I feel I need to go back to Seattle, where I lived before moving to Port Townsend.”

On the same day Lashinsky submitted her letter, Engle advertised the open position. By April 13, he had received three applications. A week later, that number had grown to seven.

“We’re right in that peak period of the marketplace,” Engle said. “I expect there will be a fair amount of interest. We want the person we select to spend time with Diane to make a good transition.”

The deadline to apply is May 1, and Engle said candidate interviews are set for May 11-15.

“She has given us three good years and has decided to look at other things across the water,” Engle said of Lashinsky, who is currently earning a salary of $91,850. “She’s a good, hard worker and will finish the year for us.”

Prior to moving to Port Townsend, Lashinsky was principal of Durango High School in Durango, Colorado, for five years. Before that, she was an assistant principal at Ballard High School in Seattle as well as Mountlake Terrace High School in Mountlake Terrace, Washington. She also taught science at Shorecrest High School in Shoreline, Washington.

“I have spent a lot of time in high schools,” she said. “Working at Blue Heron has been a great experience with younger students that’s helped me grow as an educator and a professional. Every time one changes their career, they are looking for new challenges and the best way to use their strengths. I want to make sure I find the right school, the right place for myself.”

In her first year, Lashinsky created an informal, monthly opportunity to meet with and listen to parents, called Coffee and Conversation.

“It’s always an important part of being a principal – to communicate with and listen to parents,” she said. “That was something I was told by parents they wanted more of. They did not feel Blue Heron was very open. I think parents have felt more welcome in our school. Very honestly, a number of parents have expressed their gratitude, and that’s reaffirming.”

Engle said Lashinsky “did a great job” integrating many special education students into general education classes.

“The way we serve our special education students is now more inclusive,” she said. “They were taking a separate class. I call that a sheltered class. They are now included in grade-level general education classes. That helps those students stay as close to the general education level as possible. And, they tend to make more growth in that model than in a separated model.”

Lashinsky also started a remedial reading program and established a science, technology, engineering and mathematics program using curricula developed by a national nonprofit called Project Lead The Way.

Looking ahead, Lashinsky said the school’s next principal would likely be involved in planning a transition of elementary students at Blue Heron to an expanded Grant Street Elementary School, as well as continuing to integrate existing educational programs with place-based learning projects that began this year as part of the Maritime Discovery Schools Initiative.

“These are all embryonic projects that teachers are planning,” Lashinsky said of early place-based learning efforts. “It’s important that schools don’t just keep adding on one more thing. When you add new things, it’s really important to rethink what you are already doing, to think about it in a new way.”