Brennan and Nanny named to school district positions

The Cheney School District has named Celina Brennan and Nicole Nanny to new positions within the district.

According to news releases, Brennan was named the new principal at Salnave Elementary School on June 24 while Nanny became the new director of teaching and learning July 9.

Brennan graduated from Eastern Washington University in 2002 with a bachelor’s degree in education, and from Whitworth University in 2010 with a master’s degree. She has taught at Salnave for nine years, and in 2011 was named a recipient of the Outstanding Young Educator of the Year Award from the Washington State Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Brennan recently completed her principal certification program at EWU, serving in an administrative internship at Salnave, providing support and leadership for school staff.

While at Salnave she also provided instructional leadership throughout the district by helping lead efforts to improve literacy instruction in Cheney schools as part of the Literacy Leaderships Team, helping teachers develop effective reading instruction strategies and aligning district instruction with state standards.

“I hold high expectations for staff and students, and I am dedicated to supporting continuous improvement for all learners,” Brennan said in a letter to the district hiring committee. “Salnave is near and dear to my heart as an educator, parent and leader.”

Nanny received a bachelor’s degree in education from Northern Arizona University in 1990, and a master’s degree in educational leadership from NAU in 1996. She recently completed her principal certification from EWU, and has served in the district for the past six years, most recently as assistant principal/humanities coordinator at Cheney Middle School and prior to that as the district’s humanities curriculum and assessment coordinator. She has also been an eighth-grade language arts teacher and middle school science coach.

According to the news release, Nanny has provided leadership in the development of standards-based report cards for K-5, as well as implementation of the Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts for the District. Her previous duties included the coordination of all district assessments, including state-mandated assessments, along with development and expansion of instructional programs such as the K-12 World Languages program and K-12 Social Studies scope and sequence.

In her letter to the hiring committee, Nanny expressed her core beliefs as “1) As an educational leader, I believe in people…not programs, 2) I believe in demonstrating respect and dignity…all day, every day…for everyone, 3) I have high expectations and 4) I believe we all have a commitment to keeping students at the center of all decisions.”