Catherine Celaya was unanimously approved by the William S. Hart Union High School District governing board for her appointment as Canyon High School’s new assistant principal.
“We are excited to introduce Ms. Catherine Celaya, the newest addition to the Hart district,” Superintendent Mike Kuhlmann said in a news release. “With her extensive administrative experience gained from her commendable work in the Burbank Unified School District, we are confident that Ms. Celaya will make a positive impact supporting students, staff and parents as a member of the Canyon High School administrative team.”
Celaya started her teaching journey in Japan, and when she came back to the states, she knew she wanted to teach for her career.
She had fallen in love with teaching.
She took the next steps of getting her teaching credentials and her master’s degree in educational leadership and policy studies from California State University, Northridge.
Celaya taught English at Downey High School before making her teaching residency at the Burbank Unified School District.
However, she has been a Santa Clarita Valley resident since 2008.
“It’s always been an idea that was in the back of my head,” said Celaya on teaching in the SCV.
In 2015, she became the assistant principal at John Muir Middle School and has served in that role until now.
“One of my teaching mentors, very early on, told me that I would be a really good administrator,” said Celaya, “that I have the ability to have difficult conversations with people and kids.”
With her children getting older and one of her kids in the Hart district, she decided to take her skills elsewhere and apply to be closer to home.
Her application for the job of assistant principal, with the school yet to be determined, was the one and only application she submitted.
“I had been wanting to go back to high school anyway, because that’s the brunt of my when I was a teacher,” said Celaya. “I only ever taught high school, so I was excited to go back to high school because that’s kind of my favorite, my favorite grade level.”
Celaya will be joining the Canyon Cowboys family in the fall and she is nothing but excited.
“I’m really excited to get to meet the kids and the teachers and all of the faculty and staff and just really become more part of this community,” said Celaya.
