Castlebay Principal Victoria Littlejohn will be honored on April 19th as the Principal of the Year by the Chatsworth/Porter Ranch Chamber of Commerce. The Chamber annually bestows Unforgettable Educator Awards and solicits nominations by the parents and community.
The PRNC voted at the April 2012 meeting to support Castlebay by funding an emergency sound system and iPads to be used for conducting regular student assessments.
Castlebay Principal Victoria Littlejohn with PRCS Principal Mary Melvin at PRNC's Meet The Principals November 2011
This year the Porter Ranch Castlebay community energetically submitted many nominations with multiple being offered for Miss Littlejohn. This is her first year at Castlebay and her first year as a Principal. She has made a huge impact in one year on our already outstanding school (940 API). She makes an effort to make each student feel welcome so they will want to come to school, whether she sees them on the yard or greets them through her weekly ConnectEd calls. She aspires to put a comment for each student on their report cards. She makes herself accessible to parents through her weekly ConnectEd calls, monthly website messages and monthly Coffee with the Principal meetings and tells it like it is, providing the latest updates on budgets and staffing. She reports out the impact of student absences on the budget to hold parents accountable and make them part of the solution.
She heard feedback through school reporting that Castlebay was not rated highly in physical education, so to supplement the PE program, she instituted Move It Mondays and Fitness Fridays, times when the whole school is out on the yard exercising and playing to energetic music. Students love this and teachers are getting into it! It creates a sense of school spirit.
Some of the changes she has made to the campus include securing funds for and completing playground upgrades including replacing the safety padding under the jungle gyms, Lowe's landscaping projects, implementing recycling with LA City blue bins, and the installation of a handicap ramp at the front entrance. Future projects at parent request include instituting parent-teacher conferences and the implementation of the online Accelerated Reader program.
(L to R) Castlebay Teachers Michael Cascone, Sandy Dorfman, Tina Wartanian, School Administrative Assistant Ripsime Katcherian, Principal Victoria Littlejohn, and teacher Michelle Hurtado celebrate Miss Littlejohn’s Principal of the Year Award. Photo by Parent Lori Kalman
Under Miss Littlejohn's leadership, Mrs. Dorfman, teacher of the third grade Indefatigable Winners, has volunteered to head up a school paper, The Castlebay Connection. Fifth graders are so excited and proud to have been selected for this honor to write and publish articles about the school and community. They are rising to the challenge their new role presents. The paper too creates a sense of school spirit.
To help students and parents embrace the new lunch menus, she invited the LAUSD Chef to conduct a tasting at the school. This was covered by CBS Channel 2.
With the persistent vision and leadership of the previous principal, Mrs. Ihori, the District finally agreed to replace Castlebay's tiny multipurpose room with a larger one, to upgrade access ramps and provide smartboars for each classroom. Miss Littlejohn is currently working with the District to keep the existing multipurpose room for art, music, and theatrical sessions and build the new multipurpose room in the adjacent space.
The PRNC congratulates Miss Littlejohn in all she and her team have done for the students of Castlebay and the Porter Ranch community.
