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Kelli DeMonte, 47, is the new principal of Vaughn Elementary School.
DeMonte began her teaching career in the North Thurston School district where she grew up, in Lacey. After 11 years of elementary classroom teaching, DeMonte said a colleague “tapped me on the shoulder” and suggested she would be a good candidate for school administrator roles. She decided to take the necessary training for principalship at Seattle Pacific University.
DeMonte served as assistant principal for schools in North Thurston for five years before moving to a Title 1 school in Centralia, where she was principal for six years. There she discovered a love for working with behaviorally challenged students in rural settings.
DeMonte’s father died in November 2022, and she took a year off to reflect and recharge. DeMonte said she believes in self-care and encourages her staff in that regard.
After her year away, DeMonte was hired by Peninsula School District as the deputy principal at Voyager Elementary for the 2023-2024 school year. During that time, she substituted at Vaughn Elementary when principal Abby Barabe was out of the office.
“The first day that I subbed here at Vaughn, I remember thinking if this position ever came open, I would apply for it,”
DeMonte said. “This is the type of school I want to be at. The staff here is amazing, they have big hearts for kids. I felt that since I first walked into the school.”
As a new principal coming in, she said her priority is to build relationships with the staff. There are five new teachers and three paraeducators this year.
“We will continue the great work that was already started with the Sense of Belonging theme (by the previous principal). We are working to elevate students’ voices in the school and help them take the lead with things. Students will be helping with the morning announcements on Zoom.”
DeMonte’s main passion is for helping students with behavioral issues. She stressed the importance of the Positive Behavior Interventions Supports, “a three-tiered evidence-based framework to improve and integrate systems affecting student outcomes,” according to PBIS.org.
“I am a systems thinker and a systems builder, I really think big picture,” she said. “One of my goals this year is to continue to work to identify the systems at work here at Vaughn because I am not coming here to make a bunch of changes. There is already great work happening to support the whole child,” she said.
“I bring a lot of experience around trauma-informed practices for social-emotional learning. How do we integrate that into the work that is already happening, decrease our referrals for discipline, and increase the sense of belonging and student voice? That will increase student achievement in the end.”
DeMonte has developed and led six training sessions in Washington and Oregon for trauma-informed practice at annual education conferences. She also presents the information to school staff.
The program she developed includes information about kids who have been abused or neglected, she said. “It rewires their brain when they are little. We teach a lot around resiliency and how we can rewire their brain back to how it was through love. Teaching self-regulation strategies can help them be successful out in the real world.”
DeMonte was adopted from Tehran, Iran, after being abandoned at birth.
“My adopted father was in the Air Force and was stationed there for two years. Seven years later, twins were adopted from Korea, so we have a very diverse family. There were some challenges growing up; I faced a lot of adversity, being an adoptee. I experienced some trauma growing up.”
Because of that, she said she has developed a heightened sense of compassion and empathy for students who have experienced trauma.
“When working with students who are oftentimes consistently demonstrating very challenging behaviors, I find so much purpose and passion in peeling back layers to figure out the why. It’s not what is wrong with this child, it’s what happened to this child? When we identify the why, helping families to understand, then we can better serve them and meet them where they are at.”
DeMonte said that a strong home-school partnership is critical for success.
“I am big on relationships, big on transparency, and big on partnerships, getting people to come on board. For some families, schools have not been a safe place. ... There is so much joy in inviting the parent in and not saying your child has to go home, that is never a first step. I prefer that they watch and learn as I work to de-escalate the child, and they can use the same strategy at home.”
During the day, DeMonte does not spend much time in her office. She believes it is important to be visible, often on the playground or high-traffic areas within the school. She wheels a desk around the school as a “mobile office,” using her laptop while still connecting with as many kids as possible. She hopes to learn all 300 students’ names by the end of the year and to connect with as many families as she can.
She also looks forward to celebrating “Pranksgiving” in November. She likes to have fun with students and plays small pranks on them and staff throughout the month. She has been known to ride her hoverboard through school. DeMonte said that laughing with students and having fun develops relationships differently. “That type of relationship can make hard conversations easier.”
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