I am honored to serve students, teachers, parents, and our entire school community as the Principal of Orca K-8 school. My passion is to inspire educators to cultivate an environment which provides students with educational experiences that are conducive to preparing them to be productive citizens who are tolerant of a world of differences, capable of adapting to change, and able to evolve into life-long problem solvers. Every individual at Orca K-8 has value and through collaborative efforts to build positive relationships and tireless quest for academic, leadership, and service excellence students will achieve high levels of achievement. Parents/guardians are valuable to our students’ learning process so we will foster partnerships and create an inviting atmosphere that allows parents/guardians to enhance student success as  collaborative partners. Together we can provide students with opportunities to learn at optimal levels and reach their full academic potential. I fully embrace the responsibility of leading the Orca K-8 family in this great district.

Biography

It is my pleasure to continue as the K-3 math interventionist.  For the first 17 years of my teaching career, I taught in an SPS, self-contained special education class, on the campus of Ryther.  Watching children build confidence, interest, excitement, and skills in school is incredible.  Being part of that growth is immensely rewarding.  I love being a teacher.

 Personal

Playing games (especially of the card variety), cooking, and experiencing new places are a few things I very much enjoy.

I am passionate about loving learning, and believe that everyone learns best when they are active participants in learning! I’m now in my 15th year of teaching, and my 4th year at Orca. I try to use games, technology and real-world learning to make learning meaningful and engaging. I’m also working on growing in teaching writing in meaningful ways this year, and I hope to inspire students to publish their ideas and writing to the world. When I’m not teaching, I enjoy running, biking and playing Ultimate Frisbee, as well as playing board games with my family and friends!

Hello! My name is Deanna Sanekane and I am so excited to be joining the Graham Hill team! I am a first-year school psychologist and I am passionate about social-emotional learning and supporting students through multi-tiered systems of support.

I was born and raised on Oahu, Hawaii and moved to Seattle in 2015. In my spare time, you can usually find me baking, going on walks, or at a coffee shop!