By Lookout Staff

June 26, 2016 --  Educator Jezelle Fullwood, a 20-year veteran teacher and administrator, will become the new principal at Grant Elementary School next month, the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District announced.

Board of Education members approved Fullwood's appointment this week. She officially begins her new job on July 1, taking over from retiring Principal Wendy Wax Gellis, said Gail Pinsker, the district's spokeswoman.

Before her appointment, Fullwood spent a decade as an administrator in the Palmdale School District, most recently as director of curriculum and instruction, according to the district's website. She also served as coordinator of staff development for Palmdale schools, Pinsker said.

“As a student, I attended schools in the area of Pacific Palisades and graduated from Pepperdine University, so after being in the desert for 10 years, I feel like I'm coming home,” said Fullwood, whose work in turning around under-performing schools in Palmdale has been highlighted in journals and case studies.

She started her career in the Los Angeles Unified School District, as a classroom teaching and literacy coach in schools in low-income areas. She also wrote curriculum and provided professional development to educators across the United States as an instructional specialist for Action Learning Systems Inc., a private company that has worked on school reform in California.

After coming to the Palmdale School District in 2009, Fullwood became principal of struggling Tumbleweed Elementary School in 2010.

Once the district's top-performing school, Tumbleweed's test scores steadily fell between 2003 and 2009 as the school's population swelled from 400 to more than 1,000 students, according to the National Center on Time and Learning, which profiled Tumbleweed as part of its “Transforming Schools Through Expanded Learning Time” series.

California's Department of Education had categorized Tumbleweed as a “persistently low-achieving school,” but a year after Fullwood took over as principal test scores improved by 50 percent, according to “Best Practices,” by author and educational consultant Tom Many.

 After coming to Tumbleweed, Fullwood, who majored in business management at Pepperdine, immediately applied for and received a three-year $6 million School Improvement Grant, which allowed the school to hire more teachers, educational specialists and a new assistant principal and also increase classroom instructional time by one hour per day.

“Jezelle will be a valuable addition to our district leadership team,” said SMMUSD Superintendent Sandra Lyon.

At her new principal's job, Fullwood is taking over the SMMUSD's top-achieving school, according to homefacts.com, which uses the California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress to rate local schools. Grant, a kindergarten through fifth-grade campus of about 600 students, received an A-plus from the website.

 The school features a three-day fifth-grade science camp each spring, according to Grant's website. The school’s test scores of 90 percent in science last year were 10 percentage points higher than the district's average and well above the state average of 59 percent, said homefacts.com.

Along with her career as a school administrator, Fullwood is an adjunct faculty member at California State University, Dominguez Hills, where she earned her master's degree in education. She also is an international staff developer for Advancement Via Individual Determination, said Pinsker.