Principal puts finishing touches on career

Valerio retired at the end of the school year as principal at McKinley Elementary School in Burlingame, after 23 years of working at the district, and 12 years in the top administrative position.

As she puts the finishing touches on her time at the school, Valerio said she found education work most appealing.

“I’ve had many careers in my life, but this has by far been the most rewarding,” she said.

Prior to her time at the school, Valerio was forced to put her work as a professional chef catering for elite social circles in San Francisco on the back burner after being diagnosed with carpal tunnel syndrome.

Unwilling to allow the setback to define her, Valerio traded her knives for school books and never looked back.

“I was very successful but I became disabled. But being disabled, I’m not going to sit at home,” she said. “So I asked, ‘what’s my next purpose?’”

Valerio said she found her new mission through blending a passion for education and an interest in building social equity through language enrichment, which culminated in the launch of a Spanish immersion program at McKinley Elementary School.

The program working toward building bilingual students through intensive language lessons was Valerio’s brainchild and it has grown in size and notability since she was named principal in 2005.

When she arrived at McKinley Elementary School, it was one the district’s smallest and served only 260 students. In the past dozen years, the school’s enrollment has floated over 500 and the immersion program has 240 students.

As enrollment increased, so did the depth of the immersion program’s curriculum, said Valerio and the result is a master plan that “continues to be an example to school districts that are thinking about developing an immersion program.”

Superintendent Maggie MacIsaac expressed her appreciation for Valerio’s contribution to the district.

“Paula embodied the spirit at McKinley School; fun loving and honoring rich traditions,” she said in an email. “She was the principal that started the Spanish dual immersion program in Burlingame and she was a champion for the program.”

Looking ahead, Valerio said she plans to spend more time with her friends and family who live locally.

“I’m looking forward to traveling many two-lane roads, wherever they take me,” she said.

She said she will miss the friends, colleagues and many close relationships she has established at the district over the past 23 years.

“There are so many people who have touched my life greatly,” she said. “And I’m forever grateful to the Burlingame School District.”

One of her favorite elements of staying in the school community for so long has been ability to foster connections with so many different students and families across multiple generations, she said.

“One of the greatest gifts I have had in my career is being able to share a brief moment in so many lives,” she said.

Valerio said a key to her success is keeping an open door and dedicating herself to remaining accessible for all students, teachers and members of the school community — a commitment which MacIsaac said has paid great dividends.

“Paula Valerio was an amazing administrator. She knew all her students and their families. Paula had a heart of gold and was always there at McKinley School to help anyone in need,” she said.

As she turns away from the heat of working as an education administrator and prepares to dash into the retired life, Valerio said she shares the same indelible mark she has left on the school.

“I know that I’ll go on barking in my life,” she said, referring to the school’s mascot. “Once a bulldog, always a bulldog.”

austin@smdailyjournal.com

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