San Carlos schools name new admins

“I really do believe that San Carlos is special because you can grow a career here and that career could be 30 years in the classroom and incredibly fulfilling. It could be a career that takes you to principalship and back to the classroom,” board Vice President Ben Kornell said during Thursday’s meeting. “It can take you to district leadership. It can take you to HR. It can take you anywhere and I think there’s something special about a district of our size.”

Before being selected as Tierra Linda’s new principal, Charu’s 20-year education career included teaching science at the school before most recently serving as its assistant principal. Charu holds a bachelor’s in biology and chemistry from the University of Delhi, a master’s specializing in teaching and learning from National University, San Jose, and both a single-subject and administrative credential.

Charu is also a National Geographic Certified Educator and was one of 50 educators selected to participate in the Grosvenor Teacher Fellowship, setting sail to the Galapagos Islands on a two-week expedition, made possible by a partnership between National Geographic and Lindblad Expeditions.

“I’m looking forward to working collaboratively with all of our talented staff, parents, students and community partners to continue promoting academic excellence, furthering future skills for our students and prioritizing the whole child for all students in our community,” Gulati said Thursday.

Like Charu, Norgaard’s education career spans two decades with many of those years spent educating and serving as an administrator in the district. She started out with the district as a third grade teacher in 2001 and has also been a part-time instructor with Notre Dame de Namur University since 2015.

After serving as interim principal at White Oaks Elementary, Norgaard briefly left SCSD to be principal at Pacifica School District’s Vallemar Elementary School. Norgaard holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of California, Santa Barbara, a master’s in education from Notre Dame de Namur University and an administrative credential.

“Extremely excited to come home,” Norgaard said also during Thursday’s meeting. “I had a really rewarding experience leading a K-eight but San Carlos is my home and I couldn’t wait to come back so when the opportunity arose I jumped at the chance.”