For Hollister resident and former Baler Elaine Klauer, the move to San Benito High School, after 18 years of working at elementary and middle schools, means coming full circle.
Currently the principal at Rancho San Justo Middle School, Klauer will be accepting an assistant principal role at the comprehensive high school where she will oversee curriculum. The job starts July 1, she said.
She has already taught kindergarten through fifth grade, and provided intervention for sixth, seventh and eighth grade students. She’s worked in three San Benito County school districts including the Hollister School District where she started as a kindergarten teacher and North County Joint Union School District, where she was eventually promoted to assistant principal.
“I’m very, very happy here at Rancho, so it’s been bittersweet. We’ve had an excellent three years,” Klauer said. “But my goal had been to go to the high school.”
Klauer first applied for an assistant principal position about three years ago while she was working as an assistant principal in the North County Joint Union School District.
“And then I didn’t make it and I thought, ‘Oh, all right, it’s not the right timing,’” she said.
When a principal position opened up at Rancho, the largest feeder school for the high school, just one and a half weeks later, Klauer applied and got the job.
The principal came by her teaching and administration career naturally since the Zunigas—her maiden name—are known for producing an illustrious line of educators. At Rancho, Klauer works with her cousin and sister. Another cousin works at the high school and a third works at Gabilan Hills Elementary School, she said.
Growing up, Klauer spent a few years as a student at Sunnyslope Elementary School and graduated from San Benito High School. She also spent several years at private schools, including the Hollister-based Sacred Heart and the Salinas-based Notre Dame.
“I’m a Baler,” she said. “I’m excited to put my Baler red back on.”
