New principal in love with Quincy

QUINCY — Lisa Navarro-Uvila isn’t new to Washington.

“I’m originally from Long Island, but I save my New York accent for my family,” Navarro-Uvila said. “But I lived 20 years in Washington, was a stay-at-home mom for 10 years, raised a family here.”

So coming to Quincy and starting as Monument Elementary School’s new principal next fall will be something of a homecoming — if not to Eastern Washington, then at least the Pacific Northwest — for Navarro-Uvila and her family.

Navarro-Uvila comes to Quincy from Humboldt Elementary School in Dewey-Humboldt, Ariz., a town about halfway between Phoenix and Flagstaff. It’s a desert, much like the Columbia Basin, though a hotter one than she’s used to, having lived in Port Angeles.

“We moved from the rain, to the dry. Quincy is a compromise,” Navarro-Uvila said.

Navarro-Uvila said she always wanted to be a teacher, though life and circumstances committed her to raising a family and working as a dental assistant for many years.

“I wanted to be a teacher since I was in third grade,” she said. “I had a teacher who looked at me like I was the most important person in the world. I wanted to do that for kids.”

Having earned a bachelor’s degree at Oneonta State University in upstate New York, Navarro-Uvila eventually enrolled in a teaching master’s program at City University in Bellevue, Wash., and went on to teach for 14 years and be a principal for 10 more — including four years in Arizona.

She also doesn’t see being a principal as all that much different from teaching.

“As a teacher, you build relationships that affect students. As a principal, you do that with the whole school, with adults, and not just a class. It’s about building trust, letting them know you believe in them, and want them to be successful,” Navarro-Uvila said.

In fact, she described being a principal in almost religious terms.

“My job, as your principal, is to minister to you, so you can do your job,” she said.

Navarro-Uvila said she was impressed with the enthusiasm, energy, and passion that she saw at Monument Elementary — which holds the district’s 4-6 grades while the school district prepares to build a new high school — and looks forward to starting her new job this July.

“I’m excited about this new chapter, about the opportunity to build new relationships,” she said. “I fell in love with Quincy.”