Barron Park, Nixon and El Carmelo elementary schools to get new principals

Three Palo Alto Unified elementary schools — Barron Park, Nixon and El Carmelo — will have new principals next school year, the district has announced.

Barron Park Principal Eric Goddard will be replaced by Judy Argumedo, the district’s director of academic support and a longtime educator. Goddard, who has led Barron Park since 2017, is moving to Oregon this summer, the district said.

Argumedo comes with years of experience in public education. Before joining the district office, she was a teacher for 18 years. In her current role, she oversees programs that support some of the district’s neediest students, including Title I, the Voluntary Transfer Program, the Local Control and Accountability Plan, the English learners program and a dyslexia initiative. She has founded several initiatives in the district, including the RISE UP program for first generation students, a parent liaison support program and a breakfast program at the elementary schools. She also is a board member of the Silicon Valley Chapter of the Hispanic Scholarship Fund.

Danaé Reynolds, El Carmelo’s current principal, will be leaving to become lead principal of literacy instruction. Her new job, pending board approval, is effective July 1.

Reynolds has held several roles in the district since 2000: She was a reading specialist at Barron Park; a teacher on special assignment and coordinator leading Title I, the Voluntary Transfer Program, English learners program, and a support and assessment program for beginning teachers; and served a decade as a principal at Escondido Elementary and then El Carmelo.

Mary Pat O’Connell, meanwhile, the longtime principal at Nixon, will be retiring at the end of the school year. She’s led the school since 2008.

Replacements for Reynolds and O’Connell have not been announced. The district’s human resources department will “work collaboratively with stakeholders at El Carmelo Elementary and Lucille Nixon Elementary throughout the hiring process,” a district announcement states.