Maple Hills Principal Sondra Maier will assist with operations at Clark Elementary before its move

Maple Hills Elementary School Principal Sondra Maier will be assisting Clark Elementary School with operations during construction during the next school year, according to a letter to parents sent out April 1.

Maple Hills Elementary School Principal Sondra Maier will be assisting Clark Elementary School with operations during construction during the next school year, according to a letter to parents sent out April 1.

In a letter to Maple Hills families reviewing recent news in the district, Maier closed with the news that she would be assisting Clark as an explanation for her departure as principal at the end of the current school year.

“As I get close to the end of my working career I wanted to have a opportunity to experience something new, exciting and different,” Maier wrote. “After having several conversations [with Superintendent Ron Thiele] he shared with me that next year Clark Elementary was going to have several challenges … with portable moves, a shifting campus and consruction in anticipation of their move to their new building.”

Clark Elementary is scheduled to relocate to the current Issaquah Middle School campus at 400 Second Ave. SE in September 2017, following the campus’s $19.5 million modernization over the course of more than a year. Construction on the new Clark campus will begin immediately after the last day of school this June, according to an Issaquah School District summary of capital bond projects.

Maier’s departure from Maple Hills was formally announced Feb 11. The hiring of her successor, JoEllen Tapper, was announced March 18.

Tapper is presently the principal of Renton Park Elementary in the Renton School District. She has been principal of Renton Park for nine years.