Alta High and Jordan Valley School will have new principals next school year, the Board of Education announced Tuesday, May 17, 2011.

Fidel Montero, Assistant Principal of Timpview High School since 2006, was named principal of Alta High School.  Mark Donnelly, Canyons Coordinator of Speech, Language and Hearing Services since 2009, was named principal of Jordan Valley School. The appointments are effective July 1.

Montero is noted for his strong leadership skills and background in multicultural education and school reform. Montero, who has a Bachelor’s Degree in Social Science Teaching and a minor in teaching English as a Second Language from Brigham Young University, taught at Dixon Middle School before working in the Timpview High administration. He is a co-founder the Latinos in Action Peer Mentoring Program, and an educational consultant for Urban Learning Centers, specializing in comprehensive school reform and Latino parent involvement strategies. He is chairman of the Paso a Paso K-16 Education partnership, and a member of the David O. McKay Secondary Education Department Advisory Board. He was named the 2011 Educator of the Year by the Utah Chapter of the National Association for Multicultural Education. He is finishing his Doctor of Education Degree through Columbia University’s Teachers College.

Montero replaces Mont Widerberg, who retired in March 2011. Veteran principal and educator Raymond Jenson has been leading Alta in the interim.

Donnelly has worked as Canyons District’s Speech, Language, and Hearing Services Coordinator since 2009. Fluent in Spanish and German, Mr. Donnelly worked 13 years as a speech-language pathologist — three of them as a bilingual speech-language pathologist — in Jordan School District. He also has worked as a Spanish language literacy teacher, and as a classroom teacher for students with severe disabilities in Bersenbrueck, Germany. He has a Master’s Degree in Communication Disorders from the University of Utah, and an Ed.S. administrative certificate in curriculum and instruction with an emphasis in instructional leadership from Utah State University.

Donnelly will replace Mark Riding, who is retiring.