There are two new principals in the Davis public school system this fall — and their faces are familiar.

Sally Plicka served as interim principal at Montgomery Elementary for most of the past school year, and in June the Davis school board took the “interim” out of her title, making Plicka the school’s principal on an ongoing basis.

She has been a Davis resident since 1986, and served as a parent volunteer and classroom aide before becoming a teacher in 1992. Plicka first served as a science prep teacher at what was then West Davis Intermediate School, working with students in the regular program and the Spanish Immersion program. She moved to Davis High School in 1994, where she taught anatomy/physiology and biology and health until 2004.

Plicka also was active in the Beginning Teacher Assessment and Support program at the local and regional levels, and was the director of the regional BTSA program from 2000 to 2011. She also has served on the state Commission on Teacher Credentialing, and been involved in curriculum issues.

Plicka earned a bachelor’s degree in nutrition at Brigham Young University in 1977, and during her college years she spent four months in Mexico teaching nutrition in small mountain villages. She also worked as the director of the WIC (Women, Infants, Children) nutrition program in Imperial County from 1980 to 1982.

She earned a teaching credential in biology at UC Davis in 1991, followed by a master’s in curriculum and instruction as well as an administrative credential from Sacramento State in 2004.

She is the mother of four children, all of whom are Davis High graduates.

Plicka told The Enterprise that she “loved serving as interim principal at Marguerite Montgomery Elementary last year.I learned to love the students and families quickly. The sense of commitment from the community and the strong and welcoming support I received in my time as interim principal created my desire to continue at MME for the coming years.

“I know that with the continuation of the community support shown thus far, we will be able to build on the already exceptional learning environment and educational program that exists at the school.”

Plicka said she and the staff will work on building collaborative professional learning communities this year.

“This work will support our focus on each student individually and help us meet their individual learning needs,” she said. “Our strong specialized support staff will assist classroom teachers in differentiating curriculum for all students.

“We are committed to creating a climate that welcomes all families and where students feel safe, cared for and ready to learn.”

Rody Boonchouy

Rody Boonchouy is the new principal at Da Vinci Charter Academy. He is also a familiar figure in that program.

Boonchouy was one of the founding teachers at what was then known as Da Vinci High School, when the program was launched in 2003. Da Vinci was designed as a “small learning community” in which students and teachers would all know each other, with a greater sense of connectedness than in a larger comprehensive high school.

The classrooms feature a “problem-based learning” approach, with students working on projects in teams, and presenting their research and findings to their teachers and classmates. Da Vinci also incorporated student use of laptop computers extensively throughout the school day.

Boonchouy served as a teacher at Da Vinci until 2007, then continued as instructional support provider/administrator on special assignment during 2008-09.

From 2005 to 2009, Boonchouy also worked for the Buck Institute for Education in Marin County, serving as a trainer in problem-based learning programs. In 2010 and 2011, Boonchouy was with New Tech Network in Napa, serving as a school designer and implementation coach.

Boonchouy earned his undergraduate degree from UC Berkeley in 2000, a master’s degree in advanced teaching from UC Riverside in 2003 and a master’s degree in educational management from the University of La Verne in 2008. He is working on an Ed.D. degree at UC Davis.

Early in his career, he also taught English is Laos and Argentina.

The Da Vinci Charter Academy, as the program is now known, operates under a charter granted by the Davis school board. This fall, the Da Vinci program will serve 314 students spread over grades 10-12 at the Valley Oak campus, and another 184 students in grades 7-9 on the Emerson Junior High campus. This will be the first year that Da Vinci has served seventh graders.

“We have 62 seventh-grade students, in two groups, at Emerson,” Boonchouy said. “So we have one math hire, one English hire and one special education hire” as the result of that long-planned expansion.

“Everyone is really excited about what the seventh grade looks like in a PBL (problem-based learning) setting,” Boonchouy said.

He added that Da Vinci students will see mostly minor changes and adjustments at the Valley Oak campus this fall.

“We are bringing back our ‘research and communications’ class, which was a feature of Da Vinci during the first few years,” Boonchouy said. “During the last two years, we had an ‘advisory’ class, which all students took. Now we will have ‘research and communications’ for all of our incoming students, because we had so much success with that early on.”

Da Vinci also launched an internship program last year, a program that Boonchouy wants to expand.

“We are getting our sea legs, and meeting with business leaders who have service learning opportunities for our students,” he explained. “We are looking for more businesses to partner with, so we can build even more community connections.”

Boonchouy added that “with our reconnection with the New Tech program, we are now officially designated as a New Tech Demonstration Site, As a result, we are going to see an increase in executive tours from people who are interested in starting schools like ours.”

— Reach Jeff Hudson at [email protected] or (530) 747-8055.

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Rody Boonchouy is principal of the Da Vinci Charter Academy, which serves students in seventh through 12th grades. Enterprise file photo

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New Montgomery Elementary Principal Sally Plicka. Wayne Tilcock/Enterprise photo

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