Alaska woman is new Gateway principal

Glacier Gateway Elementary School will have a new principal next year. The School District 6 board of trustees recently hired Kathi Yanamura.

Yanamura is currently the principal of Baranof Elementary School in Sitka, Alaska. She will replace Peter Loyda, who resigned earlier this year.

Loyda and his family are moving to North Carolina to be with his son Jordan, who is training with the hopes of making the 2016 U.S. Olympic swim team.

“We’ve never been too shy to try something new,” Loyda said last week.

Loyda and his wife coached the Columbia Falls summer swim team last year. The Loyda family are all avid swimmers. Loyda came to Glacier Gateway last fall after a long tenure at the Swan River School near Bigfork.

Contacted recently, Yanamura said she has more than 30 years experience in education in Alaska and looks forward to moving to the Flathead.

Her children and grandchildren live in the Northwest Territories of Canada and visiting them is actually easier while living in Montana than Alaska, she noted.

To get there from Alaska, she must first fly to Seattle and then to Cal-gary. From Montana, it’s a direct flight to Calgary.

She said she was impressed by the staff at Glacier Gateway and the administration during a recent visit here.

Yanamura will follow in the footsteps of Steven Bradshaw, the superintendent of school in Sitka. He was recently hired as the new School District 6 superintendent to replace Michael Nicosia, who is retiring.

“We certainly appreciate Mr. Loyda’s efforts during his tenure,” school board vice chairman Dean Chisholm said. “He is a constant source of optimism and goodwill. I wish him the very best.”

Yanamura said she expects to start her position at Glacier Gateway sometime this July.