Homegrown principal

Glacier Gateway Elementary School will welcome a Columbia Falls native as its new principal next year.

Penni Anello was approved to head up the school by the School District 6 board last week. She will replace Kathi Yanamura, who retires at the end of the school year after being principal for two years. Yanamura had a long career in Alaska before moving to Montana.

Anello is no stranger to the school district. She started her career here in 1999 as a reading specialist, but taught fourth-graders most of her career.

“They’re fabulous,” she said of the age group. “They right on the edge of being independent and trying new things. They’re really fun.”

Anello grew up in Columbia Falls. Her parents, Paul and Nadine Atkinson, moved here when she was in first grade. Anello graduated from Columbia Falls High School in 1995 and received her bachelor’s degree from Minot State University in North Dakota and her master’s degree in education leadership and curriculum from Arkansas State University four years ago.

She said growing up, she wanted to be an artist.

“I can’t even draw a stick person,” she said with a smile.

But she enjoyed 4-H projects and livestock judging and in high school she became interested in education.

She said she has three major goals to bring to the school. She’d like to build on the idea that the elementary school is the cornerstone of the community and that parents know they’re welcome and their children are being taken care of academically. She said she wants build “great citizens” and have students also work in small groups, which would allow greater development of gifted and talented students as well as the student body in general. She wants to reach out to the staff and have them know they can reach out to her and work together as a team, with a vision that “students come first in our decisions.”

She said over the years the student body has changed. They’re expected today to work more cooperatively with their peers.

“There’s a lot expected of them to work with others,” she said.

Having said that, it seems their attention spans are also getting shorter, she noted, though she’s not sure exactly why that is. Cell phone use really isn’t an issue in elementary school, she noted.

Anello is married with two children. Her husband, Derek, is a veterinarian technician at Central Valley Animal Hospital. They have a daughter, Cortnee, 16, and Lane, 13. Cortnee is an accomplished horsewoman.

Anello is looking forward to the challenge.

“I’m so excited for this opportunity, to have the support of the staff and administration,” she said. “I couldn’t have done it without them.”