School District Makes Key Hires

With the arrival of the school year two weeks away, the is in the midst of filling a number of key administrative vacancies.

At its retreat last week, the district’s board of trustees backed the hiring of Mark Nelson as the assistant principal at and Chris Coffelt as technology director, overseeing the district’s tech infrastructure and its adoption of new learning instruments like tablets.

Nelson, an eighth grade history teacher at Lewis Middle School in the San Diego Unified School District, replaces Anna Lazzarini, who with the departure of Matt Huxley in June.

A native of Portland, Ore., Nelson taught at Lewis Middle for eight years, serving in a number of leadership capacities, including history department chair, Model UN advisor and East Coast Trip Leader. The school’s staff awarded him teacher of the year twice. Nelson and his wife are moving to the area from San Diego.

“Mark comes to us with nine years of middle school experience and a reputation as someone who goes above and beyond expectations in everything he does and someone who easily builds strong rapport with students, staff, and parents,” Lazzarini said. “His educational philosophy is very aligned with our district values and we believe he will be a great fit for our middle school.”

said he was excited to have landed someone of Coffelt’s caliber to oversee the district’s technology infrastructure.

For the past 10 years, Coffelt has been the director of instructional technology for the Garfield School District in Rifle, Colo., overseeing a department of more than 500 employees and 4,600 students. He’s also been an Apple Professional Development consultant, helping school districts all over the U.S. with Apple-related professional development and training.

Coffelt, who started as a third grade teacher in the Garfield district, also taught high school and college students Cisco certified network associate curriculum at Colorado Mountain College. He is married with two kids and his wife recently landed a job as a kindergarten teacher in the Reed School District in Tiburon.

“He will help the District take the next steps in teaching and learning in the 21st Century,” Johnson said. “He is one of the up and coming technology leaders in the nation and I am thrilled he has landed here in Mill Valley.”

The district is holding a board meeting at 7 a.m. Monday for the approval of the two final administrative hires: principal of Park School and director of support services.