Palisades Resident Becomes New Pali Elementary Principal

After finishing her first week as Palisades Charter Elementary principal, Palisadian Joan Ingle’s optimistic manner and 32 years of education experience is helping the school make a seamless transition after the unexpected departure of principal Tami Weiser in February. On Monday morning, the school office was surprisingly cheerful with roses from Ingle’s mother’s garden joining a platter of freshly baked muffins. ‘I love to bake,’ Ingle said, and promised that one of her specialties, cupcakes, would be coming soon. Ingle’s charm and warmth are matched by her educational qualifications. In 1976, after graduating from San Fernando State College in art and art therapy, she went to work at a private school in Honolulu. ‘It was an interesting three years,’ she said. ‘I would’ve stayed on, but I had allergies to everything.’ After moving back to Southern California, Ingle helped start a private school, the Pasadena Waldorf School, where she became interested in students’ ‘invisible disabilities,’ such as difficulty in learning due to processing and reading issues. ‘We have to look at differentiating for all students; that’s good teaching,’ Ingle said in an interview, pointing out that the numbers of students identified as special needs has grown. ‘We’re better at identifying those students.’ Ingle also worries that young children are subjected to academics too early. ‘Are we really honoring the phase of childhood of letting them play?’ she asked. ‘Children are overscheduled and don’t have enough free time.’ After three years at the Waldorf School, Ingle established a home-based nursery school. At that time, kindergarten classes in LAUSD often had more than 30 students, so Ingle offered an alternative for parents who felt that their children were unprepared to thrive in such a large classroom. While running the school, she also took graduate classes and, by 1991, had completed her master’s in special education with an emphasis in educational therapy. Later that year, she moved to Chicago with her husband, Jeffrey, who owns the Ingle Group, a custom publishing firm. They lived there for six years and their youngest two children, Ana and Dan, attended SPAN schools, which are public schools that encompass kindergarten through high school. While in Chicago, Ingle and her husband went back to school; he finished his master’s and Ingle studied psychology (specifically psycho-educational diagnosis). In 1997, they moved back to the Palisades and her children enrolled in Revere. Ingle found a job in Sulfur Springs Unified (Santa Clarita), as an educational therapist, working with special needs kids. In 2000, she accepted her first position with LAUSD in the same field. Her office was at Local District D (now District 3) and she went from school to school on the Westside. She even worked for a year at Palisades High, when her son, Dan, was a senior. While working at the local district, Ingle completed a master’s degree in administration, which enabled her to work three years as assistant principal at Westwood Charter School. Even though she liked the school, in order to one day become a principal, she needed a second job as an assistant principal, which she filled at Roscomare School. ‘It wasn’t a charter, but it’s a high-performing school, with an AP of 942,’ Ingle said. ‘Palisades Elementary is 920. The schools are similar because they both have dedicated parents and good teachers.’ Ingle is worried about LAUSD’s impending budget cuts and hopes that it doesn’t mean that class sizes will be increased. She also worries that many young good teachers will be let go elsewhere in the district. She’s already well familiar with Palisades Elementary, calling it ‘a wonderful choice for parents who want to have their children attend a home school and for it to be such a good one.’ Ingle son Andrew is attending Cal State Channel Hills, Ana graduated from Empire State in New York and is an administrator at a small liberal arts college, and Dan has received a full seven-year scholarship to an MD/Ph.D. program at the University of Iowa.