GALT, CA (MPG) - Anna Trunnell, the incoming superintendent for Galt Joint High School District, applied for the position to serve a community closer to home, and to contribute as the district develops graduation requirements and works to involve all students in the learning environment.

Trunnell recently spoke with the Herald about her career history and her goals for the district. 

The high school district board of trustees appointed Trunnell on April 18, and she will start work for the district on July 1. She will replace retiring Superintendent Lisa Pettis.

Pettis congratulated Trunnell on her appointment, saying she wanted Trunnell “to know that she has a very strong administrative team at both schools’ sites as well as the district office.”

“That’s always a really nice feeling,” Pettis said. “Staff are very welcoming here and I think she’ll fit right at home here in our district.”

Look for a retrospective on Pettis’ time with the district in the May 24 issue of the Herald.

Trunnell is finishing four years serving at Santa Rosa City Schools, where she spent three years as superintendent.

The Elk Grove resident said she was looking for a school district closer to home, to spend more time with her family. Having grown up in and attending school in a small community, Trunnell said, she had a connection with the Galt district’s “more intimate” size.

Trunnell pointed to graduation requirements and engagement of students and parents as areas in which she can make contributions. For the past couple of years, the district has been developing a state-mandated ethnic-studies graduation requirement that will include information on ethnic groups locally represented.

“I think I’ve had some proven experience in how we navigate increasing graduation requirements for students, which I see is some of the next steps that the Galt district is implementing. I have experience thinking about how we encourage students from our English-learner population and also special education to be included in the learning environment and experience,” Trunnell said, also citing experience in engaging parents and the broader community.

“Those are just a few things that I know (are) a priority for the district that I feel like I have proven experience and can help them to continue navigating.”

Asked about her educational career, Trunnell said she was already interested in teaching while pursuing her bachelor’s degree at University of California at Davis.

“I always found that I was in spaces where I was helping others to learn or mentoring or being in spaces of service, really,” Trunnell said. “So that’s what spoke to me first is how I can apply the passions that I have for those things into becoming a teacher.”

Trunnell spent 12 years as a teacher and then an administrator in what is now Twin Rivers Unified School District. While teaching, a principal asked if she would consider administration. As a result, Trunnell earned her administrative credential and a master’s degree in educational leadership from California State University at Sacramento. The program, she said, “was really focused on the urban experience and also equity and antiracism, so that movement and the way that we can incorporate that into our work.”

“That led me to think more broadly about how, by leaving the classroom, I could contribute in deeper and broader ways,” Trunnell said.

Next, Trunnell would oversee curriculum at Washington School District in West Sacramento, Elk Grove Unified School District and Stockton Unified School District.

In 2020, Trunnell was appointed at Santa Rosa City Schools as assistant superintendent of human resources. She became superintendent in July 2021.

Trunnell said she gets to know a new community by “being visible” in multiple ways, such as by visiting school sites, and meeting with parent groups, community groups and city leaders.

The new appointee said she wants input from staff, students and parents on the district’s accomplishments and challenges.

“I want them to know that I want to hear the things that are going well. I want to hear what they feel have been successes,” Trunnell said. “I also want to hear their concerns. I want to know what is worrying them. What are the things that they feel are barriers? And then, of course, I want to work with them on ideas on how they see those things being navigated.”

Trunnell gave “full respect” to the staff serving students and families in the district. She plans to work with staff and take direction from the board of trustees to advance district projects.

“I’m very much looking forward to this opportunity to come and be a part of the Galt community,” Trunnell said, noting that she is service-oriented. “I do believe in taking action once I have had an opportunity to be a listener and to understand where people are coming from and to get their feedback.

“And I’m just excited. I’m excited for the potential of what’s ahead, and how I can be a great contributor to the district and to the community,” Trunnell said.