Ridgemoor's Lyman Named County Principal of the Year

The look on Kristina Lyman's face said it all Monday morning as school officials at both the district and county level and the entire student body surprised her with one of the highest honors given educators in the region.

Lyman, principal of Ridgemoor Elementary School, was presented an award as Riverside County Principal of the Year by County Superintendent of Schools Kenn Young. The presentation took place in a packed school auditorium, with students and staff cheering their principal and Lyman's family joining Menifee Union School District officials in paying tribute to her.

Faculty and staff deserved an award themselves for keeping hundreds of students in grades K-5 relatively quiet for almost a half hour while waiting for Young's arrival. While teachers led sing-alongs, the school mascot led silent "follow me" gesture games and even district Superintendent Steve Kennedy sang to the group, Lyman was in a meeting with the assistant superintendent -- the only person on campus not aware of the award.

"I had no idea. I was in a meeting ... they asked me to take a walk, we took a little detour and Mrs. [Betti] Cadmus brought me here to everybody," said Lyman, who walked in with the district public information officer to a room full of smiling faces.

"It's an honor to represent the district and this wonderful school. It's really a celebration of my staff. They do the hard work and make the magic happen every single day."

Each school district in Riverside County is invited to submit the name of its Principal of the Year for consideration at the county level. What impressed county officials, said Young, was Lyman's leadership of the school in increasing student learning, creativity and involvement.

"What we're looking for is somebody who is a proven education leader, someone who is helping to lead the creation and sustaining of a culture that is all about student learning," said Young, shown above presenting the award to Lyman. "It starts with the expectation the principal has for the students.

"They have to believe every student can succeed. They have to make sure their staff is on board with the concept. Then together, they work to instill those beliefs in their students."

One of the ways in which Lyman led the effort to change the culture of student learning was to introduce technology into the classroom. Ridgemoor became one of the first schools in the Menifee Union School District to introduce Chromebooks into the classroom for computer learning.

"When I first came here, we worked as a leadership team and looked to see what direction we wanted to go in," said Lyman, who is in her third year as principal at the school. "We needed to make some changes, and we did that from the very beginning.

"We knew we needed technology, to get our students ready for the real world and 21st Century learning. We decided to implement that technology across the grades. We also started with STEM education in fifth grade. That's where the robotics and some other exciting things started happening."

Lyman will be honored along with other educators from throughout the county at an awards ceremony in April.

From left: School board members Jerry Bowman and Robert O'Donnell; MUSD Superintendent Steve Kennedy; Ridgemoor Elementary Principal Kristina Lyman; County Superintendent of Schools Ken Young; MUSD Board member Ron Ulibari.