School shuffle
Nyssa district adjusts slots at elementary school

By Larry Meyer
Argus Observer
Wednesday, July 22, 2009 10:39 AM PDT

Darren Johnson, outgoing Nyssa Elementary School principal, visits with a well-wisher on the phone in what is now his former office.

Nyssa — The resignation of Nyssa Elementary School Principal Darren Johnson has sparked an administrative shuffle as personnel are moved around to fill in open positions within the school district.

Shawn Jensen, student services director, will step into Johnson’s place, while Marshell Hooker, assistant elementary school principal, will take over Jensen’s slot in student services, and Andrea Buchholz will replace Hooker at the elementary school.

Johnson, 40, is leaving Nyssa after 14 years in the school district to accept a long sought-after opportunity to work in a school overseas, specifically a school for U.S. military dependents.

He started at Nyssa in the high school as a Spanish teacher, also teaching language in the Nyssa Middle School and then became assistant principal in the middle school in 1998 and principal in 2007.

“I really enjoyed it here,” Johnson said. “I just love Nyssa. It’s the only home our children have ever known.”

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For Johnson, his new job is another opportunity to travel with his family and learn about other countries and about other cultures, which he said liked to do while he was teaching. One year, he took his class to Spain. Another year there was a trip to Mexico to let his students practice their Spanish, as well as let them experience another country.

“I love working with school children,” Johnson said, and had learned about the Department of Defense Dependent Schools while serving his LDS mission. He had applied for a position from time to time in the past and the application process is very competitive, he said. He sees it as a way to serve his country and “to pursue an interest I have in helping children have a good school experience.” Johnson will be principal at a school on a military base near Baumboder, Germany.

“We will be living in the German town,” he said. “It will be a great learning experience, a new language, a new culture.”

Jensen, 45, has been with the Nyssa School District 18 years, first as classroom teacher in fourth and fifth grades, and then as computer coordinator for the elementary building and then as student services director, overseeing special education, migrant education and other federal programs.

It was while the district was working through a Comprehensive School Demonstration Grant that Jensen said he became interested in school administration. He obtained his administrative certificate from Portland State University.

He had expressed interest in being a elementary principal if the position came open, Jensen said.

“I felt like had a lot of invested interest in the building,” he said.

 Having been the computer coordinator when the school was completed, he already knows a lot of the nooks and crannies of the building. He set up 225 computers and networked them, he said.