The Pasadena Unified School District announced today that Juan Ruelas has been appointed principal of Madison Elementary School, Dr. Merle Bugarin has been appointed principal of Roosevelt Elementary School, Carmen Serrano has been appointed elementary English Learner (EL) coordinator in the district’s Language Assessment and Development Department (LADD) and Hassan Dornayi has been appointed secondary EL coordinator, pending board approval.
Juan Ruelas is the current principal at Roosevelt Elementary School, a position he has had since 2009. Under his leadership, Roosevelt Elementary was named a California Distinguished School by the California Department of Education in 2014. Roosevelt Elementary was praised for its accountability, school improvement and technology practices that prepare students to be successful in the 21st century. With a significant population of English learners and students with disabilities, Roosevelt used data, 21st century learning skills, a response to intervention program and the addition of educational technology to support student achievement. Ruelas has been with the district as a curriculum resource teacher, a language development resource teacher and elementary school teacher since 1997. In addition to his new role as principal of Madison Elementary School, he will mentor and guide Dr. Merle Bugarin, the new principal at Roosevelt.
Dr. Merle Bugarin has most recently served as a Teacher on Special Assignment (TOSA) and elementary EL program coordinator in the district’s LADD office. She has been a district point person in working with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights and very involved in the drafting of PUSD’s Master Plan for English Learners. Dr. Bugarin has served students across the district as a language development resource teacher and a curriculum resource teacher since 2002. She began her career as an elementary school teacher in PUSD schools in 1997.
Carmen Serrano has served as principal of Madison Elementary School since 2010. She was raised with the appreciation and the understanding that education is the key to success. As elementary EL coordinator, Serrano will be partnering with district elementary schools to implement high quality instruction for EL students. Prior to her time at Madison, Serrano served as an assistant principal in Visalia and Atwater and taught in Oxnard. Serrano’s goal is to expose young minds to the countless possibilities that are available to them.
Hassan Dornayi comes to PUSD from the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) where he worked as an EL coordinator in the Superintendent’s Intensive Support and Innovation Center (ISIC), the division which served LAUSD’s most underserved schools. In his role as an EL coordinator at LAUSD, he helped implement their recently adopted EL Master Plan. Dornayi worked for LAUSD since 2002 as a master teacher, middle school teacher, teacher coach and secondary expert before serving as a secondary EL coordinator.
Ruelas, Bugarin, Serrano and Dornayi are all fluent in Spanish and will transition into their new roles over the summer.
For more information, visit www.pusd.us/pages/PasadenaUSD.
