The Goleta Union School District is welcoming new faces this year as three of its nine schools will have new principals.

Hortencia Corral, Jesus Campos and Allison Mowers will be the new principals at Isla Vista School, Hollister Elementary School and Kellogg School, respectively. 

Hortencia Corral

Corral said she feels ready to take on Isla Vista School, bringing with her 26 years of elementary education experience.

As a Santa Barbara native, Corral spent the first seven years of her career teaching in Oxnard. After that, she began teaching at Roosevelt Elementary School, where Corral said she focused on becoming the best teacher she could be. 

“Anytime I could get additional training to be able to provide better strategies for the students in my classroom, I took those opportunities,” Corral said. “Then at some point, I felt the need to help teachers be better equipped to teach emergent multilingual students.”

For three years, Corral worked with Santa Barbara teachers to help them learn how to teach English to multilingual students before she became an assistant principal at Adams Elementary. 

“The things that I’ve learned are very applicable to Isla Vista School,” Corral said. “We have over 25 languages and cultures of students represented here at the school; even though we only teach in English, those representations are really helpful.”

GUSD Superintendent Mary Kahn said the district wanted a principal who could continue fostering the diverse community at Isla Vista School, one of the most diverse schools in the district.

“Hortencia, and all the new principals, are all clear that students come first,” Kahn said. 

To make all students feel welcome on campus, Corral said she wants to work with students, parents and staff to help students learn to love themselves, their cultures and backgrounds.

“I think there’s lots of space to grow in terms of students learning to do what’s called identity work, where they learn to love themselves, and then that helps them to learn to love others,” Corral said. 

For elementary students, Corral knows they’re learning academics as well as how to interact and treat other people, which is why she said she’s thinking ahead about how to address bullying and mean behavior. 

“It is normal for kids to not feel good about themselves and take it out on somebody else,” Corral said. “Do I want that for children? Absolutely not. Do I tolerate that in children? Absolutely not. But how I approach it with them and their parents depends on the situation.”

Corral added that school officials can only address bullying if they know about it, which is why she’s working to create a system for reporting bullying so that all students involved can work on social emotional learning. 

“It’s kids needing guidance and direction, because sometimes those kids feel so terrible about themselves that the only way that they feel like they can do better is by bringing somebody else down,” Corral said. 

Going into the new school year, Corral said her priority is to get to know the school and community and listen to what people want to change or keep.

“My priority right now is to listen and learn and not to be judgy right now, and then thinking about what systems could be improved,” Corral said.

Jesus Campos

As another former Santa Barbara assistant principal, Campos is bringing his experience as a school counselor and assistant principal at La Cumbre Junior High to his new role as principal at Hollister School.

“I’m just eager to get started,” Campos said. “Getting to meet families, students, teachers — it’s always really exciting.”

His background in counseling is part of the reason Kahn said she knew Campos would be a great fit for Hollister. 

“His counseling background makes him a good listener who can be a good connector for families,” Kahn said.

Campos said he got into education because he was inspired by his mom, who taught him to look out for others and take care of his community. 

During high school, Campos said he would volunteer at after-school programs in the Central Valley. When he went to UC Santa Barbara, he started volunteering at the children’s center and eventually started working there. 

While Campos said he enjoyed working with junior high school students, he’s been wanting to get back into elementary education for a while. 

“​​This is the longest span in their educational career, and to be able to see kids thrive and grow as people and as learners, as students, that just excites me,” Campos said. “To have that much time with students, and just having that opportunity to help nurture their learning and working with the families.”

After working with junior high students, Campos said he’s seen how important it is to focus on providing social and emotional support to students early on. 

“​​It’s the foundation, foundational skills of not only academics, but of who they are as people,” Campos said. “Helping them navigate a world that is changing and I think it’s our responsibility as the adults, as the educators, to kind of help build that solid, firm foundation on just their overall mental health, social emotional well-being.”

Allison Mowers

For Mowers, becoming the principal at Kellogg is a bit of a full circle moment as one of her first teaching jobs was as a sixth-grade teacher at Kellogg in 2001.

In her previous role, Mowers worked as a literacy coach for the district since 2023 to train teachers on teaching literacy and reading, which gave her the chance to get to know teachers and see how students are struggling with literacy.

“I have learned a ton,” Mowers said. “I think it’s really about drilling down, seeing where kids are, looking at the data that we have and really focusing on skills and getting to see where students have areas that they need to work on and making sure that we’re providing what they need in order to fill those holes.” 

Mowers said she always wanted to go into education as she loved being a student and wanted to be a lifelong learner. 

“I love the pace of education. It’s never the same thing twice,” Mowers said. “The days are not boring, ever, and I love kids, and I love the growth that I see.”

Before going to UCSB, Mowers taught English for a year in Honduras, where she ended up meeting her husband, Mike Mowers, who is now a teacher in Santa Barbara. 

After getting her teaching credential and master’s degree, Mowers taught third grade at Vista de las Cruces in Gaviota for a year before she got her teaching job at Kellogg. She taught kindergarten and third grade at Hollister for 20 years. 

When the district was looking for a new principal for Kellogg, Kahn said they knew teachers wanted someone with recent classroom experience. 

“Allison is a fantastic instructional leader,” Kahn said. “She has a pulse on what’s going on in classrooms, and she’s a good listener.”

Going into the school year, Mowers said she wants to prioritize student and teacher wellness. 

“I think when we can start with that foundation, it’s a lot easier to see growth and progress academically, but those academic standards are always also at the forefront,” Mowers said. “I think those human needs are really important to lay the groundwork.”