The Lake Washington School District (LWSD) announced three new acting principals, including two at Redmond schools, in a Wednesday press release.

After hiring four new elementary principals, a new junior high principal, two secondary associate principals and making other assignment changes during the spring, LWSD has assigned acting principals to Rosa Parks Elementary School in Redmond and Smith Elementary in Sammamish for the 2010-2011 school year. In addition, Einstein Elementary in Redmond will have an acting principal for the fall while the current principal is on leave.

Dr. Lin Zurfluh will be the acting principal at Rosa Parks Elementary and Steve Mezich will be the acting principal at Smith Elementary.

In the spring of 2011, interview teams will seek permanent replacements for these two principal positions. Karen Bates will serve as the acting principal at Einstein Elementary through December.

“With openings coming very late in the year, we wanted to make sure that we had access to the best possible pool of administrative candidates,” said superintendent Dr. Chip Kimball. “By waiting until spring, we will ensure that happens.”

Zurfluh has been a teacher and administrator in the K-12 setting for more than 30 years. She has served as a professor of Educational Administration at Western Washington University in Seattle. She takes over for Jeff Newport, who accepted a position as a principal with the Everett School District.

Mezich has been the acting principal at McAuliffe Elementary in Sammamish for part of this past year. He has previously been an administrator in the Lake Washington School District for many years. He fills the position previously held by Justin Blasko, who has taken an administrative position with the Monroe School District.

Bates worked for the Lake Washington School District for 28 years as a teacher and administrator and retired in 2002. Bates will be filling in for Melissa Pointer, who will return as the school’s principal in January.

Dana Greenberg has also been hired as vice principal at Finn Hill Junior High in Kirkland.

Greenberg served as dean of students at Liberty High School in Issaquah School District. She brings a wealth of experience both in the public schools and in public administration. In addition to her dean of students experience, Dana has been an ASB/Activities coordinator, leadership teacher, ELL supervisor, and Social Studies/History/Ethnic Studies teacher.

Prior to her public school experience, Greenberg served in public administration as a senior project manager for the U.S. Government Accountability Office and as a project manager for the Seattle Parks and Recreation Department.