McCracken named new North Central principal: ‘She’s established trust’

Few people have seen the spectrum of education through more lenses than Tami McCracken.

McCracken has been a struggling learner, a math whiz, teacher, stay-home mom, team leader and an assistant principal. She’s even married to a teacher.

Now, McCracken is the new principal at North Central High School, eager for the next challenge.

“This is such an exciting time,” said McCracken, who was promoted last month following principal Steve Fisk’s hiring as superintendent in Colville.

McCracken’s promotion means that every comprehensive high school in Spokane will have a new leader.

“We’re all coming in to partner with all students in Spokane,” McCracken said.

Grateful for the opportunity, McCracken also appreciates having at least some in-person learning at NC as Spokane Public Schools slowly emerged from the pandemic.

Social-emotional well-being will be a priority at NC and other schools, McCracken said. She and other high school principals, however, don’t expect to pursue a “deficit model” in the classroom.

In other words, the pandemic won’t be used as an excuse.

The daughter of a middle school principal, McCracken grew up in the Puget Sound town of Gig Harbor. Diagnosed with learning issues in elementary school, she recalls the “fantastic instructional support around that” and how she “fell in love with my teachers at an early age.”

Math was her passion, and McCracken followed it to the University of Arkansas, where she graduated in 1992. She taught math and biology in Fife, Washington, and Renton, Washington, until 1997, when she and her husband, Mike, moved to Spokane to be near his son.

McCracken taught for three years at University High School, concurrently earning a master’s degree, then took four years off to be at home with two young children.

Back in the classroom in 2004, McCracken taught everything from Algebra 1 to precalculus at Rogers, where her husband teaches science. Opportunity came a few years later, when McCracken got her first chance to make a difference on a larger scale.

As an instruction coach at Rogers, she led efforts to improve teacher training in several subjects. McCracken also worked in the school’s Advancement Via Individual Determination (AVID) program, focusing on teaching active reading strategies that help students gain a deeper understanding of rigorous texts.

Those kinds of efforts helped Rogers gradually improve its graduation rate.

“When your school is functioning at highest capacity, then great classrooms become phenomenal classrooms,” McCracken said. “As an instructional coach, I wanted to enhance that environment.”

McCracken earned her principal’s certification in 2014; two years later, she joined Fisk’s team at North Central.

“Tami has been really instrumental in instructional leadership,” Fisk said. “She also brings a balanced approach, with academics and social-emotional needs – that’s one of the great assets she’s going to bring to NC.

“She’s established trust, and that predictable element that’s always important.”

A strong presence in the classroom the past five years, McCracken plans to do the same as principal.

Looking ahead to the fall, McCracken said she sees herself “as being a team worker … to create the opportunity for all students to feel connected.”