Meet the Associate Principal

James ‘Kimo’ Spray

E-mail: jspray@lwsd.org / Phone: 425.936.2536

Bio Information:

Name: James M. Spray, Jr.

Nickname: Kimo, which means James in Hawaiian

Born: Long ago on an island far, far away (Honolulu, HI), grew up in Redmond (Union Hill) and Bellevue

Status: Married to Janice (Inouye) Spray since April 1990

Children: 

• Daniel (Graduate of UW—Mechanical Engineering, currently working at Amazon), 
• Jessica Straker (Married to RJ Straker and Graduate of Colorado State—Business Marketing), 
• Kayci (Bellevue High School, graduated 2023)

Grandchild: Zayden Justus Straker, born 2021

Pets: Ollie (Shi-Tzu/Yorkie); Penny (Golden Doodle)

Fun Fact: Was three months old when we moved from Hawaii to a little house about two miles from Dickinson/Explorer. Redmond has changed a bit since then.

 

Schools Attended:

Western Washington University- Administrator/Principal Certification

Lesley University-Masters in Curriculum and Assessment-Creative Arts in Learning

Seattle Pacific University-Teacher Certification and Continuing Education

University of Washington-Bachelor of Arts-English w/a Creative Writing Emphasis

Seattle Baptist High School, Burien, WA

Bellevue Christian School, Bellevue, WA

Fun Fact: Earned my Masters degree was from an all-female college!  I attended Lesley University at an outreach site in Kent, but at the time Lesley was only open to women at their main campus in Massachusetts prior to integration of men in 2005.

 

Experience:

Dickinson/Explorer (Lake Washington SD), Associate Principal since 2022

Audubon Elementary (Lake Washington SD), Principal 2014-2022

Alcott Elementary (Lake Washington SD), Principal 2009-2014

Benjamin Rush Elementary (Lake Washington SD), Principal 2003-2009

Apollo Elementary (Issaquah SD) Asst. Principal and 5th Grade Teacher 1999-2003 

Ridgewood Elementary (Kent SD) 6th Grade Classroom Teacher 1993-1999 

Kimball Elementary (Seattle SD) 4th Grade Classroom Teacher/Intern 1992-1993

 

Other:

Automatic Switch Company (ASCO)/Sales Engineer for Solenoid Valve/Transfer Switch Mfg. Co.
Fun Fact: ASCO Red Hat Solenoid Valves controlled the movement of the shark in the movie, ‘Jaws’

Microsoft Corp./Supplies Department

Fun Fact: Was working at Microsoft when they started something called ‘electronic mail’ to communicate.  We thought it was dumb and that no one would use it.