Becky Cays named principal of Coupeville middle, high schools

Becky Cays has been named principal of Coupeville Middle School and Coupeville High School, giving the district a permanent leader for both buildings after months of interim administration and ongoing turnover at the top.

The promotion, announced May 12, formalizes a role Cays had already been filling since March, when Superintendent Shannon Leatherwood placed former high school principal Dan Berard on paid leave pending a district review process. Willie Smith stepped in with athletic and supervision support while Berard was away, and Cays continued handling the day-to-day work of both schools.

For students, parents and staff, the change matters because it settles the question of who is steering middle school and high school operations as the district heads toward summer planning and the next school year. Cays had already been serving as Coupeville Middle School principal and the Coupeville High School and Coupeville Middle School athletic director, so the new title gives an official structure to a job she had effectively been doing for months.

Leatherwood described Cays as a steady and capable presence who led with vision and heart while the schools kept operating. The district said her appointment would become official after school board approval. That board meets publicly on the last Thursday of each month at Coupeville Middle/High School and includes five members, with three geographic-district directors and two at-large directors.

Cays said she wants to use the job to strengthen connection across the middle and high school buildings, not just maintain the status quo. Her stated priorities include student discipline, academic continuity, staff retention and building a school climate where students feel supported, challenged and understood. She has also said she wants academics to keep moving forward while relationships, belonging, resilience and empathy carry equal weight.

The appointment lands at a tense moment for Coupeville schools. In April, a union-backed survey described widespread staff dissatisfaction with district leadership, fear of retaliation and a troubled working environment at the high school. A week later, the Coupeville School Board unanimously approved a modified education plan that cuts $1.1 million districtwide and could eliminate six employee positions.

Cays brings an unusual background to the post. Before entering education, she worked at a Seattle radio station, and she later served as a kindergarten-through-12th-grade assistant principal at the International Schools Group in Jubail, Saudi Arabia. In her new role, that broad experience now sits at the center of a district that needs a stable hand bridging Coupeville Middle School and Coupeville High School.