Marci Sanchez named incoming principal at Yuma High School

Marci Sanchez will step into the principal’s office at Yuma High School on July 1, bringing four years of experience as an assistant principal to a job with immediate stakes for students, families and staff at one of Yuma’s oldest campuses. The school’s early-count enrollment for the 2024-25 year was 224, down from 231 the year before, making leadership and program visibility especially important as the campus works to keep students engaged.

Sanchez is also a Yuma Criminal alum, a detail that gives her appointment a deeper local connection at a school long tied to the city’s identity. She has taught at Yuma High, San Luis High School and Kofa High School, giving her a districtwide view of the strengths and challenges facing students across Yuma County’s high school system. That background matters at a campus where the next principal will not just manage daily operations, but help shape how the school is seen by the community it serves.

In her conversation with KAWC, Sanchez said she wants to highlight the great work already being done by Yuma High students, faculty and staff. That suggests a leadership approach centered on visibility and connection, with more attention to how the school presents itself to families and the broader public. The same conversation pointed to student programs, career and technical education, and ways for families to enroll and become part of the school community, signaling a focus on access as well as achievement.

Those priorities line up with the school profile, which says Yuma High students and staff are committed to equity and culturally relevant practices through school-wide personalized learning, systematic AVID implementation and positive behavioral interventions and support. The district’s mission adds another layer of expectation: “Every Student will Graduate College, Career, and Community Prepared.” At a time when high schools are expected to prepare teenagers for both college and the workforce, the new principal’s work will be measured by whether those goals feel real in classrooms, counseling offices and career pathways.

Yuma High’s roots stretch back to 1909, three years before Arizona became a state, when the school began with four teachers in three rooms. More than a century later, the campus remains the Home of the Criminals and a major part of Yuma’s civic fabric. Sanchez’s arrival, along with a similar principal change at Vista High School also set for July 1, marks a leadership transition that could influence school culture and student opportunity across the district.