Meet the Principal

Hello Kendrick Lakes Community!

I'm Molly Touher, and it's with immense pleasure that I write to you as the proud principal of Kendrick Lakes Elementary, home of the DOLPHINS! I've had the privilege of serving in this role for the past two years, and I'm incredibly excited for what the future holds for our students.

My journey in education spans more than 25 years, taking me from the classroom to various school and district leadership positions. This upcoming year will mark my 14th year as a building principal within Jeffco, a testament to my deep commitment to our students' success. I teach because I believe in equipping our youngest learners with a strong foundation of academics and essential social, emotional, and behavioral skills and strategies. My goal is to empower them to be and do anything they aspire to in life. I also truly enjoy collaborating with our dedicated teachers, continually exploring and implementing effective teaching and learning strategies.

This year, we have many reasons to celebrate our school community and the incredible progress our students have made!

• We are exceptionally proud of the academic strides our students continually achieve. Our K-3 students showed significant growth in literacy, with the percentage of students meeting or exceeding expectations on the DIBELS 8 assessment rising from 52% at the Beginning of Year to an impressive 81% at the End of Year!  We use HMH Into Reading as our core resource to support structured literacy grounded in the Science of Reading.
• In math, our K-5 students not only met but exceeded their growth goals, achieving a median growth percentile of 63 MGP. This is a testament to the hard work of our students and staff, especially with the successful implementation of our new math core resource Illustrative Math and instruction aligned to state standards.
• We've also seen tremendous positive impact in our implementation of PBIS (Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports) and SEL (Social-Emotional Learning). Our data shows significant increases in teaching expectations and acknowledging students for being Respectful, Responsible, and Safe as well as their social-emotional well-being.
• Finally, we are so grateful for your valuable feedback from our family survey. It's wonderful to see generally favorable perceptions regarding School Safety (85%) and School Climate (81%).

On a personal note, I'm a proud mother of two wonderful daughters. Mara, 21, currently works at Disney World, and Alana, 19, is pursuing her nursing degree at Colorado State University. My husband, Brian, is a high school teacher; we actually met while teaching together in Turkey! As a family, we love spending time together camping, skiing, puzzling, traveling, reading, and watching movies. When I'm not at school, you might find me cheering on the Iowa Hawkeyes (go, Hawks!), enjoying a Broadway musical, playing pickleball or tennis, or planning another trip to Disney World!

I am confident that together, we will continue to "THINK, ACHIEVE, and BECOME" to create an outstanding learning experience for all our students. I look forward to another year of growth, discovery, and success at Kendrick Lakes Elementary.

With gratitude,

Molly Touher