Scottsdale principal earns national school leadership award

Pueblo Elementary School Principal Shelley Hummon has been named a 2023 National Distinguished Principal by the National Association of Elementary School Principals.

Pueblo Elementary School is a part of the Scottsdale Unified School District.
Hummon was surprised on April 20 by nearly 500 students, staff and community and district leaders who met on the school’s field for a surprise ceremony to celebrate her award, according to a press release.

Prior to her celebration, Hummon was told that her monthly meeting of SUSD elementary school principals was being moved from the district office to Pueblo’s campus, which Hummon found a bit odd. But, she welcomed the opportunity to show her peers the progress on the “new” Pueblo campus that is under construction and set to open in the fall.

“We left the meeting to go on our ‘tour,’ and when we came around the corner, I heard the kids and the music, and was very confused,” said Hummon. “I kept asking Margaret (Margaret Serna, SUSD’s interim executive director for elementary education), ‘What did you do?’ I did not know until I saw a student holding a sign that said, ‘National Distinguished Principal.’”

Since 1984, the NAEP annually recognizes outstanding principals of U.S. public and private pre-kindergarten through 8th grade schools and overseas schools operated by the U.S. Department of Defense. Principals are nominated by peers for their setting of high standards for instruction, student achievement and character, and school climate, the press release stated.

Hummon’s selection was made by the Executive Board of the Arizona School Administrators’ Elementary Division.

SUSD Superintendent Scott Menzel says the award validates Hummon’s leadership at Pueblo, SUSD’s Spanish dual-language immersion elementary school, where she has been principal since October 2017.

“One doesn’t have to spend very long on campus to see and feel the ways in which her leadership encourages student engagement, staff collaboration, and partnership with parents,” said Menzel.

“In addition to being an incredible leader of her school, Principal Hummon is also engaged in the larger Scottsdale community. She is truly deserving of this special recognition.”

Hummon’s supervisor, a current SUSD principal and two former SUSD principals nominated the Pueblo leader for the award: Serna; Anasazi Elementary’s Jennifer Waldron; SUSD Early Learning and Community Education Director Dr. Christine Bonow, who won the NDP in 2017 when she was Redfield Elementary’s principal; and former Desert Canyon Elementary Principal Kristin Kinghorn, Arizona’s 2022 NDP and now principal of John M. Anderson Elementary School in Chandler.

“I am truly humbled and do not feel that I deserve this award any more than my colleagues and friends in SUSD and Arizona,” said Hummon. “I am certainly not what makes Pueblo special or stand out. It is the students, teachers and staff, and the parent and family community at Pueblo that make my job the best on Earth.”

Hummon and 2023’s other National Distinguished Principals will travel to Washington, D.C., in October, National Principals Month, to be formally recognized at a two-day NAESP gathering.