Although she retired in 2020, Kathy Wehunt continues to have an impact on students in her community through her involvement with ACSA’s Clear Administrative Credential Program.
Wehunt continues to shape education by
supporting great leaders in her community
October 30, 2023
Name: Kathy Wehunt
Award: Robert E. Kelly Award
Helping people be the best they can be. It’s a calling for Kathy Wehunt, the winner of this year’s Robert E. Kelly Award, which is given each year to a retired ACSA member.
Countless students, teachers and administrators in the Antelope Valley have been reaping the benefits of Wehunt’s work over the last 40 years. Even in retirement, she continues to transform education by making sure the adults in schools are the best they can be.
The fact of her becoming an educator at all is thanks to her third-grade teacher, Mrs. Morgan.
“She made learning come alive,” Wehunt recalled. “Each day was just a new adventure. You were eager to go to school to see what she had planned for us, so I wanted to be just like her.”
Wehunt spent 16 years as a teacher before becoming an assistant principal and principal before joining the Palmdale School District office in 2018. Along the way, she attended many ACSA professional development events, such as the Principal’s Institute at UCLA and ACSA Academies.
In 2016, Wehunt was instrumental in creating an ACSA Clear Administrative Credential Program for the Antelope Valley, one that would bring quality job-embedded coaching to new administrators in the isolated area, about 65 miles northeast of Los Angeles.
With the thumbs up from her bosses, Superintendent Raul Maldonado and then-Deputy Superintendent Stacey Bryant, Wehunt developed a consortium model program that would support new administrators from seven local districts — and encourage them to stay.
“It has resulted in less turnover and more retention of great administrators here in the Antelope Valley,” she said.
Wehunt’s leadership helped elevate the quality of professional development in the valley. She has provided ongoing coach trainings by hosting two ACSA CNETs annually. In addition, she facilitates four Leadership Coach Collaboratives each year where ACSA Leadership Coaches meet, collaborate, hone their coaching skills and get CACP updates.
Although she retired from the district office in 2020, Wehunt continues in her role as co-Local Program Coordinator for the ACSA Palmdale/Antelope Valley Clear Administrative Credential Program. She is also currently coaching a candidate in the program. In addition, Wehunt is a University Supervisor of student teachers at Cal State Bakersfield, an ACSA Emeritus member and an active member of her retirement charter. Wehunt remains a vital and relevant force shaping education in her community.
“She is routinely consulted by educators in our district at the highest levels, despite her ‘retired’ status, because of her knowledge, expertise and ability to understand complex situations,” said Danny Kanga, chief academic officer with Palmdale School District. “She knows how to motivate others, and more importantly, how to coach others to become outstanding leaders themselves.”
While she enjoys leisure time (such as travel and golf with her husband, Ed), she appreciates the structure of working part-time in the clear credentialing program. She gets to help other ACSA Leadership Coaches, many of them retirees themselves, find ways to grow and give back.
“When I’m doing something I enjoy, it becomes internally motivating. So, in other words, I do it because I want to do it,” she said. “So staying motivated in retirement involves doing interesting and worthwhile things, and my passion happens to be the Palmdale Antelope Valley Clear Administrative Credential Program.”
Wehunt spent 16 years as a teacher before becoming an assistant principal and principal before joining the Palmdale School District office in 2018.
Kathy Wehunt and Palmdale SD Superintendent Raul Maldonado.
Countless students, teachers and administrators in the Antelope Valley have been reaping the benefits of Wehunt’s work over the last 40 years.