PORT ANGELES — Garry Cameron, an assistant principal in Southern California, was named the new Port Angeles High School principal late Wednesday afternoon.

Cameron, 42, a native of Washington state who grew up in Marysville, said he’s ready to return to his old stomping grounds in the Northwest.

“I love the Northwest, and I’m a Washingtonian at heart — even though I haven’t been living as one lately,” Cameron said.

Cameron will start at the school, which has about 1,200 students, on July 1.

His contract hadn’t been finalized by Wednesday. The job was advertised as paying between $103, 316 and $110, 474.

Cameron will attend the Port Angeles School Board meeting at 7 p.m. Monday at Dry Creek Elementary School, 25 Rife Road.

The board is expected to consider his appointment by Superintendent Gary Cohn.

“For right now, I’m really just listening,” Cameron said.

“I want to be the best listener I can, so I can make the right decisions once I’m there.”

Replaces Harker

He will replace Scott Harker, who asked for reassignment in January and has since been named the assistant principal at Stevens Middle School.

Cameron is the assistant principal at West Valley High School in the Hemet Unified School District in Southern California.

He has been at Hemet, a district with four high schools and about 22,000 students, since 2000.

“He has a wonderful and unique mix of skills, having served as an administrator, teacher and coach at the high school level and as a middle school teacher,” Cohn said in a written statement.

“Even during these challenging times, Garry is known in his school as a leader with a strong positive outlook and a clear history of determination in supporting growth of students and staff.

“I consider him a rising star.”

Cuts, scores

Among the challenges Cameron sees facing Port Angeles in the next several years are budget cuts and standardized test scores.

“Obviously every school in the district, even the state, is facing major financial issues, but that is something that I will have to work with,” he said.

He said at his current post he has been working with math teachers to improve test scores.

“Obviously Washington has a different test,” he said. “But we have seen quite a bit of growth working with the teachers here, and I look forward to working with the math teachers there.

“Hopefully we can be even more successful than they have already been.

“So there are some challenges, but this is such a great opportunity for me, and I’m so glad they selected me for this job.”

Cameron began his teaching career in Washington state in 1999 at Marysville-Pilchuck High School in the Marysville School District, where he taught math and coached girls tennis.

In Hemet, he was a social studies teacher, intervention coordinator and an administrative designee at West Valley before he was promoted to assistant principal.

Cameron taught math at Dartmouth Middle School, also in Hemet, in 2000 through 2002.

Navy officer

Cameron was an officer in the U.S. Navy from 1988 through 1995, leading combat coordination and surface warfare teams as a lieutenant during the first Persian Gulf War.

Cameron received a bachelor’s degree in history from the University of Washington in 1988, a master’s degree in teaching from the University of Puget Sound in 1996 and plans to complete his doctorate in education through the University of Southern California by May 2010.

He holds an administrative credential from Chapman University in Orange, Calif.

He and his wife, Victoria, have two children: Kristina, who will be a college freshman in the fall, and Garry Jr., a fifth-grader.

“This was the perfect time, because my daughter was graduating and my son was going into middle school, so he would be changing schools anyway,” he said.

“All the pieces just fell into place.”

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Reporter Paige Dickerson can be reached at 360-417-3535 or at paige.dickerson@peninsuladailynews.com.