New assistant principal takes seat at AUHS

Photo by Paul Robeson

READY TO START: Brandt Shriner takes time from finishing the fall sports schedules to check in new students at Anderson Union High School.

The title “Athletic Administrator” was a bonus when Brandt Shriner accepted the position of assistant principal at Anderson Union High School. As a former athlete himself, Shriner saw an opportunity to work with high school students and to be closer to family.

The Weaverville native attended Trinity High School where he received “All League” when he played football, basketball and baseball. He also played baseball when he went to Shasta College.

Shriner was a baseball catcher for California State University Stanislaus baseball team in Turlock, where he received his bachelor’s degree in physical education in 1995. After graduation he became a teacher at the Fall River Junior-Senior High School in McArthur and also was their softball coach.

In 1998 he began teaching at Live Oak School in Redding. Live Oak, now known as Oasis Community School, operates special education classrooms.

Participation sports, as well as his umpiring, took a back seat while Shriner went for his master’s degree in 2002 from the University of La Verne. By 2003 Shriner had become the Interim Principal at the Education Resource Center (ERC). The ERC helps students who had been at the community school to gear up to go back into a regular classroom.

In 2004 Shriner took the position of vice principal at Fortuna Union High School in Fortuna. Shriner, on Fortuna High’s Strategic Planning Committee, helped develop an emergency/disaster response program and worked with “Challenge Days” at the school. Challenge Days were small groups of students and teachers working to overcome gender and ethnic differences in the community and schools.

Now he and his family live in “the valley.” He and his wife Kristi, and daughters Rian, 5, and Ragan, 2, enjoy visiting his parents in Weaverville or his wife’s mom in Fall River “in the mountains.” Rian will be attending East Cottonwood Elementary School.

“We are happy to have Mr. Shriner join our team,” said Anderson Union High School Principal Mike Koontz.