A trio of Auburn School District administrators is ready to take on new roles this fall.

Jon Aarstad, Auburn Riverside High School’s dean of students, becomes the principal at West Auburn, the school district’s alternative high school, on July 1. Aarstad, 39, succeeds Lenny Holloman, who will become the principal at Gildo Rey Elementary.

When he was a special education teacher in the Kent School District and at Auburn Riverside, Aarstad was also busy earning his administrative certification from the American College of Education. Three years after earning the certification, he became ARHS’ dean of students. He has a bachelor’s degree from Central Washington University and his masters in curriculum and instruction from Grand Canyon University.

The Lake Tapps resident said he believes his experience makes him a good fit for West Auburn.

“I spent 16 years really working with the population that is over at West Auburn High School,” Aarstad said. “At the end of the day, kids are kids. It’s a special staff over there that has been doing it for some time.”

Given the pending move to West Auburn, Aarstad recently resigned as the baseball coach at Auburn Riverside, where, upon the retirement of Chris Garrison in 2012, he became only the second coach in the program’s history. Before his time with the Ravens’ program, he guided Kentwood to seven state playoff appearances and one championship in 11 years.

“I’ve thoroughly enjoyed my time as a baseball coach at Kentwood and Auburn Riverside,” said Aarstad, adding that the transition enabled him to help his wife transport their 11- and 8-year-old daughters to their athletic events. “I will miss the camaraderie, teamwork and playing on a sunny day.”

Auburn Riverside Athletic Director Doug Aubert, who praised Aarstad’s work, said the position closes June 14. He said he believes the school’s new baseball facility makes the job “a gem.”

Whereas Aarstad is staying at the high school level, Holloman will transition back to the elementary setting. Holloman, 46, was an assistant principal at Rainier Middle School (2002-06) and principal at Chinook Elementary (2006-10) before his return to West Auburn, where he’d taught from 1999-2002.

Holloman said he wanted to teach at a bigger school, and learned about the opportunity at Gildo Rey in conversation with Superintendent Alan Spicciati.

“We started talking about options, and we started talking about Gildo Rey,” Holloman said. “I want to learn about what they’re doing on the academic side because they have been honored as a school of distinction for about the last 10 years.”

Holloman, who has been West Auburn’s principal for six years, earned his administrative certification and master’s degree from City University of Seattle. He enlisted in the Navy after high school to pay for college and worked on two aircraft carriers during Desert Storm. Later he earned his bachelor’s degree from the University of Arizona.

Holloman, an avid Wildcats’ fan, is enjoying the NBA Finals, which features former Arizona stars Channing Frye and Richard Jefferson playing for Cleveland, while Steve Kerr and Luke Walton coach Golden State and Andre Iguodala competes for him.

“It’s a great year to watch The Finals from a Wildcats’ perspective,” Holloman said.

Now, he looks forward to working with energetic elementary school students.

“Elementary kids love you,” said Holloman. “They look up to you; they’re impressionable and need that nurturing.”

Holloman and his wife, Veronika Raguzin-Holloman, a counselor at Auburn Riverside, have two middle-school-aged sons.

Hollomon succeeds Jana Jo Uhlendorf, who will leave Gildo Rey at the end of the school year. Uhlendorf said her departure is related to the death of her husband, who succumbed to cancer on April 14, 2014. Before making the move to Gildo Rey in 2013, she had been an assistant principal at Mt. Baker Middle School for five years.

“It’s just kind of a year of doing some grief work that I haven’t done yet, and I’m ready to do,” said Uhlendorf, who plans to visit family locally and in Hawaii, Maryland and Texas.

Uhlendorf said she is proud of the continuing progress Gildo Rey has made under her leadership. The school has been recognized as a Washington Achievement Award winner for six consecutive years, while the school’s PTA recently was honored by the Washington Association of School Administrators Region 110 Community Leadership Impact Award. Uhlendorf said Gildo Rey has an active and bilingual PTA leadership that emphasizes inclusion.

“It really helped to draw our families in and let them know that they could be included and have a voice,” she said. “They’re always present.”