The Northshore School District prepares to send off one of its most influential leaders after more than 43 years of service.

Vicki Sherwood is retiring from her position as Inglemoor High School’s principal. Sherwood began her work at Inglemoor 35 years ago and has been the principal for 26 years.

“She is a true Viking,” said Heather Miller, assistant superintendent of secondary education at Northshore. “She has been a committed and loyal leader for the school community and has impacted thousands of students over the course of her career.”

Sherwood hand-picked and personally trained many of the current Inglemoor staff members, according to Miller.

“She has encouraged several people to move into administration and has trained them herself to go on and move into leadership roles,” Miller said. “We all love Vicki and have all learned a great deal from her leadership.”

The City of Kenmore recognized Sherwood’s role in the community at their Feb. 26 meeting by proclaiming March 5 through 9 as Vicki L. Sherwood week.

“I think it’s pretty cool,” Sherwood added with a laugh. “Kenmore has been a really good city to work in and work for.”

Inglemoor has collaborated with the city numerous times during Sherwood’s leadership and several staff’s children attended the high school.

“Look at her leadership,” Mayor David Baker added. “The school was an okay school back [in the 80’s], but she’s brought it up to national prominence … I look at the number of students who’ve gone through there, the IB program and everything else, oh my goodness, it’s all attributed to her leadership.”

LEAVING A LEGACY

Sherwood promoted and improved several programs at Inglemoor, including the International Baccalaureate, music, drama and DECA programs.

“None of the students were even born when she became principal there and almost every staff member was hired by her,” said Sandy Hayes, the School Board president in District 4 and an Inglemoor parent. “Mrs. Sherwood’s well-known competitiveness for her school to be the best has inspired other school leaders in the district to bring that same passion to their schools.”

Officially, Sherwood will retire at the end of the school year in June, but she is spending the last four months of the school year using up her accumulated vacation time.

John Loy, a previous vice principal at Inglemoor, will fill the role as Interim principal as Northshore School District searches for a replacement.

“Once a Viking always a Viking,” Sherwood said. “He will love being back in the saddle and working with the staff at Inglemoor High School.”

As Sherwood looks ahead to retirement, she said that she’s excited to spend time with her recently retired husband and on hobbies, but will greatly miss the staff and students at Inglemoor.

Inglemoor staff, parents and student are all having a difficult time imagining the school without Sherwood, according to Miller. Hayes added that Sherwood turned Inglemoor into a reason that people move to the school district.

“She leaves huge shoes to fill,” Hayes said. “There are many parents and staff members that can share stories when she would ‘take care of it’ when a student needed something.”

While Sherwood will no longer work directly for Inglemoor, she still plans on serving the district by mentoring future principals and remaining active in the community.

“People know that I love my job and I think they are surprised that I would even think of retiring,” she said with a laugh. “I don’t know if I’ll ever really leave education, there are so many opportunities left, but maybe not on a day to day basis.”