School Principal

My name is Melanie Pagliaro and I am proud to be the Principal of Desert Rose Elementary School.   This is my 33rd year in the Palmdale School District. I taught upper grades for 11 years, was a Curriculum Resource Teacher, and a Reading Facilitator.  I was an Assistant Principal for 3 ½ years and have been a Principal for the past 15 ½ years. I have served at 9 schools in the Palmdale School District both at the Elementary and Junior High levels.  I attended California State University Northridge where I received my Bachelor’s in History and received my Masters in Administration from the University of LaVerne. I am a proud parent of two daughters - my eldest graduated from San Francisco State University and my youngest is a Freshman at Marymount Manhattan College in New York. 

 

This is my 8th year at Desert Rose Elementary School.  I am very excited to be part of an amazing Staff who truly has a heart for students.  This is evident as we are the proud recipients of the Capturing Kids Hearts National Showcase School Award two years running.  Over the last few years, we have worked on increasing student achievement through higher-level thinking skills.  We have implemented Thinking Maps School-wide, are providing a 30 minute structured intervention time during the school day called Academies, and are increasing student knowledge by using a variety of strategies to increase higher-level thinking skills.   

 

Desert Rose received a major facelift to its facilities over the last 4 years.  It started with our new Kindergarten playground and has expanded to our beautiful new black top, track and new play structure.  Our Maker Space was complete and ready to use at the beginning of the 2021 school year and our students have enjoyed Art, Science experiments, and using legos in education to create and learn about engineering.  This school year we added a full-time bilingual Music Teacher to our Staff.  Students have enjoyed learning Music history, playing instruments, and even combining music with art. 

 

We believe in our students and are ensuring that they will be College and Career ready with the programs we offer.