Julie Synyard has spent the last few months zipping between Berkeley, where she lives, St. Helena, where she works, and Los Angeles, where she’s getting her doctorate.

But her final destination is the principal’s office at St. Helena High School.

Synyard is earning a doctorate in educational administration from the University of Southern California. Her dissertation deals with the challenges faced by urban superintendents in the 21st century. In between papers, oral presentations and exams she found the time to get hired as principal at St. Helena High, replacing Jim Zoll.

Synyard grew up in San Rafael. Her educational transcript includes stints at UC-San Diego, San Francisco State, St. Mary’s College of California, USC, and a year studying abroad in Italy.

She taught high school for three years before being hired as vice principal at St. Helena High in 2004, near the end of Shari Cramer’s tenure as principal. For five years she served under Zoll, who she called “a fabulous mentor.”

Synyard has been involved in various aspects of the high school. She’s overseen student activities, worked closely with Athletic Director Tom Hoppe, supported performing arts, coordinated testing and handled student discipline.

Zoll was away from the high school frequently during the last school year, which Synyard said gave her “several months of actual on-the-job training as principal.”

“I’m pretty hands-on,” she said. “I love bouncing ideas off other people. I love to collaborate a lot and steal the best ideas I can.”

Synyard takes the helm as numerous facilities projects are in varying stages of development.

The new multipurpose room is finished, but other projects are in limbo until the state coughs up matching funds. A performing arts facility, an ag barn and a larger facility with classrooms for ag food science and culinary arts are all on hold pending state funding.

Synyard also will make sure teachers are incorporating the tenets of the International Baccalaureate program into their instruction. In the last two school years about 16 new teachers have been hired.

“It’s part of my job to help build a new culture and say, ‘Here’s the St. Helena method. Here’s how we do things,’” she said. “We’re really fortunate because they’re fabulous teachers and all their new ideas have been really refreshing. I can’t say enough about our teachers.”

One of the strategies of the IB program is to encourage collaboration. Synyard said she encourages teachers to visit each other’s classrooms, share ideas and build a cohesive curriculum.

The high school’s API scores, based on students’ performance on the STAR tests, have hovered in the mid-700s, below the state-set target of 800. Seniors pass the California High School Exit Exam at a consistently high rate of over 95 percent.

Synyard said she’s concerned with test scores because they’re the benchmark by which schools are judged, but they can’t give a full picture of whether a school is providing a full, well-rounded education.

She said test scores are particularly helpful in showing where there’s room for improvement, such as better serving a school’s at-risk population.

The school’s special education program has attracted some criticism. Synyard said the program “is still developing,” and she has high praise for the newest special ed teacher, Lisa Hough.

“There’s definitely a healing process that needs to occur,” said Synyard. “We need to keep communication open with the parents and ensure we’re offering the best curriculum in a setting that’s most appropriate for the students.”

Benjamin Scinto, currently principal at Excelsior Middle School in Byron in Contra Costa County, is replacing Synyard as high school vice principal.

But aside from all the new faces, people shouldn’t expect too many changes at the high school.

“We have a solid program in place,” said Synyard. “But we’ll continue to move forward and try new things."

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