It was an easy decision for Emilie Hard to live in Maple Valley and teach in the Tahoma School District but it was a much harder one for her to choose to leave to pursue a new opportunity.

Hard, who has served as the principal at Glacier Park Elementary for 10 years, will leave after 18 years in Tahoma schools to server as the executive director of teaching and learning with the Issaquah School District.

“I wanted this challenge for myself,” Hard said. “It was an opportunity that I found hard to pass up.”

But, Hard’s experience in education was likely hard for the Issaquah School District to pass up.

A native of Eugene, Ore., Hard has a bachelor’s and master’s degree from the University of Oregon, with her graduate work focused on curriculum and instruction.

“The program was outstanding and prepared me well for the various positions I’ve held,” she said.

She taught for five years in Eugene then moved to Cheney where she worked at Eastern Washington University as an assistant professor teaching in a lab school and working with education students.

The lab school “was constantly like being on stage in a way,” Hard explained.

“From that experience I learned that I loved working with adults as well as children,” she said. “At the lab school is where I really started to realize how much I loved thinking about what makes a good teacher, what makes curriculum really work, what makes it really effective and what makes one teacher effective and what makes another teacher less so.”

During that time in Cheney she took trips to Alaska, where she met her husband Jeff, who is a biologist.

When they decided to get married they chose to live in Juneau, Alaska, but eventually her husband decided to earn his doctorate and the couple decided to move with their first born, Alyson, back to Eugene where Jeff could work on his doctorate at the University of Oregon.

Her son, Andrew was born during that phase of their life, then when Jeff’s work on his doctorate was complete they planned to move to Seattle where he would work.

“I checked out a lot of school districts,” Hard said. “Jeff said, ‘It would be convenient if you taught in Seattle because that’s where I’ll be working.’”

Hard, however, decided the Tahoma School District was the place to be and her husband said he wouldn’t mind commuting because he knew it would make it easier on her and their young children.

“I chose this school district because of its reputation,” she said. “I was just really impressed with Tahoma and I’ve continued to be the whole time I’ve worked here. I made that decision … and our family lives here because I wanted our kids to go through this school district and I wanted to teach here.”

She taught at Rock Creek Elementary for her first four years in the district, working with third, fourth and fifth graders.

Then she spent three years working in the curriculum department at the district’s headquarters “supporting teachers and coaching teachers… I loved it.”

Teaching is both an art and a science, she said.

“I love the art of it because it’s creative but I also love the science of it,” she said. “When I started teaching people would say, oh, we don’t know what makes a good teacher. Now we do know because there’s research on best practices.”

During that time she earned her administrative credentials and moved on to Cedar River, which was an elementary school at the time, to take on her first job as a principal.

“The reason I became a principal — it wasn’t something I dreamed about doing my whole life — when the principal role changed from being a manager to being an instructional leader I realized I would love doing that job,” she said. “It has allowed me to do all the things that I love to do.”

In the fall of 2000, Glacier Park opened as an elementary school, with Hard leading the staff.

“Most principals go in and inherit a building and inherit a way of doing things,” she said. “I was able to work with teachers and parents and say, ‘We’re birthing a school, basically. What do we want this place to be? What do we want to stand for? What do we want to highlight as our vision and our mission?’ It’s been a wonderful 10 years and I’m really proud of what we’ve accomplished here.”

Still, there was one more career goal Hard had on her to do list.

“That goal was to be responsible for curriculum and instruction for a school system,” she said. I’ve met it in some ways by being a principal. I’ve always wanted to have the experience of having that role for a school district. Issaquah is also a wonderful school district with an excellent reputation and they have received recognition for their outstanding work with children.”

She is excited to take on a new adventure as an educator.

“It’s the challenge and it’s the passion and I’m excited about just learning because it will be a whole new world for me,” she said. “I’ll have a lot to learn but I hope that I’ll have a lot to show them. I hope that I can bring some meaningful new learning to the educators there. The bottom line for me is that I respect teachers immensely and always have. It’s one of the hardest jobs there is and what’s more important than teaching young people to grow up and have as many skills as possible and be the best people they can.”