Bend-La Pine Schools Superintendent Steven Cook announced on May 16 that Marc Zollinger has
been hired to be the Interim Principal at Bear Creek Elementary for the 2023-2024 school year.
Marc is currently in his third year as the Assistant Principal at Woodland Elementary in Fairview,
Oregon, part of the Reynolds School District. He will begin at Bear Creek on July 1.

“I’m very excited to join Bend-La Pine Schools! As someone who loves language learning and
language teaching, I can’t wait to meet and support our students and staff at Bear Creek
Elementary School,” Marc said.

He added that he plans to start focusing on the Bear Creek community as he finishes the school
year at Woodland. “I want to be ready to hit the ground running in July so that we’re ready to
welcome students to school in the fall. I’ll see you soon!”

Prior to his current position, Marc served as a School Climate Specialist at ACCESS Academy
in Portland Public Schools for two years. He spent five years as a classroom teacher at West
Linn High School, where he taught Spanish, and has served as a Spanish instructor at
University of Oregon and Willamette University.

“We are fortunate to have Marc joining our Bear Creek Elementary School community for the
coming year,” Dr. Cook said. “He’s a bilingual administrator with experience building systems for
student success in two school districts, and staff in his current school spoke highly of his ability
to build strong connections with students and families.”

Earlier this month the district announced that Bear Creek Principal Lisa Birk had been selected
to be the new Executive Director of Elementary Programs, effective July 1.

Bend-La Pine Schools also is announcing that MacKenzie Groshong, currently Assistant
Principal at Bend Senior High School, has been selected to serve as the Assistant Principal at
High Desert Middle School beginning July 1. She’ll succeed Dave McKae, who is in that role in
an interim capacity and will return to his prior role as the Dean of Students at High Desert.