Dallas ISD celebrates teaching excellence by recognizing outstanding educators who are making a difference in the lives of students every day. Meet 2021-2022 Principal of the Year finalist Katherine Wanserski Eska.
Katherine Wanserski Eska is in her fifth year serving as principal at North Dallas High School. A graduate of the University of Notre Dame with a Bachelor of Business Administration in finance and a minor in education, Eska started her career in Dallas ISD in 2009 as a math teacher, cheerleading sponsor and department chair at Spruce High School.
In 2013, Eska continued with her own education, earning a Master’s in Education Policy and Management from Harvard University. Following graduation, she served as head of school in a turnaround public charter elementary school in Lawrence, Massachusetts.
Passionate about Dallas ISD students, she returned in 2014 as principal of Kramer Elementary, where she led the school to six state distinctions and through the International Baccalaureate Authorization process. The campus subsequently became the first IB Primary Years Programme in Dallas ISD.
Now at North Dallas, she has seen the campus increase academic achievement year over year, grown enrollment by over 15%, and overseen design and implementation of a $46 million bond project. Most notably, the campus became only the second comprehensive high school to achieve Choice School status and the first-ever Design Thinking campus in Dallas ISD.
Eska works every day to ensure that all students and their families have access to opportunity, such that they may achieve their individual goals. Outside of school, Eska raises one-year-old Lyla and soon-to-be born Kailani with her husband, and is currently pursuing her doctorate in the University of Texas at Austin’s Cooperative Superintendency Program.
Katherine Wanserski Eska is one of the 2021-2022 Secondary Principal of the Year finalists. From the finalists, one principal will be selected from each category to represent Dallas ISD as Principal of the Year. Winners will be announced at the inaugural 2021-2022 Dallas ISD Educator of the Year Awards, in partnership with the Dallas Education Foundation, presented by Reliant at the Statler Hotel on May 10, 2022.
View the full list of the 2021-2022 Principal of the Year finalists here.
