Waukee CSD Leader Hired as Next Radiant Elementary Principal

Pending Board approval, we are excited to announce Kim Tierney as the next principal at Radiant Elementary School.

“The staff at Radiant is well-respected, and the opportunity to come in and grow the school over the next few years is ultimately what pulled me in that direction. My son also attended Radiant Elementary and had a wonderful experience,” she says.

Tierney is the current associate principal at Northwest High School. Before that, she was an elementary school principal for 14 years, including time at Maple Grove Elementary in the Waukee CSD and for the Denver Community School District in Denver, Iowa. During her time in Denver, she was dubbed “Principal of the Year” by the School Administrators of Iowa.

“After spending two years as the associate principal at NWHS, I am excited to move back into the principal role. There is nothing that compares to the energy of our youngest students and their excitement for learning,” she says.

Tierney says it’ll be hard to leave the people she’s been working with at NWHS.

“They’re an exceptional group of teachers and staff who put their hearts into serving students at the highest level. My experience at NWHS has taught me so much about our comprehensive K-12 system; having the perspective of witnessing our youngest students enter kindergarten to shaking hands with students at commencement has only solidified my admiration of our student-centered system as a whole.”

Tierney has an elementary and middle-level education degree from the University of Northern Iowa. Her educational administration degree is from Iowa State University. Tierney also has her Superintendent Licensure from Drake University and is working toward a doctoral degree in education at Drake, which she plans to complete this summer.

Tierney and her husband, Casey, live in the Waukee CSD. They have two children — Kadyn, a sophomore at Northwest High School, and Kyle, a 5th grader at Shuler Elementary.