Linda L. Peifer, principal of Broad Street Elementary School in the Butler Area School District, has been selected by PAESP as Pennsylvania’s National Distinguished Principal for 2002.

   Mrs. Peifer has been an elementary principal since 1988, and has been with the Broad Street School since 1994. She has also served as principal at the Oakland Elementary School and the Center Township School in the Butler Area School District; the Hartford Heights and Shaw elementary schools in the Norwin School District; and at the Palmetto Elementary School in the Marion School District, No. 2, in Mullins, S.C.

   Mrs. Peifer has initiated and helped to implement various practices and programs in the Broad Street School that are essential to the school’s mission and goals. The school’s unique, customized inclusion model, introduced in 1996, utilizes an additional learning support teacher and classroom paraprofessionals for each grade. Early intervention activities through a successful Read to Succeed grant encourage and support early literacy through special summer reading programs, a Laptime program for preschool students and their parents and one-on-one tutoring for students having difficulty are some other examples.

   She earned a bachelor of science in elementary education from Clarion University and received her master’s of education in educational administration from the University of South Carolina.

   In addition to being a member of PAESP/NAESP since 1992, she has served as the Small Cities School Representative on the PAESP Executive Board (2000-2003). She was also a member of a panel of expert principals in April 2000.