Episode 96: Meet Desiree Olson, Wasatch Elementary Principal

3 7 月, 2025 /
斯宾塞-图伊内 /

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00:00 / 11:52

Wendy Dau: Welcome everyone to this week’s episode of What’s Up With the Sup. I am here with Des Olsen. Welcome.

Desiree Olsen: Thank you, Wendy.

Wendy Dau: She is our new principal at Wasatch Elementary. We are so excited for you.

Desiree Olsen: I am so excited for this next adventure. I’m so excited.

Wendy Dau: Okay, so we wanna have people get a chance to get to know you a little bit.

So tell us a little bit about your path prior to you coming to Wasatch.

Desiree Olsen: Okay. Like education wise?

Wendy Dau: Yeah, sure. And then you can also share stuff about your family if you want. Whatever you wanna share. Great– it’s all good.

Desiree Olsen: I was born in Connecticut.

Wendy Dau: Oh. And then I didn’t know that.

Desiree Olsen: Yes.

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Desiree Olsen: On the East coast, but then my family moved to Utah.

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Desiree Olsen: When I was young, so I actually grew up in Provo City School District.

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Desiree Olsen: I received my education here, and so I’m a proud member of this district. Always have been from the time I was a student here, and now getting to work here and– really excited to get to be a principal here.

So after I received my education here, then I went to BYU.

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Desiree Olsen: And I actually started out in social work and

Oh, that’s interesting. I did an internship in an elementary school through that program, and I loved the social work side of it, but I spent a lot of time in classrooms and I just started thinking, you know what?

I really think this might be for me. So I switched my major into teaching elementary education since 1998.

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Desiree Olsen: I’ve held various positions in education and I taught in Granite School District. Okay. Provo School District was a Grant Coordinator for a while. And then I was the Facilitator at Sunset View, the Instructional Facilitator and at Canyon Crest Elementary.

And then I spent the past three years as the Assistant Principal at Edgemont.

Wendy Dau: I hope Wasatch knows how lucky they are. Okay. Tell us a little bit about what you’ve learned already about the school.

Desiree Olsen: First of all, I pulled up to the big, beautiful building–

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Desiree Olsen: For the first time and just went, wow.

I was just getting to tour that building for the first time was awesome. Unbelievable.

Wendy Dau: Minus the wall of course.

Desiree Olsen: Yes. Course minus the wall. Of course, we, we’ll get we’re where it’s coming. It’s happening.

Wendy Dau: That’s coming.

Desiree Olsen: So I’ve actually had the opportunity to meet with the Paws, PTO Presidents. Oh, nice.

Maggie and Kendall, and then our School Community Council President Emily, as well as I had the opportunity to spend those two days with the Building leadership team.

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Desiree Olsen: That was so great having that time. We had some really good conversations and so through meeting with them, like with the parents, I’ve gotten to hear about all the great things that they bring.

Like I had already kind of heard–

Wendy Dau: Yeah. We all– we all know like the Wasatch Community is awesome. Yes.

Desiree Olsen: They’re so supportive of the school, but they got to share with me some details about. Our goals together, the theme for the year, things like that when we’ll be meeting again. And we talked a lot about the goals of the school too.

Wendy Dau：哦，很好。

Desiree Olsen: Like with Emily and then the leadership team, we had a lot of good conversations about the good things already in place that are happening. And then some things that they can already see that we might wanna start building on. And so, honestly. Every time I have those kind of meetings, that’s when I feel the most energized and excited about this coming year.

And one of the things I know well about Wasatch is that they are a DLI school.

Wendy Dau: Of course. Yes.

Desiree Olsen: And I love that because I’ve spent the last four years in DLI schools–

Wendy Dau: At DLI schools. Yeah.

Desiree Olsen: So I understand the concerns that come with that, and also the strengths that come with that.

Excited to work with that program. And then also, one of the things to always think about with that is also making sure that we build up the traditional side of the classroom. I know that about Wasatch too, that that’s something we’re always working on.

So I’m excited to jump in and, and work with everybody on those things.

Wendy Dau: Tell us a little bit about what you want students to know about you.

Desiree Olsen: I want students to know that they’re the whole reason that I’m here.

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Desiree Olsen: And they’re the whole reason that we’re here. Like if I had to sum it up, that’s what I want students to know and that I love coming to work every day to be with them and get to– I’m excited to get to know them and just see what they’re doing and see what they care about and what they’re accomplishing in their classrooms and in their life, and that I…

I hope they know that everybody here is here for them and that they have all these people every day at school that care so much about them and wanna see them succeed. So yeah.

Wendy Dau: You have always been the person who’s like, I love going to work.

Desiree Olsen: I do. I love my job.

Wendy Dau: This is like the best. And I’m like, oh my gosh, we need to like bottle up that energy for sure. So it’s pretty fantastic. They’ll feel that right away. For sure. What do you want the parents to know?

Desiree Olsen: You know, I want the parents to know kind of along the same lines, that I care about their students and their families, and I wanna get to know them.

I wanna meet them, I wanna talk with them. I’m excited to team together with them like, we talked about before, like I know that Wasatch is a community that is blessed to have huge parent involvement.

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Desiree Olsen: And they bring so much to the table. And so I’m really excited to tap into that with them and team together.

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What I love about the Wasatch communities are really good about also saying, okay, we see this as an issue. We have an idea for how to fix it. It’s not like, here, let me just dump this on you and then piece out, see you later. They’re all about how can we help? They wanna dive in and that’s what I’ve just seen as I’ve been here. So you’re so lucky to have such a great community.

Desiree Olsen: I’m so excited for that. That partnership will go a long way.

Wendy Dau: It will go a long way.

As you met with your building leadership team what are some of the things that you’re looking at that you’re like, these are celebrations that I wish I could shout from the rooftop that maybe not everybody knows, or where you’re like, wow, this is amazing.

Like, how does not everybody know about this? Like, what surprised you about that, that you were excited about?

Desiree Olsen: Just in general meeting with them, I’m like, these are top-notch people. They are just, they’re amazing teachers. They get it. The processes that we’re going for, they get the importance of working as a team to help the student achievement. Wasatch, I can feel it. Even in the building leadership team, they have this identity that’s just, they’re really proud of that, you know?

And there’s a lot of teachers at the school that are, have been there a long time and understand that, and like feel that–

Wendy Dau: They have an ownership.

Desiree Olsen: They have an ownership. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yes. And I loved that even it was the first time I was meeting with them and they were bringing their voices. They were just like, I didn’t have to be like, come on, everybody talk. Tell me, tell me. They just, they were ready. So that’s been created, I feel like, in already with them.

And that’s what we want. We want everybody to not be afraid to bring their voice to the table. That’s right. Right. And so the way that they’re working together that way? I was really impressed with.

I know we celebrated some of their teams scores and things like that, and I know that that’s a result of what I’ve been talking about, their hard work together as a team.

And so that was impressive to me. I just can’t wait to work with that team throughout the year. And then our grade level teams.

Wendy Dau: What’s so interesting is they know that there’s really high expectations in that community, and they don’t wanna disappoint anybody. So they work really hard to ensure that success.

Desiree Olsen: For sure. They do.

Like they came to that, that first building leadership team meeting, ready for expectations.

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Desiree Olsen: And ready to meet ’em and ready. Just like, how far can we go right now? You know?

Wendy Dau: Oh, that’s amazing. I love that energy. Ready to dive in. Oh, that’s incredible. Love that energy.

What are some things that you’ve had success with in the past that you’re excited to bring that expertise to Wasatch that where you’re like, I think I can really help with this?

Desiree Olsen: I feel like working at Edgemont the last three years has given me some insight and tools that I am excited to bring because the systems in place there. I’ve been thinking a lot about this.

Everywhere you go, there’s dedicated, hardworking, amazing staff. Teachers.

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Desiree Olsen: I’ve been thinking a lot about like what made it work so well that time that I’ve been at Edgemont. ’cause it has been.

I feel like we’ve had systems there in place that have been consistent for long enough that then these dedicated, hardworking people, even like me as the assistant principal, I, and we were able to come in and do the things that we wanted to do in an environment that those systems had created.

Oh, that was very, does that make sense?

Wendy Dau: It totally does. Yeah.

Desiree Olsen: So, I think the same things are happening. Everybody’s putting in good work, everybody’s putting good work everywhere, but those systems make it so there’s an environment that, like– there’s intentionality to it and we’re making sure we’re focused on the right work all, all the time.

And then we can start to say, well, let’s do this. Let’s do this, let’s do this. And build higher. My point of this is that I think I’ve gained an understanding of what those systems look like and what those strong teams look like and how to keep ’em consistent. So I’m excited to come see what’s already happening with that at Wasatch.

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Desiree Olsen: And then build on it.

Wendy Dau: And build on it.

I love you said the word intentionality, like it’s– everyone’s always working hard. Like I feel that you see it all the time in education. It’s about is there intentionality and are we really focused in what we’re trying to accomplish? That becomes really powerful. And I loved it, too, when you and Harmony worked at Edgemont, you would send me pictures of how your teams were working through data, and different things that they were doing, and that’s just a very powerful reflection– it, it’s not a gotcha moment. It’s a, oh, let’s look at this. Let’s figure out what’s going well. What do we need to work on? Who can we learn from? Like those are powerful things for sure.

Desiree Olsen: Thank you. That’s exactly what I’m talking about. Yes, yes. When I’m talking about the systems in place with– yes.

Wendy Dau: Yeah, I totally see that.

Tell us a little bit about what you love in terms of like your hobbies or what do you like to do in your free time, or fun places you’ve traveled so people get to know the person.

Desiree Olsen: This is a fun question.

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Desiree Olsen: Well, I mean, I feel like it’s the same answers a lot of people would say because they’re the things that are fun. Like I love to travel. I love to be outside. I am from Utah. They have all these great places to be outside in Utah, right? Yeah. My husband and I been married a long time and I have two grown daughters.

One of ’em just got married, so we like to our whole time together. That’s what we do together. We go outside, we camp, we kayak, we bike, we do all the–

Wendy Dau：哦，太棒了。

Desiree Olsen: I used to do a lot more. Like hike really hard hikes and stuff like that, but yeah–

Wendy Dau: but now we get older and now we get kind of tired.

Desiree Olsen: Yeah. Yeah. Maybe someday, again, who knows? But yeah. So there’s that. I love to do that and be outside and travel. That’s just–

Wendy Dau: Where, where’s your favorite place that you’ve been? Or some of the most memorable?

Desiree Olsen: Yes. It would be, it’s hard sometimes to say it would be Iceland.

Wendy Dau: Yes. Oh, yes!

Desiree Olsen: Iceland was, I– I spent 10 days and drove the Ring Road in Iceland.

温迪-道Oh, wow.

Desiree Olsen: And one of my favorite things ever, because it’s not commercialized, at least last– at least when I went there. It’s not commercialized yet, it’s just, it’s just open. Land not, you know, not a lot of people, not a lot of signs everywhere. You don’t have to pay for anything. You just go and you’re in this open spaces.

It’s beautiful.

Wendy Dau: Oh, that’s pretty incredible. And there’s only like what, like, 400,000 people or something?

Desiree Olsen: Right. In Iceland. So it’s, and they all read– they read books on Christmas Eve. Why wouldn’t you wanna go?

Wendy Dau: Like I know, I would agree.

Desiree Olsen: And there’s all these women in leadership. There’s like it a lot great things about Iceland.

Wendy Dau: There are a lot of pretty great things about Iceland. That’s very

true.

We’re just excited to have you at Wasatch Elementary. You’re gonna do a fantastic job. I’m glad you’re already getting to know the community and the teachers and– and here we are. We’re marching fast towards August.

Desiree Olsen: Oh, we, we are.

Wendy Dau: So here, here we go. Oh, we are.

Desiree Olsen: I hope continuing this summer, i’ll get to meet with even more people. Yeah. Like I’m gonna be around, so come see me.

温迪-道That's awesome.

Thank you so much Principal Olsen, it is so great to talk with you today.

Desiree Olsen: Thank you.

Wendy Dau: Thanks everyone for joining me for this week’s episode of What’s Up With the Sup.

As always, all episodes will be posted on the district website, YouTube, and anywhere you get your podcast. If you have any topics or questions you would like us to discuss on the podcast, please email us at podcast@provo.edu. And don’t forget to join us again next week for another new episode of What’s Up With the Sup.

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