To kick off the 2024 school year, Colton High introduced a new assistant principal to its administrative team: Erica MacDonald.

Many CHS students may well remember MacDonald as their principal at Colton Middle School, where she served in the role for the last three years. Prior to that, she served district students as an assistant principal at both Grand Terrace and Bloomington High.

All in all, MacDonald has been an educator for 25 years, as a health and sports medicine teacher as well as an administrator. 

MacDonald truly loved her job as an athletic trainer, but couldn’t seem to work with the schedule that had come with the job after having her son. “The schedule was a little too hectic for me,” she said. “And I was teaching full time too. So I was teaching full-time. And then after school, I’d be at work until 10 o’clock or whatever.”

This led her to choose a path towards becoming an administrator because of the ability to gain better control over her schedule. 

For MacDonald’s first year at Colton High, she wants to get to know everybody and is especially excited to work with ASB director Alexandra Buskirk and athletic director Mike Reh. “That’s kind of my wheelhouse, and so I’m excited to see where we go with our activities and just bringing the culture and continuing to make it stronger here at school.”

She is excited to see how our activities build the school culture and continue to make it stronger. Despite enjoying her time at Colton Middle, MacDonald missed being at the high school. She missed seeing different activities like prom, rallies, students playing and succeeding in sports, and signing up for college.

MacDonald grew up in Covina, graduating from Charter Oak High School. There, she excelled in athletics. She was on the swimming team and believes that maybe that’s where she got the bug to become an athletic trainer.

During her freshman and sophomore years MacDonald focused more on athletics. Then, in her junior and senior years she realized it was important to stay on track with school and credits because all of a sudden credits mattered for graduation. She also thought it was important to be able to talk to teachers and advocate for herself.

After high school, she got an opportunity to teach at Charter Oak and did some athletic training there. Some of the people she grew up with went back as well, so they all got to work together, making for “a reunion of some sort” she says. 

MacDonald earned her AA degree at Mt. San Antonio College before transferring into Cal State Fullerton to receive her Bachelor’s in Kinesiology. She continued with school, getting her Master’s degree in Education along with her teaching credential. Then, to become an administrator, she obtained her Master’s in Educational Administration at Concordia.

MacDonald enjoyed both her public school education and college, noting how when people are  younger and in grade school it’s a more social experience, but as they get older life hands out more significant priorities like balancing work, school, and being a better student.

To MacDonald, Colton High students should be aware of the bigger differences between the experiences of high school and college. “All you know is that college classes cost money, so if you’re not doing well, like, that’s money that has gone, right? And so it’s important to make sure you’re advocating for yourself right away and finding out who to go to, where to go to, because in college, it’s just, it’s huge! And so you have to really stay focused and make sure that you’re going and getting that mentoring so that you can still be successful?”

While education has played a significant role in MacDonald’s life, she hasn’t only worked in schools. Something that many people might not know about her is that she worked at Disneyland while in college. She worked in Tomorrowland, Space Mountain and Star Tours. Her love for all things Disney is still alive today. One trip to her office, decorated with Disney memorabilia, is proof positive. 

CHS hopes for nothing but the best for MacDonald as it welcomes her in hopes that Colton High School is more than what she expected.