Principal - Grant Waaler

My career in education started as a student teacher in kindergarten while studying at the University of Illinois.  From there I moved to Loveland, Colorado and taught 5th grade for 8 years.  After earning my principal's license from UNC I served as an elementary principal for 9 years.  When our kids were old enough, my wife and I decided it was time to take our family abroad and we landed at an international school in Guatemala for three years.  We are thrilled to be back in the Roaring Fork Valley where my wife and I met as raft guides and then were married.  Now we enjoy all the Valley has to offer with our three children.

Assistant Principal - Marisol Henriquez

I am a Chilean teacher with 25 years of experience in the classroom. I taught many years in Chile before moving to the USA in 2001. I started working in Eagle County as a bilingual teacher and moved to Basalt at the beginning of the 2004-2005 school year. I taught at BES for 10 years as a first grade bilingual teacher, before becoming an assistant principal. I have been one of the BES assistant principals since the 2014-15 school year. I love our school and community and even though I miss my family in Chile, Basalt is home for me now.

ELD Coach - Whitney Carper Bell

Whitney was born and raised in the Midwest and received her BA and MA in Education/Spanish from the University of Kansas. She then lived and worked in San Francisco, where she taught for 8 years. Since moving to Basalt in 2014, Whitney has taught 2nd grade and was our Dual Language Coordinator before becoming Assistant Principal/Instructional Coach in 2018. She loves working at BES and is proud to be apart of the community. In her spare time, Whitney enjoys traveling, cooking, hiking, yoga, music and spending time with her daughter's Charlotte and Mary, and husband Mark.