Because experience has taught her to be a hands-on educator, the new principal of Fremont High School walks through the halls every day as she greets students with a "What's up Dante" or a "Hey Michelle." She stops to comfort one girl who has been hurt by a boy the girl had a crush on and continues on to ask how a boy's studying is coming along.

Raun-Linde earned her bachelor's degree in communications studies and English and a master's in education, organization and leadership.

She first taught high-school English in the East Bay. She joined the Fremont High School District in 1995 as assistant principal at Fremont High. In 1999 she began working on her doctorate in education, Pacific leadership and international studies at the University of San Francisco while concurrently teaching English at Fremont High. Last year she worked as the Director of Adult and Community Education with the district.

Sue Larson, her assistant, says Raun-Linde formed an attachment with Fremont. "She fell in love with the school and the students. Now she just loves to be out there with them. You can't know what's going on in school unless you're out there," Larson says.

Raun-Linde is not one to be stuck indoors. Walking the halls and interacting with students outdoors and in the classroom is a part of her daily routine at Fremont. "If we're going to be instructional leaders of schools, we should be in the classrooms," says Raun-Linde, who visits in various classes for 90 minutes every day.

Students at Fremont have a strong support network of teachers and administrators, and Raun-Linde says she hopes to complement their roles. "It's really important that students get to know me, so they know that there's somebody else in the system there for them," Raun-Linde says.

Fremont students have unique needs, which she is already working to support as the school's principal. With such a diverse population, including Asian, East Indian, African American, Vietnamese, European and a variety of religious backgrounds, 85 percent of Fremont students are bilingual. Among her goals is one to create a support system for the students and their parents who may face language barriers at the school. "We want to make the school inclusive so that parents and grandparents aren't intimidated by language," says Raun-Linde.

For instance, with a 35-percent Hispanic population, the school has scheduled a new forum for Hispanic families to discuss educational issues the community may be facing.

Raun-Linde says students are more open and accepting of each other at Fremont. "We push communication with each other so that we can help people understand one another. It's not enough to say students should celebrate diversity. With that celebration should come a real understanding of differences," she says.

Raun-Linde hopes to promote student support with special talks about respect, zero tolerance of alcohol and other issues. Just the other day administrators spoke in each classroom about Sept. 11. "We're very careful about language. We talked to them about supporting our Muslim students. Now the kids are thinking about those students and they're aware of their language," says Raun-Linde.

When it comes to education, Raun-Linde says personalized learning is the direction Fremont will take in the coming years. "Parents care about the school meeting the needs of their son or daughter. We need to take into account everybody's learning needs and give attention to each student," she says.