East Elementary’s boss and principal Mary Ellen Donatto was not at school last week.

Instead, she was in Washington, D.C., chosen by the Louisiana State Department of Education to accompany Sharon Southall, Senior Policy Advisor of Louisiana Board of Regents, to speak at the 2009 Wallace Foundation Conference. Donatto was honored this summer as one of the principals of a High-Performance, High-Poverty School and therefore selected to be one the panelists.

This year’s conference centered on, “Education Leadership: An Agenda for School Improvement” The conference began Wednesday and concluded on Friday.

Donatto spoke at a breakout session entitled “Accountability and incentives: What works?”

Panelists were asked to speak about the standards and criteria by which school performance should be judged, as well as incentives and measures that attract quality leaders to low-performing schools and spur innovation.

Also discussed was the study on high-performing, high-poverty (HPHP) schools and their principals in Louisiana.

Panelists for the breakout session included Southall, Donatto, Michael Copland, professor of educational leadership and policy studies at the University of Washington, and Ginger Shattuck, former superintendent of Norwalk-La Mirada Unified School District in California.

Donatto was honored and pleased to be a part of the panelists in D.C.

She said, “I give full credit to my staff and I would like to let my staff know how proud I am of them, as well as my students and parents.”

East Elementary faculty and staff said they were proud that their “boss” is nationally represented among 500 policymakers, educators, researchers and other leaders from across the country as they celebrated National Boss’ Day Friday.

This is not the first trip Donatto has made to Washington.

She was honored as Louisiana’s Distinguished Elementary Principal of the Year in 2005.