By RHYS WALTERS

For the 2001-2002 school year, Roosevelt High School has been under the supervision of new principal Lisa Kodama.

This is Kodama's first assignment as a head principal, after serving two years as an assistant principal under Roosevelt's former head principal, Dave Humphrey.

Humphrey, who served at Roosevelt for three years, retired following the completion of the 2000-2001 school year.

Kodama is a graduate of Pepperdine University in California, where she majored in political science, and minored in business. As a graduate student, she earned a masters degree in education, with a minor in communication.

Communication, she said, "is so important in whatever you do."

Kodama said this year has been busy at Roosevelt High. The school's boys cross-country team took first place in the league in 4A competition for the first time ever. The girls swim team also led the league this year, as did the girls basketball team.

The Roosevelt music program sent its jazz band to many exotic locations, including Hawaii, New York, and Reno. In New York they were selected for the Essentially Ellington Contest, which boasts nationwide competition.

Roosevelt is also preparing for a renovation of their school by taking on a smaller student load.

Roosevelt began the current school year with an enrollment of 1,725 students, down slightly from its enrollment the previous year of 1,776 students. By the time Roosevelt moves to Lincoln in the summer of 2004 to allow the renovation project to begin, Kodama hope to have Roosevelt's attendance down to 1,600 students, so they can all fit in the former Lincoln High building.

Opening up communication has been one of Kodama's main goals. Mid-quarter progress reports, which detail more often and in more detail a students progress in classes, are now required of every student in Roosevelt, where before, says Kodama, they were for generally non-achievers. Also, she has made the school daily bulletin available to parents, via Internet. One parent told Kodama that she always found it interesting what her child was going to eat for lunch that day.

While this year's test scores and academic rates have yet to be released, the Roosevelt student body has performed favorably, Kodama said.

Roosevelt sophomores last year scored the highest WASL scores in the Seattle School District. Suspensions also declined 2.1 percent to 73 last year, down from from 107 in 1999. Expulsions, however, raised from 4 in 1999 to 19, for a 0.9 percent increase.