An Arizona principal has been selected to head Waianae’s Kamaile Academy, one of the state’s largest public charter schools.

Emma Weiss is principal of Mt. Tipton School in Kingman, Ariz. She is credited with turning around the small rural school, which has 342 students in preschool through 12th grade.

Before becoming a principal, Weiss spent 14 years as a social worker and mental health consultant, focusing on at-risk youth.

The announcement comes six months after the Ho‘okako‘o Corp., the local school board for Kamaile, announced it would fire the school’s principal and its chief executive officer as part of a dramatic transformation bid to turn around the low-performing school.

Weiss will head up a “collaborative leadership” team aimed at boosting student achievement at Kamaile, which has 930 students from preschool to 10th grade, many from high-risk households, the school said.

She will start in mid-June.