After former Assistant Principal Jim Coe retired last school year, Aragon needed a new one.
Principal Pat Kurtz and Assistant Principal Joe Mahood conducted two rounds of interviews, overseen by the San Mateo High School District (SMUHSD). But by June, they still hadn’t picked a suitable candidate.
“I had to pick someone,” says Kurtz. “I could only put someone in [this] position that [had] the right [credentials]. And most teachers don’t. Very few teachers have an administrative credential.”
After the second round of interviewing other candidates again proved unsuccessful, Kurtz contacted Berggren over the summer and asked if he would be an interim for at least the 2015-2016 school year. Berggren accepted.
“That’s the official title right now — interim — which means it’s for the school year,” says Berggren. “After that, we will see.”
Regarding the title of “interim,” Kurtz says, “I think he was just given that designation because of the fact that he didn’t go through a full interviewing process, and we just decided to appoint him.”
Kurtz declined to comment on the details of the interviewing process. She explains, “I can’t share anything … That’s something that we sign when we [conduct] the interviewing process.”
Junior Jalen Lamb-Hall had Berggren as a teacher for Modern World History 2 and Contemporary World Studies last year. On his thoughts about Berggren as the new assistant principal, Lamb-Hall says, “I think he [is doing] a great job. He understands high school students and what they’re going through, and I think his past experiences will help him with that … [He] was a great teacher. I learned a lot from him.”
Berggren does nearly the same tasks as Coe did before his retirement, such as scheduling, working with the department chairs, working with parent communities, helping with fundraising groups, and assisting student discipline issues.
Berggren says, “A lot of it is very familiar [from Capuchino], but a lot of it is new in the fact that there seems to be a lot more paperwork, a lot more accountability, [and] reports that need to be done for the district.”
Berggren adds, “It’s a lot more than I had at Capuchino High School, but it doesn’t matter what school you’re at. All the schools [in the SMUHSD] have to do these same reports.”
Kurtz believes that Berggren has positive attributes as an assistant principal. She says, “I think the advantage that Berggren brings to the administrative team at Aragon is his close connection to the classroom and his recent coaching experience. We haven’t had that in a long time.”
Kurtz adds, “It’s fun to watch his interaction with students because many students know him, having had him as a teacher before, and he knows a lot of the students too. That’s really positive for our administrative team.
When we talk about issues, he’s got a nice perspective on them.”
Comparing his former position as a teacher to his current position, Berggren says, “I enjoy both of the jobs. I love working in the classroom … with an individual group of students throughout the whole year. When you step out of the administration, the whole school is almost your classroom. And so you do have an opportunity to work with a broader range of students, but often you don’t get to know individual students as well as you do when you’re a teacher … But I do like both positions.”
