What have been your biggest challenges since becoming superintendent of this district?
The biggest challenges are the enduring ones which are, how do you help make education a leavening force when so many other forces are aligned against a kid’s success?
We live in a world now that is becoming increasingly unequal, and education is called upon to create equality. So, how do we do that? How do we do that in a way that that works and serves kids well?
So that’s an enduring challenge, you know, the other pieces: We’re trying to build a new continuation school for Peninsula. That’s a big challenge.
And then, how do we attract and retain the very best teachers? I don’t know if your family owns their home, but if they do, it’s great because … you’d be able to afford to live here. So how do we create an atmosphere that gets the very best teachers?
You initially proposed instituting a shift to a 9 a.m. start every day, but the proposal was voted down. Would it be fair to say that you expected the initial proposal to be more popular than it was?
Well, it’s a complicated issue. I don’t think I ever said 9 [a.m.]. I tried to convince the board to go to an average of 8:30, they didn’t want to do that. So we ended up moving the start time for [Aragon], and for Hillsdale and Capuchino to later when teachers have meetings. We’re literally in the process of putting out surveys to students and parents asking them what they think of the of the change.
I thought we should get to an average of 8:30, but the community spoke. They did something different. I think that’s fine. We made an effort. The board was convinced at first that [an 8:30 start time] was a good move, and then after they heard from the community, they decided it wasn’t. That’s the way democracy works.
I think in the end, it’s probably a pretty good decision. The wisdom of the crowd, if you will, worked out.
You’ve recently instituted new climate control policies and which prevent teachers from having their own personal appliances in classrooms. Can you tell me about what considerations went into these decisions?
One is we’re burning this planet up. Global warming is a problem … We have a responsibility to young people to keep this planet in pretty good shape.
Some teachers don’t like it. Others say, ‘Hey, that’s the way it is in my house. We turn off lights to save energy because you have to pay the electric bill.’ Well, taxpayers have to pay our electrical bill or gas bill, and they probably don’t appreciate it if we waste energy in here.
The other part is that we can use the money to do other things. We’re going to save hundreds of thousands of dollars by some of the things that we’ve done. Those are teaching jobs, they’re higher paid [teachers] or better benefits, smaller classes for kids — I mean, it’s all good to do that. Once in a while, I think it’s been uncomfortable, but boy, we sure have saved a lot of energy.
Did you consult with teachers before you made this decision?
Yeah, we talked to some. If you ask some of your teachers, some of them don’t like it. We also have a problem within our energy control systems. They are not as good as they could be. And then we made some improvements to those. We’ve lessened the impact of some of those.
There was another recent change in our district when the health and wellness counselors came to each school. Is mental health one of your biggest priorities as superintendent?
It wasn’t even a decade ago [when] you rarely had conversations about mental health with students. But now it’s at the forefront and I think we’re better for it.
Almost every school discipline issue has some sort of a mental health aspect. Why are students getting in fights? Why are they abusing drugs and alcohol? A lot of those things come back to mental health issues. I think we’re doing a better job of getting to the root cause of what issues are, and then providing help to the kids that have issues.
Do you think we’re doing a good job as a community and a district navigating the line between pushing students to succeed and avoiding overburdening students?
There isn’t one line. There’s a whole bunch of different lines for different kids. This is a complicated issue and comes back to students and parents. In peer groups and with parents, and just our world, kids don’t feel like they have a whole bunch of different options. It’s sort of, ‘UC or bust.’
Helping kids see that there are more opportunities out there is really important. We’ve been trying to emphasize community college quite a bit, because we think that if the students can take a few classes at community college and get a running start, it’s going to save them a lot of money and it’s going to make school a lot less stressful.
You’ve been very involved with voter registration and student activism lately with the walkout and San Mateo March for Our Lives. Why is this important to you?
We used to think about education as creating citizens. That was a big focus. Now, we talk about college and career readiness. But still, fundamentally, we still want people who can engage in the political process, and the most elemental way to do that is to vote.
To me, I think we should really be encouraging kids to vote. I think we live in a time now where the interests of kids are not at the forefront. If they were, we wouldn’t have this tremendous debt we have now as a nation. We would really be thinking about DACA, and its impact on young people, you know, climate change, those would be more more more of a focus.
I have my own political beliefs, but I think that the most important thing is that kids get involved, because without their vote, decisions are going to be made by people who vote more, and those people are not necessarily going to vote in the interest of young people. If kids start voting now, they develop that habit, so they’re always participating in local government.
