Steadfast Principals : 2 School Leaders Say Creativity Leads to Excellence in Education

Shrinking budgets. Crowded classrooms. Low teacher morale. And unruly students.

It’s not easy being a school principal these days.

And yet, how well a principal copes with these kinds of problems often determines how successful a school and its students are, educators say.

“You can have a really good school, but you won’t have a great school unless you have a great principal,” said Susan Parks, assistant superintendent of the Simi Valley Unified School District. “It really makes a difference.”

Robin Hunter, principal of Park View Elementary School in Simi Valley, and Deloris R. Carn, principal of E. O. Green junior high in Oxnard, are two people who are making a difference.

Both are similar in their unshakable belief in public education and in their passion for their jobs.

“It’ll wear you out,” Carn said. “But I love it. It’s the most endearing profession, next to being a minister or a doctor.”

To be sure, Park View and Green face many of the same problems as other schools. Both have a high percentage of students who come from low-income or disadvantaged families. Many classes have 30 or more students.

And, of course, there is always the need for more money--for new teachers as well as for supplies and equipment.

But to Hunter and Carn, these are challenges that must be overcome with creativity, an evolving curriculum and innovative teaching strategies.

“You play the cards you’re dealt,” Hunter said. “What we have is finite resources and unlimited demands. But that doesn’t change what you have to do. We’re an educational institution. Our job is to educate kids.”

When he is not at work, Hunter may sometimes be found at a UCLA School of Medicine workshop, studying how the brain learns. Other times he may be teaching a class to demonstrate a new teaching strategy to one of his 22 instructors.

“The job obviously is to keep moving forward,” Hunter said.

It is this philosophy that spurred Hunter and his staff this year to turn their ethnically diverse 670-student school into a laboratory for fresh educational approaches.

The school adopted an “open classroom” program, where students are no longer separated by age or by grade level but instead are grouped together in lower, middle and upper elementary classes.

Report cards have also changed. Letter grades A through F are no longer used to measure academic achievement. They feature short summaries of how each student is performing in different subjects.

And desks have been replaced by tables to allow students to teach and learn from each other.

For example, in one class recently a group of students who had just finished reading a chapter on early California history exchanged information on what they learned, while their teacher helped other pupils with a different assignment.

“Why did pioneers come to California?” Erin Bologna, 9, asked her classmates.

“To search for gold,” said Justin Magee, 10.

“What else?” asked Erin.

“To trade,” said Nathan McAllister, 9. “California was a big center of trade.”

The students then wrote their answers down on a group work sheet to be turned in and discussed in class.

With Hunter’s help, teachers have learned to engage students not only with the way they ask questions but the way they respond to answers, whether right or wrong.

For example, if a teacher asks a group of students for the answer to 5 plus 3, and a student answers 7, “the teacher does not say you’re wrong and move on to the next student,” Hunter said.

“Instead, the teacher stops and says, ‘You’re thinking of 5 plus 2.’ Right there the teacher is helping the child who needs help. She’s also providing positive reinforcement. It’s those little things that make a difference.”

Parks said Hunter, who also free-lances as a teaching consultant, keeps up with the latest research in education and uses that information to help teachers improve their classroom skills.

“He has credibility because he has so much knowledge and he practices that knowledge,” Parks said. “This man knows what he’s talking about.”

Indeed, Hunter and his staff are reinventing their school to give teachers more control in planning their curriculum, to move beyond textbook learning and to raise the expectation levels of students.

“We’re just breaking down barriers,” said Hunter, who has a doctorate in education from USC.

Still, Park View is only one of a handful of schools in Ventura County to use the open classroom system, and some parents remain skeptical about its effectiveness. One couple even transferred their child to another school.

But Kathy Bruso, who has two children at Park View, said most parents believe in the program.

“They’re still the same teachers, and I don’t think they’ve forgotten what they’ve learned,” said Bruso, who is also president of the PTA.

She credited Hunter with having the courage to try something new.

“We’re stuck in the old ways of doing things,” Bruso said. “I think parents need to be reminded that we can’t just stay the way we’ve always been, that we have to change if we want to get better.”

Teachers say the new system is more challenging because they must constantly be thinking of new ways to keep children engaged in the learning process and also to work independently.

“It involves a lot of energy,” said Janet Bernstein, who has taught at the school for seven years. “I think I’ve lost weight this year because I never stop moving.”

But Bernstein and others said they are convinced that the new system is better for students.

“I honestly think it’s perfect for kids,” said Joy Barkyoumb, who has been at Park View for 12 years, longer than any other teacher. “This way they develop more at their own pace.”

Like Hunter, Carn is unafraid to try new teaching strategies at E. O. Green junior high in Oxnard. Carn, whose 900-student school is in a neighborhood frequented by gangs, is also committed to providing a safe environment in which students can learn.

The first thing a visitor to Green notices is how clean the school is.

Pride, order and discipline are all reflected in the spotless buff-colored walls, the neatly trimmed lawn and the well-secured chain-link fence that guards the campus.

“If you can’t have a disciplined environment, then you will not be able to have students succeed,” Carn said. “And every youngster who comes here has a right to be successful.”

Success is a word heard often at Green, which recently became a national finalist for a coveted Blue Ribbon award for academic excellence.

The school’s achievement is in large part a tribute to Carn and the enthusiasm and dedication she brings to her job, according to teachers and students.

“She’s a principal with a vision,” said math teacher Vicki Vierra. “She knows where she wants her school to go. She wants opportunities for every student here. And she allows us to take risks to try innovative programs.”

Vierra’s class is a good example of the freedom teachers enjoy.

Like Park View, desks have been replaced by tables. In Vierra’s math class, students work in groups to learn about the stock market by buying and trading commodities with their classmates.

“We’re trying to do things that people in the real world do,” Vierra said. “We want students to communicate how they solve problems, to explain their research. Our whole focus is to get them thinking.”

Carn said active learning like that which takes place in Vierra’s class is what gives the school its strength.

“We have to give the kids the feeling, within this age group in particular, that there is more to life than just a sterile textbook, paper and pencil,” she said.

Carn said she asks each teacher who applies for a job to give her a lesson in his or her specialized subject area.

“If you’re coming to me applying for a position in science,” Carn said, “I need for you to give me a science lesson.”

Vierra said Carn has high expectations not only of teachers but of herself.

“She works as hard as she expects us to,” Vierra said. “So I don’t mind performing for someone who has equal dedication.”

Students describe Carn as being both tough and fun.

“She’s a rock,” said Melody Mendez, 15. “She’s hard, but she can get us to do anything.”

Eric Fischer, 13, agreed.

“At our school, she’s very important,” he said. “People like to talk to her because she’s very motivating.”

Carn also enjoys the strong support of parents and school administrators.

“She treats parents like peers and she’s concerned with what they have to say,” said Lana Breuning, whose 13-year-old son, Stephen, is enrolled at the school. “And the children respect her because she has firm values and standards.”

Rescigno, who has been in education for over 30 years, said Carn is one of the best principals he’s ever worked with.

“She’s a real dynamo,” he said. “She has a high level of energy, commitment and dedication. She’s a born leader.”

Carn’s secret seems to be her love for her job.

“I never say I’m going to work,” she said. “I always say I’m going to school.”

In addition to providing a well-disciplined environment, Carn, 52, enjoys nurturing her students. She often greets a child with a hug, and she refers to each student as “my lovebug.”

“It’s easier than remembering names,” she said.

But Carn can be tough.

She reviews every student’s mid-quarter progress report. And she personally hands out report cards to students who receive a grade of C or lower. Parents are also asked to be present when the report cards are passed out.

Carn said that serves two purposes. One is to find out what area the student needs help in, and the other is to find out whether the student is having problems in the home.

“The more we know about their needs, the more we can help,” Carn said. “If a student needs clothes, maybe the Parent Teacher Assn. can step in.”

Perhaps Carn’s greatest strengths are her understanding that each student’s need is different and her belief that every student can succeed. She displayed both of those qualities recently while addressing a group of students who were being encouraged to sign up for tutoring programs because of failing grades.

“Some of you are here because you are lazy, and some of you are here because you really need help,” Carn told the students. “But I’m not going to believe that there’s any person here who doesn’t want to be successful. And you must be successful, not only here but when you leave this school.”

Later, back in her office, Carn stressed that teachers, parents and the community at large all have a stake in the public school system. Carn said she still sees hope in the eyes of all students and that it is up to society to keep that hope alive.

“If a student fails, we all fail,” she said. “So we’ve got to decide whether we’re going to be part of the problem or part of the solution.”