This will be my last column for the Morgan Hill community. As I
mentioned in June, I leave this district and community with mixed
emotions, including gratitude, pride of accomplishment and hope for
the futures of our students.
This will be my last column for the Morgan Hill community. As I mentioned in June, I leave this district and community with mixed emotions, including gratitude, pride of accomplishment and hope for the futures of our students.
I am grateful to the Board of Education, who gave me the opportunity to serve as superintendent, and who supported me to fulfill their vision throughout my four years in the district. Together we developed goals for our students, and I am pleased with the progress we made toward those goals.
I am grateful to the Morgan Hill Unified School District employees who work harder every year as we trim our budgets and do more with less. I will miss being part of such a hard-working, committed, successful group of educators.
I am grateful to our students who bring fresh perspectives, eager spirits and enthusiasm to school each day, teaching us at the same time they are learning. I am especially pleased with the increased support and opportunities that we provided over the past four years to our students who, for a variety of reasons, were not reaching grade-level standards in core academics and who were not being given the course work and support that they needed to qualify for entrance to a four-year college or university. As a district, we made significant strides of improvement for these students. All of our students need to know that a higher education is a viable option for them, and that their school district provides them with the coursework that they need to qualify for admission.
On a similar note, we also elevated our academic expectations by establishing algebra as an eighth grade standard and biology as a ninth grade standard while also increasing the number of advanced placement courses. The district vision was to not accept mediocrity as a standard but to increase academic rigor as our focus.
I am grateful to our community, filled with business leaders, volunteers, parents and just interested individuals who partner with our schools and district to provide enrichment for students. Some examples would be the American Institute of Mathematics and their Math Counts program, Anaerobe Systems where high school students participate in real-life projects to brainstorm and investigate potential energy saving applications using the thermo-electric effect; our Machado School Extended Learning Center “Living History Days” program; the Tech Academy of Silicon Valley science and technology summer program; and, of course, the Live Oak Foundation and our active Home and School Clubs that provide time and resources to support all our students.
Accomplishments of which I am most proud over the past four years include our ConnectEd messaging system to get messages to parents quickly and efficiently; the Datawise Program that allows teachers to track student progress and use data to individualize instruction; and the work we have done for the past three years with EdEquity that has taught us the difference between equity and equality for students in our classrooms. Equity means not all students line up at the same starting line. Some start further behind and need additional assistance. Equality means we then move all students providing the necessary tools for success.
I am also pleased with facility improvements across the district, but especially at Britton Middle School and Live Oak High School. Britton students have a lunch shelter, new girls’ and boys’ locker rooms, attractive and secure wrought iron fencing and security cameras. Live Oak has a new theater and outdoor amphitheater, a functional and impressive front façade which provides shelter for students, a remodeled reception area to welcome visitors, more efficient administrative offices, and other smaller improvements of painting and landscaping. We also accomplished the relocation and expansion of Community Adult School, the expansion of Central Continuation High School and the consolidation of Burnett and P.A. Walsh elementary schools onto the Walsh campus.
All our accomplishments were centered on our No. 1 board goal of student achievement. This is only a sampling of all that we did over the past four years. I look back with pride at the progress we made, and I am confident that the next superintendent will continue this important work of preparing our students for their future.
In closing, I remember vividly in a former district a reporter asking me to reflect on my life as an educator. This was a fair question and I responded that nothing is more rewarding for an educator than seeing the smiling faces of students who just “got it,” whether it was the correct spelling in a spelling bee contest, hitting the ball for the first time, or understanding that if you keep trying there is always the possibility of success.
Unfortunately, pushing for and improving academic rigor for all students necessitates change, which in most cases causes discomfort. As I have stated before, “the only people who like change are wet babies.” I was once told by a former administrator that “if you try to please everyone, you will probably please no one.” My focus as an educator has always been and will continue to be students. As adults, we need to work through differences of opinion, overcome obstacles like budget constraints and daily life issues, and stay focused on our goal of serving students. Thank you Morgan Hill for four great and challenging years. I wish you all the best in the future.
Dr. Alan Nishino is retiring. His last day is Monday.
