May 8, 2007

No longer the underdog

Del Mar High School students and faculty overcome
obstacles to earn Distinguished School honor

By Julie Davis Berry
Executive Editor

In a story that reads like the script for a Hollywood movie Campbell Unified High School District underdog Del Mar High School will be recognized by the California State Department of Education as a 2007 California Distinguished
School at the Distinguished School Awards Ceremony on May 18 in Anaheim, Calif.

The award is a long time in coming for the school many used to refer to as the “ghetto school.” And many are crediting the turnaround to the principal who took over the reigns four years ago: Jim Russell.

Russell, a 55-year-old former Campbell High graduate, was principal of Leigh High School for 10 years. He retired in 2001 and ran for the state assembly against Rebecca Cohn. The staunch republican lost. At that point Russell’s wife suggested, “Go back to work!”

What Russell offered Del Mar that others had failed to achieve was a desire to see students and staff take pride in their school and the experience and energy to bring that dream to fruition. “I’ve dealt with a lot of things over the years as a principal,” he said, “And I’ve learned what you need to pay attention to and what you don’t—you have to prioritize and keep your focus on the ball.”

PTA President Sharon Pagendarm has a daughter, now in college, who went to Del Mar during the last administration. She says that if things hadn’t changed she wouldn’t have sent her two younger children to there.

“The previous principal Lisa Udell ran the school her way and didn’t listen to students, parents or staff concerns. And, Vice Principal Debbie Zehnder was just ineffective,” said Pagendarm, a math teacher at
Monroe Middle School. “Jim Russell and Vice Principal Nancy Pinkel (who came on board at the same time) have done an amazing job turning the school around. It’s phenomenal that we now have strong leadership that has built a school that we can all be proud of.”

Russell has improved the staff, attacked the gang problem, focused on test scores and worked on infusing students and parents with English as a second language with school spirit.

Russell says that he’s gotten a lot better at hiring teachers over the years. “I really trust my instincts. You have to catch the teachers before they become tenured. Some of them weren’t working out and needed to be released. Others retired and others left the area. We have 50 percent new teachers and they are really talented teachers.”

Del Mar was also known for gang problems and other incidents that frequently hit the papers. Russell attacked that problem systematically too.

“We’re located in a community where there’s going to be gang issues and we had a spike last year,” said Russell. “But, we pulled all these folks together and we have regular meetings with the San Jose Police, the District Attorney’s office and the folks at Catholic Charities and we try to identify the kids at risk and give them support but also let them know that their behavior won’t be tolerated.”

Pagendarm is happy to report that “if there’s ever an incident they jump on it. If there’s a fight on campus you hear about it, and not from your student, but straight from School Loop. Jim posts the details of what happened so rumors don’t go wild. Then he lets you know what the plan is to address those involved in the fight. Things like this have turned the school around. We’re always going to have to work hard because of our demographics. But Jim came in with a vision. He is so visible on campus. You don’t go to a home game without seeing Jim there. He has reached out to community groups and the police. He’s been able to bring a wide diversity of people together for the good of the school.

Russell credits zero tolerance for helping a lot with discipline. “We worked hard to convince everyone that we could be better than our reputation,” he said. “We don’t want to be thought of as the “ghetto school” anymore. We’ve got the kids believing in themselves and the fact that they can make a difference in their school.”

Russell and his staff also have worked hard to help English Language Development and socio-economically disadvantaged students thrive in the new environment.

Blanca Diaz is a parent who started the Padres Unidos group at Del Mar to help Spanish speaking parents feel included in their children’s education. “I truly believe that parent involvement makes a difference in the education of our children. Sometimes because of a language barrier Spanish speaking parents may feel resistant to approach the administration. It’s so frustrating for us as parents when we can’t understand information about the school that impacts our kids.”

Diaz volunteers as a translator for parents and has felt “overwhelming support” from Russell. “We have meetings where 40-50 parents attend and Jim gets good presenters to come and give talks about curriculum and other things of importance to parents,” she said. “You can have all the ideas in the world but if you don’t have the support from the principal you won’t be successful.”

Del Mar Principal Jim Russell is very approachable according to freshman student Rachel Donaldson. “He’s a funny guy,” she adds. Photo by Julie Davis Berry

The population of Spanish speaking teachers has also increased according to Diaz. “It is nice to hear Jim and other teachers calling out “Hola!” to the students and you know it helps that they are trying to connect with all the students.”

Pinkel also credits Title 1 resource teacher, Bryce Williamson for helping ELD students find same language tutors and work with coaches to get those students into sports and other extra curricular activities.

Russell is proud of the student’s accomplishments. “The kids with English as a second language and Title 1 kids (socio-economically disadvantaged) have gone up at a higher rate than the overall population which is really impressive.”

Russell and Pinkel have also focused on using testing analysis to help teachers in the classroom. “Nancy Pinkel has done a fabulous job with staff development and data analysis of test scores,” said Russell.

Pinkel credits the teachers and a number of creative ideas with a significant upturn in API scores (overall 700 API). “One of my abilities is to be able to read the data and translate it into better results in the classroom. This allows us to have a good sense of which kids are doing well and which aren’t so that all students can do well. Our teachers mentor each other and share good ideas. We all know what to teach the kids, it’s the how that is the art of teaching.”

For example, Del Mar uses a school wide note taking program, which is modeled after Cornell Notes but they call it “Del Mar Notes.” Pinkel admits, “It’s a little compulsive but we use a lot of visual tools and non-linguist tools and it really helps the students.”

Another thing that helps students is that before STAR testing Russell goes into each classroom and explains the STAR tests in detail and Del Mar’s scores against comparable schools and why it is important to do well on them.

“It’s amazing to see the families returning who had pulled their kids out to go to private school,” said Pagendarm. “It’s been amazing to watch for those of us who’ve stuck with it. We can now be proud to say our kids go to Del Mar.”