In Love with Liberty The Challenges and Joys of the Liberty High School District April 2006

by Dan Smith, Superintendent with Don Huntington
Photos by Russell Byrne

For as long as I can remember I’ve had a desire to serve young people. My first job was as teacher and counselor in Orland, CA, which is a small town off I-5 between Sacramento and Redding. I had the twin roles of teacher and counselor in the Orland High School.

At age 24 I married a girl I had known since we both were high school freshmen. For an entire decade the two of us had conducted an on-again off-again romance. But even during the times we were not actually dating, Jan and I were always best friends.

In 1978, four years after we married, my wife and I moved to the Bay Area because I got a job with the Piedmont School District in Alameda County. I started as a Guidance Counselor and eventually worked my way up to Assistant District Superintendent. I “went through the chairs,” as we say, serving as Assistant Principal and Principal on my journey towards the top.

The Joys of Liberty
After 16 years at Piedmont I jumped at an opportunity to become the Superintendent of the Liberty Union High School District. I made the move because research I had done revealed that in Brentwood I would be working side-by-side with some very good people. I also thought that the Liberty Board of Education would be a great organization to work with. A third reason for making the change was that the school district was entering a phase of growth that has continued unabated throughout the ten years I’ve been here.

Trying to operate a school system in an area that is growing like ours presents great challenges. That was part of the appeal, however, because I’ve always enjoyed situations that would stretch and test me. I learned early to appreciate the sense of reward and accomplishment that comes from facing up to and succeeding in a task demanding extreme exertion and commitment. The sense of achievement I receive from such effort is missing from jobs requiring little struggle or risk. An attitude such as mine is a good one for an educator, because at every level – from teaching to counseling to administration – working with students is the most challenging as well as the most rewarding job I can think of.

The irony is that the further up one goes in administration, the further removed an educator is from actual students. I miss the daily regular contact with students, but the loss is balanced by the fact that my office makes decisions affecting everyone!

The public school situation in our area seems confusing to some people because there is no unified school district for the area’s K-12 students. Each of our four area regions, including Brentwood, Oakley, Knightsen, and Byron/Discovery Bay, has its own K-8 school district. All students who exit these four districts, however, begin ninth grade in one of our Liberty High School District schools.

The members of the Liberty District Board of Education deserve acclaim for the superb job they do in intelligently steering education and in managing citizens’ money in a responsible way. The board is wonderfully non-political! They work hard and their focus is always on doing what’s right for the kids. One reason the board works so well is because of the continuity maintained over the years. The most recent board change occurred when Bob Taylor moved from the School Board to City Council. Steve Barr, who was appointed in Bob’s place, has proven to be an outstanding board member, working well with the other members including Joanne Byer, Holly Hartman, Ray Valverde, and Mark Schwartz.

Not only do the vertical relationships with the school board members work well, but our relationships with the superintendents of the four K-8 districts are smooth and mutually beneficial. One of our main topics is bringing into sync the calendars for all five districts. The main vacation periods, at least, are now coordinated across all the districts.

Gearing for Growth
A teacher or student coming into the school system today would scarcely recognize the district as it was when I arrived here ten years ago. At that time the enrollment for the entire district was 2,500 students. Today Liberty High School itself has an enrollment of 2,300. Freedom has 2,100 scholars and Heritage 800. In addition, we now have Independence High, with 350 students, and the La Paloma Continuation School, with an enrollment of 170.

We enjoy the challenge of meeting the needs of student growth, both in terms of academic and facility development. We’re proud of Heritage High, which opened its doors last fall. We brought that project in within budget and on time, except for a one month slip with the gym. The $72 million cost for the school was based upon the budget that we used five years ago at Freedom, escalated for inflation. The quality of both facilities is excellent!

The area isn’t finished growing and we’re working on plans to open the fourth comprehensive high school, which will be ready for new students in 2010. The school will be located on the SW corner of Delta Road and Sellers Avenue, which will put it in close proximity to the Knightsen School. We’re working with the people in Knightsen and Oakley to create a facility that will be good for everyone in both communities.

We are actually beginning preliminary work on a fifth high school, which is scheduled to open for classes in 2015. We are looking at property for this in the Byron/Discovery Bay Area.

Students living in places such as the eastern part of Discovery Bay or the northern part of Oakley have a fairly lengthy daily commute to and from school. When all five schools are eventually in operation, every area student will finally be relatively close to a high school.

We work hard to maintain partnerships with the Brentwood and Oakley City Councils, and with the Knightsen, Byron, and Discovery Bay MACs (Municipal Advisory Councils). We need to coordinate our growth strategy with the growth plans of all five communities. We must partner with them in developing a district plan that has buy-in from all parties involved.

It’s All About the Students
As important as it is, expanding facilities is not the most important challenge of growth. Our real focus is upon meeting the educational needs of each student. Improving the size of our physical plants is only one of the ways in which we enhance the learning experience of our students. We don’t want to lose sight of the fact that our #1 goal is academic growth. We aim to challenge every student by putting into place educational programs to bring their performance up to the highest possible level.

We’re very pleased with the growth in student performance that’s taking place. Over the past six years results from the state standardized tests (The State Content Standards Test and the California High School Exit Exam) show important growth at all schools and for all student populations. The significant and positive growth is a tribute to our teachers, support staff, and administration.

It is especially commendable that the academic improvement taking place during those six years came at a time when our district has also increased in diversity. Our student population is currently 60 percent white, 27 percent Hispanic, 7 percent African-American, and 6 percent Asian. That student body diversity has become a source of both pride and challenge as we embrace the differences, while meeting the needs of each of the students. We take pride in the academic progress we’ve made compared to other districts that lack our diversity. Our improvement reveals that our staff is doing an exceptional job.

We establish high standards for all students and then help move them towards meeting those standards by providing academic support on a student-by-student level. In other words, we hold students accountable and expect superior performance, while at the same time acknowledging the diversity of abilities, motivations, and backgrounds each student brings to the classroom. We aim to help each student reach his/her personal best by modifying academic programs in order to meet the needs of each learner. We tailor instruction and support as needed, providing access to such things as English Language Learner activities.

Our two alternative high school programs, Independence High School and La Paloma Continuation High School, are a source of pride for us. They provide a safety valve for high school students who, for whatever reason, do not fit easily into normal classroom environments. Students can choose to enter the Independence High School program or, in some cases, they are involuntarily transferred. Independence students meet one-on-one with a single teacher and then do independent study on their own.

The La Paloma Continuation School provides another alternative style of high school education, featuring regular classes that are conducted in family-style settings. Students attend classes either in the morning or afternoon, which makes this a convenient program for those who need to work.

Adult Education, as the name implies, is for students over 18 years old. The program involves a wide variety of courses, ranging from English Language to Gardening, and from Basic Skills Development to Home Improvement. Adult learners can also complete requirements for the GED (Graduate Equivalency Diploma).

Of course, the district provides special education for students with special needs. Each student is given an IEP (Individualized Education Plan) that details a specific program for that student designed to address his/her needs at the highest level possible. We encourage students participating in the special education program, as well as those in the main stream program, to connect with each other. We put special education students into the mainstream as much as it is possible to do so.

The County Office of Education also runs a unique program on the Liberty High campus for students with especially severe needs. Kids from all over the county come into this program. The disabilities of students in the county program are too severe for them to be mainstreamed. I’ve stood on the sidewalk at 3 p.m. watching kids in this program board their buses, and I’m always humbled by the cheerful courage of these students and of the staff that works with them.

Coping with the State
The State of California bureaucracy is frustrating sometimes, but these people have to deal with problems that are unlike those of any other state in the nation. For example, we’re the most diverse state. Our own district is facing diversity challenges. If you multiply that by 10 thousand you can get an idea of what the state is dealing with. The state bureaucracy really does establish programs and provide block grants that help us. The Education Code of California is nine immense volumes of standards that we are mandated to interpret and to implement in our district so as to avoid any compliance issues. This is a serious and unending challenge. The average tenure of school superintendents is 2.9 years. I’ve been in my office more than three times that long and still have no immediate plans to do anything else. Every day is challenging and rewarding. I can’t think of any place I would rather be. I consider my position to be the best education-related job in the State of California. I get out of bed on Monday morning and am glad to be going to work. I really do love the people and programs in the Liberty Union High School District!