MOORPARK : Teacher Fills a Tall Order for Students

Rick Kent’s 6-foot-8 frame overshadowed the boys as he boomed at them: “Don’t you guys have a home?”

Jamie and Ty Taylor smiled. They had come to help Kent, a math teacher and student council adviser, set up the sound and light system for the evening’s performance of “Harvey” at Moorpark’s Chaparral Middle School.

Jamie, 15, is a sophomore at Moorpark High School, but he still returns to Chaparral to visit Kent. His brother, Ty, 12, is a seventh-grader and a member of Kent’s Student Council class.

“He’s one of the best teachers I’ve ever had,” Jamie said. “I would look forward to learning, even if it was a bad day.”

Kent was honored recently by the California Assn. of Directors of Activities with one of five awards given statewide because of his work with the Chaparral Student Council. Under his direction, the council raised nearly $40,000 last year to buy such things as a juice machine and copy machine for the school.

The money also went for a $20,000 light and sound system with an eight-channel mixing board used for the school’s dances, plays and musicals. The chorus and band also use the equipment.

Kent looms over his students and his imposing and sometimes sarcastic manner can put off students and staff who don’t understand his philosophy of life.

“Part of it is my own frustration. I like to move ahead,” Kent said. “What I accomplish on Monday should be the minimum of what I accomplish on Tuesday.”

While he credits the students with raising the money, he concedes that part of their fund-raising success is because he is highly organized. “That way I don’t have to think about what it is that I have to do,” Kent said.

Fellow teacher Kevin Lorch said of Kent: “He is very particular. The kids know it and respect it and respond to it. I see more kids conducting themselves in a more adult fashion around him because he is big and imposing. It rubs off on them.”

While there are frustrations in teaching, including low salaries, Kent said he loves what he does.

“While there may be other financially lucrative situations . . . when something you teach sticks to them, no $20-million contract will ever do that,” Kent said. “It’s helping a human being. They haven’t put a price tag on that.”