PORT HUENEME : Guest Principal Finds Schools Program Works

Port Hueneme City Councilman Jon Sharkey should have reported for his first day of work as Hueneme High School’s new principal at 6:30 a.m. Friday.

But he was an hour late. And that’s still early for him.

“I’m pretty much a late-morning kind of guy,” Sharkey said as he toured the Oxnard campus with Joanne Black, the school’s real principal.

Sharkey was one of several area politicians and business people who were “guest principals” for a day at Oxnard Union High School District’s five high schools. The program, designed to foster closer ties between businesses and schools, is an extension of the statewide California Educational Partnership Consortium.

Black said the program goes beyond bureaucratically inspired fluff. “It’s definitely a benefit both ways,” said the veteran educator. “(The guest principals) become much more aware of us and, ultimately, we build a friend in the community.”

In a meeting with participants and principals Friday afternoon to discuss their experience, district Supt. Bill Studt said the guests were surprised at the order and calmness of the campuses.

“A lot of the people had a perception of campuses being places where kids are violent and that they’re raising Cain and all those kinds of things,” Studt said. “They found them to be safe, enjoyable and pleasant places to be.”

Sharkey, who was elected to the City Council in November, said schools have evolved since he worked for the district as a substitute teacher in the 1980s. “The whole idea of regiment-oriented, factory-oriented schools is passe,” he said. “I’m really impressed by the diversity of the curriculum.”

Sharkey spent the day shadowing Black, who really does get to work at 6:30 a.m. She introduced him to the school’s programs for the severely disabled and to its special education, vocational and ROTC programs.

Studt said the program’s benefits are twofold. “The business people get to see a real-life version of what’s going on in the educational system,” he said. “And second, we get validation that good things are going on in the schools.”

This is the third year the district has staged the principal-for-a-day event. The participants besides Sharkey included Stan Daily, David Smith and Ken Gose, all members of the Camarillo City Council; Gary Warren, human resources director for Clarke American, Inc.; Cheryl Ledoux, a site manager for GE Plastics, and Oxnard City Councilman Bedford Pinkard.