Mike Livingston Bids CVHS Adieu

On Friday, Crescenta Valley High School staff and students said goodbye to co-principal Mike Livingston.

“I’ve been at the school 27 years, on and off,” Livingston said.

The students were told of his departure on Friday, after the faculty had been informed.

Livingston has taken a position as the director of Student Services at the Glendale Unified School District.

Livingston will focus on attendance issues and overseeing the tobacco grant which support anti-smoking programs on the student level. Though the department was well staffed previously, due to attrition, the district did not replace employees in the department when they left. “At one point we had four people in the [Student Services] department,” said Assistant Superintendent Greg Franklin. Currently, there are only two people in the department.

According to Franklin, the district as a whole has been facing an increasing problem with attendance. They looked at who could best help in this area and offered the job to Livingston.

“My first administrative job was in 1990 as coordinator in this department,” Livingston said. He added that he felt he could best help the district by coming back in an administrative position. He felt necessary training would be minimized since he had been in the office before and has a comprehensive understanding of the schools in the district.

“We are here for the best of the kids and the impact we can make,” Livingston said.

Attendance has been a topic at many school board meetings. A child that does not attend school may be facing problems at home or have serious issues in which the district can provide guidance. When a child misses class, the absence affects several areas of the school’s record, including test scores and budget.

“We don’t have an [extreme] attendance problem but we dropped a point and a half last year,” Livingston said.

Although this is not a major increase, it is enough for the district to want to take a proactive position. Livingston will focus on determining the cause of this increase and to follow up with several students that have a sustained absentee problem. His attention will be on all grade levels, but in particular, the high school level.

As for CVHS, the position of co-principal is being reassessed by the administration.

“We will talk to teachers, parents and students,” Franklin said. The district may determine to either keep with the co-principal administration or they may decide to have one principal and one associate principal as well as the assistant principals. This will all be determined after the holidays, he said.