Principal for the Day

Schools throughout Glendale Unified School District had visiting principals last week through the Principal for the Day program.

The purpose of the annual event is to allow community and business leaders a chance to see what is behind the school’s walls. Many have children in the public school system but until they are standing in the middle of a busy campus they really have no idea what a principal’s day is like.

That is how “Principal” Donnell Cameron felt as he walked the campus of Crescenta Valley High School.

“At first I was a little nervous,” he said. “But I have been to a lot of classrooms and am impressed with what I have seen.”

Cameron owns a recording studio called Westbeach Recorders that handles a variety of artists from punk to rock.

“The kids are impressed when we tell them what he does and some of the bands he has worked with,” said [every day] CV Principal Linda Evans.

Cameron’s stepdaughter Sabrina attended CVHS; she now is a law student at New York University.

“She was very excited about me visiting the school and wanted me to make sure I went Ms. [Elizabeth] Weaver’s room,” Cameron said. “She took English from her.”

When he went to Weaver’s room he found the students busy studying for a test the next day.

Weaver had the chance to explain how the students work through the psychology of characters from a book, to understand not just their actions but why they do what they do.

Cameron got the chance to thank the teacher that had meant so much to Sabrina.

“This had been such a special place for her,” he said.

He also got to use his experience as a sound engineer when teacher Win Saw took him into the cafeteria where a new sound system had just been installed. Both men bonded over the amperage and clarity of the impressive equipment that had been purchased by the PTSA.

All the principals and their real life counter parts ended their day at the Glendale district office where they were treated to a luncheon and shared stories of what they had learned.