Back to School: Superintendent's View of Newark Unified's Accomplishments and Goals

Dr. Dave Marken may only be starting his second year as Newark Unified School District's superintendent of schools, but in just one year, Newark Unified has seen a number of changes.

Among those changes are as a move to establish a more rigorous program at Newark schools along with hires of at various school sites.

As the 2012-13 school year approaches, Marken sat down with Newark Patch to talk about the accomplishments the district has made in his first year and where the district is heading.

Here's what he had to say:

Patch: How would you describe your first year and what would you say you’ve accomplished in your first year?

Marken: I think we’ve been able to accomplish a lot of things We’re very excited about the direction of . Just in this short time, the board has adopted increased , we have brought in world language at the junior high school, we’ve restored all of the elective programs at the junior high school, there were scheduled $1 million worth of cuts to be enacted June 30 – which included and the college and career center [and cuts to staff] – and the board took a very bold step and .

I think, for the most part, we had a decimated central office, and I think, for the most part, we’ve been able to bring in quality people. We had to hire nine key people in July and August [2011]. And in the world of education, that’s not the best time to do it because everybody is settled. You really want to hire in March and April. … so it was a very difficult task.

We have made some program cuts at the high school. We’ve eliminated state requirement and earth science, and we’ve doubled the algebra classes at Newark Junior High School, so we are focusing on creating a more rigorous [K-12] curriculum for all of our students, not just the ones we know will be successful.

One of the things we really needed to work on was bringing the school district together. It was disjointed. As most school districts are, they tend to be a district of schools and not a school district. And by that, I mean they all work independently, they all, kind of, for a lack of better words, “do their own thing” because that’s the way they’ve done it. And it’s really important in an organization, in any organization, you can’t have groups and departments working in a silo, you’re a part of one organization, with one goal, and that goal is student learning.

So everything from the cleaning of a classroom to the lights to the heat to the instruction to the materials, everything we’re demanding excellence. And that was a big, big project to get the community to rally around their schools, because as a school district thrives, a city thrives. As a school district doesn’t, a city doesn’t. They’re intertwined. And I’ve said many times that if you take a look at the houses for sale, they don’t say where the parks are, they don’t say where the museums are; they tell you what the school district is.

So what we want is for people to say is “I want to come to Newark, because they got it going on.” And I believe with everything within me that that’s the direction we’re headed and that that’s what will happen. 

Patch: What are your goals for this upcoming school year and how can Newark Unified School District continue toward a direction of excellence and collaboration?

Marken: We’re bringing in math instructors in that work with Cal State East Bay to work on algebra and do some professional development for algebra teachers because algebra is an eighth grade curriculum and at a lot of school districts it’s a ninth-grade course. We’ve got to do a better job at elementary school so that more kids, all kids, should ultimately be taking algebra at Newark Junior High School. We’ve almost doubled our algebra offerings at the junior high school in one year. We need to continue that push so that students can continue to high school with more academic options. We have reduced the number of algebra classes at the high school, and increased the number of geometry classes [there]. We’ve increased the number of algebra classes at the junior high school.

We need to continue along that path. …As you increase the graduation requirements, you’re actually requiring world language more math and more science. We want kids to take more rigorous course work so that wherever they go, that it’s their choice and not their choice they made in second grade. … If they’re not ready academically, it doesn’t matter where they’ll go, they’ll languish; they’ll have a hard time. But if they are academically ready, whatever they decide to do, they’ll be successful. We’ve got to build that culture. It really starts before kids show up to school. It’s not if they’re going to go on academically after high school, it’s [about] where and what are they going to do, and that’s got to change. And it just takes a lot of work.

We hired some new, outstanding site administrators – at Graham, at Newark Junior High School and we’ve now hired a new assistant principal at the high school, Phil Morales… we have moved one of our district folks to the junior high assistant principal position, Hecate Rosewood. She’s fluent in Spanish, which will really help.

We think we have a lot of issues and a long way to go but we believe we’ve got a direction and a focus and we’re trying to bring us all together as a school district and not individual departments or different schools.

Patch: What do you view as the most difficult challenge you still face?

Marken: I would say the biggest challenge is the culture piece: [to build it as] a college going…amazing school district. I can only rely on my previous experience. My previous experience [at Dublin Unified School District] was in a school district similar to Newark. It had one middle school, one comprehensive high school, and all of the elementary schools fed up to it, and we were surrounded by higher performing school [districts], and we were essentially looked down on both for our facilities, for our academics – for all of those things. It took several years, but now it’s an absolute shining star in the Tri-Valley. …I spent 14 years there and I’m very proud of what I was able to be a part of there. I believe that transformation takes time. It doesn’t happen because someone says it. It happens because everyone in the organization believes it and then they perform, they excel and the expect excellence from the people they work with. And that transformation takes times. That’s the difficult piece.

Patch: It seems there will be a change in the school board next year due to only three people What are your thoughts on that?

The school board is very experienced. Typically you have one to three people who are in their first or second year. Our least senior board member is at year nine. And Janice [Schaefer], who is leaving, her kids are all gone, and she is the longest standing board member. There will be a change. (Editor’s note: This question was asked the morning before the election filing period deadline.)

Patch: Last year, the board adjusted policies by increasing graduation requirements and authorizing the use of police canines on campus as a means to sniff for illegal drugs. Are there any policies the district may look at reviewing this school year?

Marken: What we’re doing is we’re updating all our policies. The California School Boards Association quarterly sends mandated updates. For example, bullying. ...It’s not a new phenomenon but now there are so many different ways. It can be done physically, verbally; It can be done electronically with Facebook and email and all of those sorts of things. There’s more variety of ways to bully. So there is a new policy on bullying that requires the schools to take it more seriously. As we update our policies, we’re constantly looking and updating.

For example, the is something obviously as we go through this year and randomly as those come up, the idea is to have a drug-free, alcohol-free, tobacco-free – which is actually a requirement by law – school zone. And hopefully it will be a deterrent . It’s just to try to keep the students safe and to keep those policies in place.

Certainly, we review all of them and the board can review any of them. The board has been looking at them in groups of about eight policies at each meeting.

Patch: Results of state-mandated, standardized tests will soon be released. What do you anticipate?

Marken: The district is in because the sites – a couple of them – are in Program Improvement. …The test scores will determine have the schools reached safe harbor orare they going into a successive year of Program Improvement.

But the very nature of No Child Left Behind, it really is “No Child Left Standing.” Because the arbitrary cut points, every school, every student will be in Program Improvement because by 2014- 15 [the goal is 100 percent proficient or above]. But we all know, there’s never 100 percent of anything. So it’s very arbitrary … Every school will struggle with some significant group at some significant level. Until that’s re-authorized, we have to live within those means and  continue to work with all of those kids – the kids we are underserving. And I like to call them kids that we are underserving. We don’t use the term subgroups because I think it has a negative connotation. We consider every group of our students significant groups and we want to work with our significant groups to make them academically successful.

Patch: Have there been any more changes in district leadership recently?

Marken: What we have done is filled [the vacant director of Special Education] position with a part-time, interim who is an amazing, outstanding, highly regarded, highly respected individual. She used to be in Fremont and was the SELPA director. Her name is Charlene Okamoto. We lovingly, coaxed her out of retirement and she has agreed to come and work with us through this calendar year, through December, to help transition, keep the department up and functioning and developing our teacher. As we go out this fall to replace, she will be a key person to help transition that person and replace that position. There are typically positions in schools and in districts that are very difficult to fill. Special ed director is one. Special ed teachers are others, sometimes science and math teachers. They are difficult to find – and that’s all school districts. But we’re going to put a concerted effort and try to get the best person for that job.

Patch: What would you like the Newark community to know as they’re coming back to school this year?

Marken: My experience in this past year is that Newark Unified is a hidden gem. We have outstanding teachers and outstanding leaders, and it’s kind of the good side- bad side, because we only have one junior high and one comprehensive high school. I’ve said this many times and I believe it because I’ve lived it: It’s both good and bad. By that I mean, it’s good because we know our kids, we know they all funnel to the junior high and then they all funnel to Newark Memorial High School. The bad is that they all funnel to one school. What I mean by that is the light is shining on those schools 365 days a year, 24 hours a day, because it’s not like there are [multiple] junior highs and high schools so you can… essentially pit them against each other. …We have to be everything. Consequentally, if there are any issues, it’s only one school. So the light shines every second of every day and that’s both great. But what we need to do a better job of [is get the word out of the good news]. I’ve been completely blown away by the level of our students.

Another goal of mine is I’d like is to start an alumni association. …We have one comprehensive high school. …If you went to public schools in Newark, you went to Newark High or Newark Memorial High School, we have people that are in leadership positions, in tops of their medical field, people who are writes for TV shows in Hollywood, comedians, professional athletes, and all we hear is “there was this issue.” What we don’t hear is [the success stories].

Yes, we obviously have struggles; every school does. But we also want to highlight the phenomenal people.

For more Newark Unified District news, visit the district website at www.nusd.ca.schoolloop.com.

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