By: Chloe Ho; Staff Writer
It’s been announced with excitement and sadness that our two assistant principals will be moving on from Mills after this year.
Mr. Gomez will be recommended to become Capuchino High School’s new principal after this school year. The decision was announced by superintendent Kevin Skelly on April 20th, including in a press release page for this announcement that Gomez has been in education since 2005, starting his career as an intern special education teacher in San Francisco, and has been an assistant principal at Mills High School for seven years. The decision to have him instated as the new principal of CHS will be made through the Board of Trustees. In a statement for the press release, Mr. Gomez stated that he is “excited to begin directly serving the students and families of Capuchino High School… this return to my alma mater as its leader grants me the opportunity to give back to the community that has given so much to me.” Gomez has personal ties to Capuchino High School as a graduate and a baseball player and had grown up in San Bruno. He and his family are greatly dedicated to their local community and becoming the principal of Capuchino High School will give Mr. Gomez the ability to further contribute to the San Bruno community. Throughout his career, Mr. Gomez had switched through both San Francisco Unified school districts before coming to San Mateo Union High School District. He began his career in 2005 as an intern special education teacher at San Francisco Unified School District, and moved on to become an assistant principal at El Camino High School five years after moving to South San Francisco Unified School District in 2007. He’s been a part of Mills High School as our assistant principal since 2015, and will continue his journey in education as Capuchino’s principal starting July if approved.
Ms. Schlax informed staff in an email on April 28 that she’d be moving onto being a history teacher at Berkeley High School. The school is well-known for being the first high school in the state (and thus making California the first in the country) to require an ethnic studies course and the only school in the country to offer African American studies. She begins her farewell email with expressing her pride in helping to “build a more inclusive school and [bringing] new exciting learning experiences to students”. Continuing on, Ms. Schlax states, “[The job] will allow me to be closer to my family and take better care of myself, and to continue to build the advocacy work and teaching practices I love so much.”
With two assistant principal spots vacant, Ms. Duszynski has acknowledged the need to hire people to continue their work. In an interview, she states that some of the traits she’s seeking are people that are student-centered, that are going to be able to form really strong relationships with our students, that will advocate for students and people who are good communicators. She finds that having similar life experiences as students would really help them serve as mentors and role models as well. Additionally, she expressed that “I think we need to find people that are really going to bring their whole selves into their work in a similar way that Gomez and Schlax have done and not just see it as a job, but as a calling and a really great privilege and honor… and who are innovative and can really think critically and problem-solve in effective, collaborative ways… who really want to be out with students… and enjoy the whole experience of the Vikings ship… and who really want to be involved in the school culture and climate.” Interestingly enough, Ms. Duszynski also particularly is interested in applicants with teaching experience. This experience helps them better understand how to support teachers and students and the best teaching practices to keep students engaged.
But when one has all of those qualifications and are sent to work, it might be a mystery to many students as to what exactly they do all day. “We’re tackling everything from… [resolving] student conflict, when there’s hurt feelings, when there’s bullying… [to] staff – how do we recruit and retain teachers and find teachers for positions?” Ms. Duszynski said. “Thinking about next year… and developing what we call a ‘master schedule’ for… when classes happen and balancing those class sizes so that teachers don’t have more than 35 kids in a class, but yet be able to offer as many courses that students want [as we can give].” Everyday provides new challenges, new tasks, and new thinking. When the students and staff are the center of all of it, though, nothing is impossible to create a solution for. But, the principal acknowledges that it can be tricky. “We have to problem-solve, and not every situation’s the same. Not every action for how to address that is the same.”
The Mills community undoubtedly will greatly miss our two APs. Ms. Schlax and Mr. Gomez has gone all the way and beyond to ensure the safety of students, and they have always been their number one priority. “They are both very dear to my heart; they’ve been a part of my daily existence… I think Mr. Gomez has the skills, the knowledge, the experience, and the talent to be just an outstanding principal at Capuchino… Ms. Schlax is joining a state-renowned ethics department at Berkeley High School… it’s truly her passion and I think she will greatly contribute to the field and advocacy for our students in general.”
