Los Gatos Weekly-Times

Editorial

And so, everything old is new again

They say perception is everything. Students returned to Los Gatos High School last week not certain just what to expect. Not only would there be a new principal, but pretty much a whole new administration.

When our reporter and photographer caught up with some of the teens on their first day back, they got an earful.

Rules. Rules. Rules. Too many rules!

Now, the students protested, they can't haul their skateboards around campus; they can't wear hats in class; they aren't allowed to carry pagers.

And they have to carry hall passes when wandering around the halls during class hours. What is the world coming to?

Well, according to those in the know, the rules aren't new. The state education code prohibits students from carrying electronic devices-- including pagers--on campus.

The rules about hats in class, skateboards and hall passes are nothing new, either.

What is new is a one-page discipline matrix that spells out the rules. Same old rules. The difference is that in the past, they were spread out in a handbook.

By the end of the week, administrators had gone to every social studies class to meet with students and make sure everyone knew the expectations--both academic and disciplinary-- of the new administrators.

"We're all new," principal Trudy McCulloch said of her administrative team, "and we wanted to make clear our expectations."

After the discussions in the social studies classes, students were asked to sign a statement attesting to the fact that they had been present at the presentation.

"The last thing I want," McCulloch told the Los Gatos Weekly-Times, "is for students to get in trouble and then say they didn't know what the rules were."

The matrix and the meetings in the classrooms were part of a response to a series of staff meetings prior to opening day. The one thing that came up over and over again was that the administration must be fair and consistent.

"That's what we intend to be," McCulloch said. "And we expect the same from the teachers." That's why the administration went all out to clarify the expectations.

The start of a new school year is always a time of anticipation, of excitement and fear. A time for getting back into old routines and a time for fresh starts.

To take over a high school as steeped in history as Los Gatos High School has got to be as intimidating as it is exciting.

Add to the mix that the previous principal was at the school for nearly 50 years and that the previous administration had been a team for 25, and it becomes clear that there was probably no one as nervous about that first day of school as the new principal. It looks like Trudy McCulloch made the grade.

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