Photograph by Robert Scheer
New Redwood Middle School Assistant Principal Raissa Gebhart visits with Brian Culver (left) and Ian McAllister.
By Cecily Barnes
Raissa Gebhart will sign on as Redwood Middle School's new vice principal either this week or next. And while sad to see Dale Borgeson go, principal Dick Derby is excited about Gebhart's experience and enthusiasm.
"I think she's terrific, an outstanding young administrator," Derby said.
An East Coast native, Gebhart left her roots in Ithaca, N.Y., and Philadelphia at age 23 to come west, where she immediately plunged into teaching.
"I had visited the Bay Area, and I just loved it out here," Gebhart said.
In 1990, Gebhart got a job teaching science to seventh- and eighth-graders in the East Bay. On the side, she enrolled in a three-summers-long intensive graduate program at Stanford University that allowed her to teach during the year while earning an master's degree in administration and policy analysis.
"I felt that being an administrator would allow me to affect school change and make a positive difference on a school-wide level," Gebhart said.
Gebhart's East Bay teaching experience and Stanford education were simply an addition to her lifetime of exposure to education.
"Both of my parents were professors, so teaching has really been a part of my life for my whole life," she said. "And I guess it was a pretty natural thing for me to go into education. I don't know what day I decided, but I always knew I would be in education at some level."
Gebhart also earned both a bachelor's degree in biology and a master's degree in science and education at the University of Pennsylvania.
In September, Gebhart read about the vice principal position at Redwood in Ed-Cal, a publication for California's educators. Excited about the opening, she drove down to Saratoga to drop off a résumé and pay Redwood Middle School a visit.
"I was very pleased with what I saw; it seemed like a very good match for me and for the district," she said.
After extensive interviews with board members, the superintendent, principal Derby, Human Resources Director Margie Singleton and parents, Gebhart was hired.
"The whole thing was very pleasant," Gebhart said about the interviewing process. "It was a very positive experience; that was one of the things that was so nice."
Gebhart is anxious to get started at her new job. She believes she has a lot to contribute both to Redwood and to the district.
"I guess what I bring with me is that I come from a technology district. I've been working at Alvarado to organize staff development. I've been working on technology training in the school since 1994," Gebhart said.
Gebhart's primary responsibilities will include discipline, after-school sports, most student activities (such as the student council), and leadership responsibility of the technology program.
This article appeared in the Saratoga News, October 23, 1996.
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