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Payne

Homestead principal takes job at UCLA

By Katherine Petersen

Homestead High School Principal David Payne will step down from his position in January, he announced Nov. 19.

Payne will give up his job at the Cupertino school--where he introduced sweeping changes to the schedule and traditional classroom setting--for a job at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Payne, who headed Homestead for the past six years while the school restructured and adopted its "house program," will be a master practitioner and visiting professor in the school management program at UCLA. An application deadline for Payne's position has not yet been set.

"I'm happy for David because it's a great promotion for him," said Mike Hawkes, associate superintendent of administrative services. "He's interested in being involved with school reform, and this opportunity provides him the chance to work with different schools as both a practitioner and a theorist."

Homestead's house program was hardly accepted overwhelmingly by teachers, parents and students. Homestead students were given a choice of traditional schooling or entering the house program, where teachers from different disciplines taught together during two-hour classes. For instance, a history teacher might be teamed with an English teacher; while one taught a curriculum having to do with the Civil War, the other would assign reading and essays on the same topic.

Many teachers welcomed Payne's changes, however, such as the student internships. But the integrated classes and flexible class scheduling received mixed reviews, said Dan Rehor, a guidance resource teacher at Homestead and treasurer of the Fremont Education Association.

"There are a lot of people who admire his initiative," he said. "He has wonderful ideas and loves ideas. He's very current with what's going on in education, and he has been great at getting grant money for the school."

Payne said the changes at Homestead required work from the staff-at-large, not just the administrative offices.

"I supported teachers who were instrumental in creating the programs and helped them articulate what they were doing to the community," he said. Payne raised more than $2 million from local foundations in order to afford some of the start-up costs.

At UCLA, Payne will support administrators and teachers in restructuring efforts at four San Jose schools.

"I've had a great time here, but I'm ready to get some more experience in elementary and junior high schools," he said. "I've worked in rural and suburban settings, so I'm looking forward to an urban area."

Payne can put his fluency in Spanish to use while serving a larger Latino population as well. He had not been actively seeking a new position when the UCLA job offer came along. While he said it is difficult to leave in the middle of the school year, Homestead is stable and can welcome a new principal.

"There is a strong group of teacher leaders who will continue to push to improve the learning experiences for all students," he said.

Payne is also starting an Internet-based business, called WebLearning, to sell high-school curricula.

"The material makes use of the Internet as an information source for students," he said.

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This article appeared in the Sunnyvale Sun, December 3, 1997.
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