LASD's new super hits the ground running

By Kathleen Acuff, Town Crier Staff Writer

joe hu/town crier New Los Altos School District Superintendent Tim Justus takes a tour of Oak Avenue School’s renovated campus last week.

Tim Justus is a man in transition in a community in transition. As the Los Altos School District’s new superintendent learns his way around, three of the five members of the school board head for the door, the district budget balances on the rim of the state’s Basic Aid bucket, the paint dries on Phase 1 construction, 100 five-year-olds scamper across the Bullis-Purissima quad to the district’s first extended-day kindergarten, and Bullis Charter School’s lawsuit moves into mediation.

“Transitions are wonderful times: Everything’s brand-new, and that’s exciting,” the energetic Justus said as he drove from school to school last week.

Trustees said when they hired Justus that he was the right person at the right time. Early indicators bear that out. He had been on the job less than six weeks when the charter’s lawsuit, headed for a hearing after 10 months of back-and-forth, swerved and took the off-ramp to give-and-take.

Wanny Hersey, the charter’s principal, is not involved in the lawsuit mediation process and could not comment on it. She said last week, however, that she and Justus have “a fine professional working relationship relating to school operations.”

She described Justus as “a proponent of providing educational choice.”

“He understands the value that charter schools can bring to a community and how they can benefit students. I look forward to working with him in the upcoming years,” Hersey said.

Justus started a charter school as superintendent of the Rincon Valley Union Elementary School District. Graduates of Rincon Valley’s small K-6 schools go on to Santa Rosa junior highs of 850-1,000 students. Rincon Valley Charter School was established to offer these students smaller seventh- and eighth-grade classes with a creative curriculum. The school has separate facilities on the district’s largest campus and is treated as a separate district with a separate budget.

In his 16 years as a superintendent, Justus has kept his eye on the road ahead and his hands on the wheel. He always has an eye toward the future, but on the way, he’s hands-on. He describes himself as a listener and a collaborator who takes the time to get all the information needed and analyze all the options before making a decision.

“I like to know what’s going on. That probably comes from starting out in a very small district where you’re the administrator and the maintenance supervisor,” he said with a laugh.

Justus credits his predecessor, Marge Gratiot, who began the five-year modernization project that renovated the district’s schools, for leaving “so many things in such a wonderful state” and ensuring a smooth transition. Gratiot devoted all but a year or two of her 30-year career to the district and led it for an almost unheard of 18 years before her retirement at the end of June.

“The long tenure of the superintendent, a thoughtful, careful board and concern for students mark a successful school district,” Justus said.

The new superintendent acknowledges that coming in to the district from outside the area and having no emotional investment in the outcomes of controversial matters give him a strong advantage. He is using his transition period to learn all he can about district issues and to meet teachers, administrators, support staff, parents and community leaders.

As Justus told the district’s 26 new hires during their orientation Friday, newcomers have a responsibility to become “engrained in the culture, to realize what the district has done to become the No. 1 district in California.”

He and the new teachers have come to a school district that has developed “a wonderful culture for teaching,” he said. “It’s important for current faculty members to be a part of training new teachers in the culture of the district … by modeling, just letting them see the faculty operate and make decisions about children.”

That culture is the product of “wonderful, talented, caring” employees, “educationally savvy parents” and trustees who “really understand what teachers are doing in the classroom,” he said.

Justus said he is “encouraged” by the caliber of the school board candidates “I’m looking forward to working with them and looking forward to the board training,” he said.

New trustees will join a school board that has begun to eye Phase 2 construction projects - multipurpose rooms, libraries and computer labs - which depend on approval of the next parcel tax initiative.

The superintendent has visited the schools and met with all the principals.

“The transition has been enjoyable, everyone has been welcoming,” he said. “We’ve been getting to know each other. Now that we know each other, we can take our own roads and get our work done.”

The superintendent said he has spent “some nice time working with the charter school people too, hearing their opinions and views.” He said he feels “very positive” about working with the judge and the mediator in the case.

“We’re still discussing our options, and I feel hopeful that our next sessions in September and October will be just as successful,” he said.

He emphasized that any plan the two parties devise will take time to implement. He said a facility agreement may result in a renovation project or a portable campus, but the district won’t be building a new school or selling the Bullis site.

“It’s to the advantage of all students - who will eventually go back to school together - for the district to offer an appropriate setting for all K-8 students,” he said. “The question is how to offer choices to parents.”

Something else Justus started in Rincon Valley that’s starting up in Los Altos is an extended-day kindergarten program. The program in Rincon Valley is three or four years old, and primary teachers have been able to evaluate its effects on the children who have gone through it.

“The parents and teachers love it. It has been very successful,” Justus said. “First-grade teachers tell us the students are much more prepared to handle the full day of first grade - they feel so much more confident.

“All the research indicates the great benefit to teachers and students in preparing for the first, second and third years of school. It’s that base year of instruction that’s so important.”

LASD’s extended-day program may ultimately be expanded to each elementary campus, but the district needs a year or so to evaluate the program before deciding how to proceed.

Justus’ wife, Kim, is a fourth-grade teacher in the Piner-Olivet Union Elementary School District. She’ll remain in Santa Rosa through the 2005-2006 school year and join him when she has fulfilled her contract. Justus said she will look for a teaching position in this area for the following year.

Justus hopes to settle within walking distance of downtown Los Altos or downtown Mountain View. Outgoing and friendly, he’s looking forward to running into parents of district students when he’s at the market, he said.