By Traci Newell

Joe Hu/Town Crier Stephen Peck helps lead his students in the Bike Rodeo March 24.

It’s recess at Santa Rita Elementary School on a sunny spring day, and two fourth-grade boys get into an argument about their handball game. Enter Principal Stephen Peck. He talks with the boys and a minute later has joined them in the game.

Later one of the boys is overheard saying, “Mr. Peck is so cool.”

Peck, known throughout the community as a child-centered principal, will retire at the end of the school year. He has served Santa Rita for 10 years and has been in the education field for 35 years.

“He’s always out here with the children,” Dorothy Dickson, English language development specialist at Santa Rita, said at recess last week. “He’s never in his office.”

Superintendent Tim Justus said: “He’s a child advocate. He’s constantly reminding us that we are about the children.”

Before coming to Santa Rita, Peck was assistant superintendent for curriculum in the Los Gatos Union School District. Before that, he was principal at two Saratoga schools. Both of Peck’s parents were educators.

“It’s in my blood,” Peck said. “Teaching just felt like it was natural.”

District officials, teachers, parents and students concur that Peck is a natural and claim that he has been more than successful at Santa Rita.

“I think he is able to really strike a perfect balance between having a great rapport with everyone in the community but also maintaining very high standards,” said Robin McLaren, sixth-grade teacher at Santa Rita.

Dickson pointed out that Peck is very in tune with the cultural differences at the school.

“There is a genuine respect for different backgrounds here,” Peck said. “We often call this an international school.”

Dickson said Peck is so adept at solving problems that arise between the students because he knows the school body so well.

“He’s serious when he needs to be, but he’s a very understandable man,” said sixth-grader Natalie Roy. “He can also be really funny.”

Bruce Payman, Santa Rita PTA historian, added, “He’s not too harsh with the children, but they respect him and listen to him.”

Peck’s wife Marilyn, a former teacher, retired last year. His daughter, Laura, went to schools in Los Altos growing up. Peck, a 20-year Los Altos resident, said there are rewards to living in the community where he works. He said he doesn’t have anything lined up for his retirement.

“Retiring now just felt like the right time,” Peck said.

Peck said he will miss three things when he leaves Santa Rita: the teaching staff, the supportive parent community and, last but not least, the children.

“It gives you real hope for the future when you work with kids all the time,” he said.

When asked what advice he would pass on to his successor, who is yet to be named, Peck said he would tell him or her to spend time with the children. Though it is important to finish the paperwork, he said, it is more important for a principal to understand how children learn and behave, the differences in the grades and how children interact with teachers.

The bottom line, he said, is “get out of the office and be with the kids.”