[Editor’s Note: Second day in a series of interviews Scott McVarish, a parent, is conducting with leaders in the School District for his project “For Great Schools.” Mr. McVarish’s entire interview can be seen at facebook.com/forgreatschools ]

The second half of Mr. McVarish’s interview with School Board member Steve Levin.

Mr. McVarish: What is next in terms of improving our high schools?

Mr. Levin: “Centaur Plus is one tool. But even bigger than any individual program like that is the culture and the attitude. I think our School District does better than a lot of school districts in terms of focusing on the student and on success. If we find something is getting in the way of a student’s success we find what it is and fix it. There still are steps we can take in that direction. My goal for the coming years is to look for ways to make it easier and more expected for every single staff member in the School District to make a connection in their re-interaction with every student. I want us to find something positive that student is doing and give him appropriate praise. We must keep an eye out for whether there is something this student needs that we are not giving him. If we have a single student flunk, we have failed that student.”

Project-based Learning

Mr. McVarish: You mentioned we  probably should be doing more things like gaming and programming. Each year in Downtown, we have IndieCade, the International Festival of Independent Games. We have hundreds of amazing, independent gamers come and show off their wares. Any chance there can be some kind of partnership between that incredible group of independent gamers and our high school students?

Mr. Levin: “Sounds like a great idea. We are working on adding things like that.  I don’t know any of the details. We might already be working on a partnership there. I can easily see the connection between people who write games and people who do the kind of stuff I do at work — such as writing scientific programs for space exploration. Working on a computer and learning logical thinking is connected. Learning to organize your thoughts, learning to put together an algorithm– a step-by-step set of directions– is useful in all kinds of other areas.”

Mr. McVarish: That’s how you bring the students in. Once they are in, they realize, “Wow, my brain is now going to be trained to think logically, sequentially and creatively.”

Mr. Levin: “That’s an example of project-based learning. It fits in well with Common Core. The basic idea is that almost anything you do in life, can be used as a way to teach. Take gaming as an example. We say we are going to have a project for you to build a computer game. For a lot of kids that’s a big, exciting thing that sounds like fun. They learn that to genuinely build this computer game, you need to do this math and you need to do this kind of logical thinking and we’re going to learn keyboarding. Now it’s a win-win for everybody. You get to have fun, you get to build your computer game, and we get to teach you something we wanted to teach you without having to make you sit there and stare at the teacher when you don’t want to be there.”

Parent Participation

Mr. McVarish: Let’s talk about parent participation at the elementary schools. Four and a half years ago, I was a new parent at El Marino. I went to a PTA planning session that I mistook for something that a new parent should go to. I was amazed at all the programs. But  it took me awhile to figure out how to join in. What are you seeing at the elementary schools?

Mr. Levin: “We are seeing an upswing in parent participation in elementary schools. I went to an Astronomy Night at El Rincon. It was packed. They had a big, all-day science fair. There was a lot more parent participation than there used to be. Parent participation is important for our students, not just in terms of parents raising money for the schools but for parent-run community events where kids see their parents and their teachers and the staff working together. They get the message that we think this is really important. The fact that I spend time on something says a lot more to my kids than if I pull out my wallet and contribute money. Some schools that didn’t always have as much participation as the others now are increasing.”

Mr. McVarish: What is your advice to parents new to a school?

Mr. Levin: “If you are a new parent coming into a school, any of the schools, start with what is going on already. Look  for something you would love to participate in. Ask other parents, or a teacher or the principal. Or subscribe to and monitor the email group.”

Mr. McVarish: If you can’t find something, work with other parents to start something. Our schools love to embrace good ideas. With a bit of investment in the beginning, you might be able to find a program that you can grow with over the next six years while your child is at that school.

Mr. Levin: “Right. If you wish your school was doing something, talk to somebody. Our teachers and administrators and staff are people who are there because they want to do the best they can for the kids. If you come in with a good idea, chances are what you are going to hear is ‘Hey, that really sounds great. How can we make that happen?’”

Top Three Challenges

Mr. McVarish: What are your top three changes or improvements or initiatives you would like to see for the School District?

Mr. Levin: “Top of the list is finding a way to reach every single child, and catching students earlier, before they are failing. When a student is starting to struggle, identify that. Find ways to intervene.

“Another challenge is all the change that we have happening in the School District. We have Common Core that we still are responding to. We have Next Generation Science Standards coming down the pipe. We have the new tests associated with Common Core that we have to respond to. We have budget changes. We have a lot of things happening that are generally good changes, but nonetheless changes, things that our entire District has to respond to.

“It is hard for people to respond to change while you are trying to do all this stuff you always did. It is hard to put in place a program that is going to work great for the kids five years from now that still works great for the kids right now, today. When you impose change and you have students who started in kindergarten, whatever year it is for that child when the change comes, you are changing the way the child learns or changing what he is supposed to learn. You have to figure out that transition.

“We are working really hard on that. Another challenge is that we passed the school bond. We have a whole lot of work to do with that bond money. We have to figure out which projects are happening first, which things are getting delayed, and which things maybe aren’t getting done at all. We have to do health and safety first. Then we will focus on things that directly affect learning. We  want to make the dollars go as far as they can. Some projects have to be approved by the state architect. We have to take into account how long that takes. Some things can’t be done while the students are in the classroom, and we only have so much time during the summer to get everything done. Some things have to be done together. If you are going to work on plumbing in this building, and you also need to go inside the walls for electrical, makes no sense to do those separately and tear the walls open twice. Putting together that whole big plan and adjusting to it constantly is going to be a big challenge. We have a good consultant hired as program manager. He is giving us good advice, and working on putting all those puzzle pieces together. It’s their job to give us advice, not make the decisions. As a School Board, we have to go through all that, work with the staff, the consultants and the members of the community to figure out which things we are going to do when and fit all those puzzle pieces together.”

Mr. McVarish may be contacted at scott@forgreatschools.org