❒ Dr. Charles Young era to begin July 1 at BUSD

 

The new superintendent of the Benicia Unified School District was introduced during a special meeting of BUSD trustees on May 6. Dr. Charles Young will officially begin his new job on July 1.

But first he must finish his fourth year serving as associate superintendent of educational services in the Palo Alto Unified School District.

“I will probably be done there some time in mid June,” Young said Monday in an interview with The Herald.

Then he’ll take a few days “to reflect, get reenergized and be ready to go.”

But, he added, “I’m already energized. I’m very excited about this. It is really wonderful on a lot of levels.”

Young, 53, was born in La Mirada, the youngest of a family of six — “Five boys and one very fortunate sister,” he said. His family moved to Foster City when he was 10.

He earned his bachelor’s degree in English from California State University-East Bay in 1984 and a master’s degree in educational leadership from CSU-East Bay in 1995. He attained his doctorate in educational leadership in 2004 at the University of La Verne in La Verne.

Young started his educational career as a high school teacher, then moved to site administration as a vice principal and principal at both the elementary and middle school levels. He is a contributing member of TICAL, the Technology Information Center for Administrative Leadership, a “centralized repository of technology-related resources and professional development opportunities for California’s administrators,” according to portical.org. He also is a facilitator for the Association of California School Administrators Leading Edge Certification technology course.

Young lives in Alamo with his wife, Jeannine. They have two children, Allison, 22, and Charles, 19.

In his spare time, he enjoys an active lifestyle. “I like to run, lift weights, ride my bike with my wife up Mount Diablo,” he said. “I like to cook, and I like to be around my family.”

Before applying for the BUSD superintendent’s position, Young visited Benicia with his wife. “We like the location, we like the feel of the town, the downtown, how the schools are situated,” he said. “We always felt it had a strong sense of community.

“I really felt it during the board meeting, and during my interviews I felt it (too).”

With his background, it should come as no surprise that technology in schools is a big interest of Young’s. “The use of technology in the educational setting has a potential to be transformational. I think it already is,” he said. “I think it is transforming the learning experience for kids and the teaching experience in dramatic and exciting ways.”

But, he added, teqachers must ask a key question: “When you are watching students working with technology, is it teaching creativity, critical thinking, problem solving, using it to really promote 21st-century skills? When you are looking for evidence of those things, the depth of the use of technology is really going to make a difference.”

At the same time, Young is supportive of career training. “I think that plays a really powerful role in the experience for kids. It is a pretty robust pathway at the high school,” he said.

“I think looking at the current career technical education and potential pathways is very exciting.”

Young explained that the Career Pathways program at Benicia High School looks at economic trends, identifies them, “and then you build these pathways and these courses and offerings around that to prepare kids to be ready to be contributors in those fields. It’s a great and exciting role in our offerings for kids.” He added that Palo Alto requires students take one CTE — Career and Technical Education — class to graduate.

Young said he is enthusiastic about the implementation of funds from Measure S, the school bond that voters approved in June 2014. “It’s going to be incredibly exciting,” he said.

He said he loves the district’s commitment to kids, as reflected in its mission statement: “To provide a quality education in a caring environment, in a caring community and a safe environment,” he said. “I love having them identifying those values of respect, innovation, achievement, excellence, equitable compensation and fiscal responsibility. When we take a look at that strategic planning process, we’ve got a very strong mission to build on.

“We can even take a look a crafting a vision statement — sometimes you will see both of those. The mission statement will say who we are and what we are about. You need that, you need those values identified.

“Sometimes when you craft a vision statement that will go along with the strategic planning process, you have a nice tight statement that gives a picture of the desired future state. A lot of times you put those together and they accompany that strategic plan to give you a sense of what we are working toward.

“There’s a lot of great things taking place in the district. That’s a great thing to build on,” he said.

When Young takes over as superintendent, he said it will be important for him to “come in, learn about the place and get to know people, and get a strong sense of knowing about the culture, deeply held beliefs and ways of doing things around here.

“As I move forward it would be (best to learn) the board’s wishes to move on these things, working on the strategic plan, working on the bond. All of these things are rooted in the mission and the values.

“Continuing to build a strong sense of team is very important to me. A sense of team, and belonging, with the folks that work and a strong sense of partnership with parents and the community. I get the strong sense it is very vibrant here,” he said.

“I would like to continue to build on that, because when you do that, you create belonging and you create places where people like to work, and they bring enthusiasm and excitement and they can really bring their ‘A’ game when they know they’re recognized, valued and part of a team.

“That’s something that I think is strong there, and I would like to continue to build on that.”