The election of former HR Director Paula Robinson to the position of FUHSD assistant superintendent on March 12 triggered a domino effect of administrative change. Former assistant principal Nico Flores moved to an AP position at HHS as a result of the changes. Additionally former assistant principal Sydney Fernandez moved to Southern California, leaving two open AP positions at MVHS.
On July 1, former HHS Dean Anthony Nguyen took Nico Flores’ position as assistant principal at MVHS. Nguyen’s past experiences as a teacher and dean make him more aware of students’ needs, and he believes that awareness informs his assistant principalship.
“When I started teaching, I wanted to teach the same community that I grew up in, and I realized that there are so many students that have needs,” Nguyen said. “We have our English Learning population here, our low socioeconomic students here and there’s a lot of students in need, regardless of whatever the needs are. I want to actually make a difference when it comes to intervention.”
Taking charge of interventions, Nguyen says his actions are student-forward. According to Nguyen, before making any decision the MVHS administration must understand how the student body is affected and if they are properly represented by that decision. Furthermore, Nguyen helps to assist the student body by checking student A-G readiness and eligibility to graduate.
“I don’t want students to be lost,” Nguyen said. “I don’t want students to not know that there’s always an adult looking in the background.”
Fernandez’s announcement to leave came later than Flores’, causing the spot to be vacant during the first weeks of school. Assistant principal Janice Chen covered Fernandez’s position temporarily for the first two weeks of school; however, Chen says she faced little increase in work due to the efficiency of the counselor team, referring to them as a “well-oiled machine.”
On Aug. 23, almost two months after Nguyen was appointed, MVHS principal Ben Clausnitzer released an email to MVHS staff, announcing Educational Options assistant principal Brian Dong’s position as a new assistant principal for MVHS, effective Sept. 3. Dong would officially replace Fernandez’s position within the administration.
Previously, Dong was an assistant principal at HHS, and most recently worked at the district office supporting the Educational Options Program. However, Dong started as a math and computer science teacher at MVHS for eight years.
To Chen, Dong’s previous work experience is an asset for the administration team. Chen attributes Dong’s qualities to his experience in vastly different positions and environments throughout his career.
“Mr. Dong was a teacher and student here, and we were classmates, so we already have a great relationship,” Chen said. “It’s really cool to be working with him for the first time. But he was an assistant principal at HHS already, so he can just jump in since he knows a lot of staff already.”
Like Chen, Dong agrees that his past experiences helped broaden his perspective on what students need. Although he perceived it as a challenge at first, being relocated from teaching at MVHS to being appointed as an assistant principal at HHS turned out to be beneficial for him.
“I learned a lot about the diversity of our community,” Dong said. “My neighborhood was sort of a bubble, and so I didn’t get out that much. Being able to work at Homestead for nine years was nice for me to see other parts of our community. I saw other kids with very different backgrounds. I think that that part really helped me as a person.”
As new assistant principals, both Dong and Nguyen must learn to navigate working with new teams, communities and cultures. Chen advises her fellow assistant principals to take a step back to understand the aspects of MVHS that make it unique, so that as a team they are able to react accordingly. Dong agrees that taking a step back is important to immersing himself in the culture of MVHS.
“I want to know what everyone does here, and that also means being part of the culture: feeling welcomed here and creating a space where I’m here to support our teachers,” Dong said. “My door is always open for them, where I’m responsive, proactive and enabled to follow through with the things they ask for. That’s a lot of what I want to do in my first year here, be part of the culture of the school and be an observer on how things work.”
Nguyen’s goals come from a more personal backstory. Coming from a background where he wasn’t provided with many resources, Nguyen realized the abundance at which students have needs, varying from emotional struggles to socioeconomic challenges. Determined to help students battle their own challenges just as he did, Nguyen hopes to keep MVHS an equitable place where all students are given the opportunity to flourish.
“You are all doing great work already,” Nguyen said. “I see a lot of focus on anti-racist practices and mental health help that makes MVHS the forefront in our district. But for my teaching and leadership philosophy, it’s more about focusing on interventions. I want to make sure that I’m doing good for the community that I grew up with. I want to make sure that all students are represented. I want to make sure that there are no students that fall in the cracks.”
