Goodbye Mrs. Valentino—You Will be Missed (Part I)

In the two-and-a-half years since Elizabeth Valentino has been principal of Mount Washington Elementary, the school has narrowed a significant achievement gap between its best and lowest-performing students—an accomplishment that led to MWE being recognized as one of 387 California Distinguished Schools in 2012.

While that accomplishment alone should be enough to seal Mt. Washington’s reputation as one of the state’s best schools in terms of its commitment to providing students an education that is both world-class and equitable, it hardly reflects the full extent of Valentino’s talents as an administrator and leader.

As every Mt. Washington parent knows—or should—Valentino came to the legendary school on the hill at a time when it was in something of a leadership crisis. Enrollment had been falling—matched only by low morale among teachers and staff. Within months, Valentino turned Mt. Washington around—almost as if by magic.

And now, the widely loved and admired Mrs. Valentino is leaving Mt. Washington. On June 21, she will be part of a select committee that interviews her successor. Four days later, she departs for Northern California to join her husband, a former LAUSD administrator who accepted a top position in the San Francisco Unified School District last year.

Highland Park-Mount Washington Patch caught up with Valentino for a wide-ranging two-part interview during the last week that she will still be around with teachers and staff before the school finally shuts down for the summer. Excerpts:

Patch: What did you observe about Mount Washington Elementary parents, students and the campus that you hadn’t seen elsewhere at LAUSD?

Valentino: Well, definitely the parents’ involvement was much greater here than any other school I have worked. The amount of activism on part of the parents in bringing projects and activities and programs to the school was incredible. Our gardening program was totally sourced by parents for the sake of enhancing children’s learning in the sciences and nutrition—by getting their hands in the dirt.

We have a mural project—parents stepping up and saying, I want to paint and beautify this campus, and then other parents stepping up to find the funding for it. That, I think, is the biggest difference from other schools—and that really comes from a lack of funding [by LAUSD]. The added part is that parents bring in their own interests and passions—which teachers support because they want kids to have those same values.

Patch: How would you describe the environment at Mount Washington—what are its strengths and unique qualities?

Valentino: I think there are really high expectations here for kids to do well. And that’s shared by the teachers, parents and the kids themselves. The kids really rise to the challenge that teachers present, and the parents support that and look forward to that. And we’re small enough—we were about 300 kids when I started and are now 360—that's another element. I think that really allows for people to get to know one another really well. The teachers can plan for the kids—they know get to know them and of them. And the parents and the kids also get to know the teachers really well. They look forward to the design-based learning, the projects that are upcoming, the multicultural events. As challenging and academically demanding as the projects are, the kids really love them.

Patch: What was your vision for the school when you started out at Mt. Washington?

Valentino: I think I came in at a time where there was not a lot of unity in the school. I wasn’t as aware of that until I came into the school. Morale was low and the school had been losing enrollment. People were choosing other schools over our school and I thought, We have a great school—why aren’t the resident kids all choosing to come here?

Some of our stakeholder groups were not necessarily working well together. Some of our parents were disappointed in how the school was responding to them and their needs and the students’ needs. The teachers were in some ways not feeling as supported as they could have been by previous administrations. So for me it was really important to bring that all together—bring up the morale and get people working together. Because I could see the richness and value what the school held.

Data-wise, I did notice that even though the API [Academic Performance Index] was very high, there was about a 100-point difference between our Latino students and our white subgroup. And I wondered why that was—I didn’t know if there were language needs or issues like that. So we began a conversation with teachers around that.

We have not fully resolved that but we did bring that closer together. And as a result we were able to apply for the California Distinguished School award and receive that. In the past the school had applied for that award, and it was not granted. So this is a very big victory for us.

To be continued tomorrow.