The PUSD School Board unanimously approved Brent Daniels as the new high school principal on Wednesday, May 22. Daniels, the current Assistant Principal of Burlingame High School, has 21 years of experience in education, according to a PUSD press release.

Daniels has a Master’s Degree in Education from UC Berkeley’s Principal Leadership Institute. He is currently a doctoral candidate in UC Berkeley’s Leadership for Educational Equity Program.

Daniels has taught for eleven years in Bay Area schools in subjects such as biology, physical education, and physical science. Like current principal Rich Kitchens, Daniels attended El Cerrito High School and has experience coaching basketball. The son of retired East Bay school principals, Daniels has two sons in college and a daughter in high school.

Daniels plans to visit campus throughout the remainder of the school year to begin his transition and to meet the Piedmont community before he officially becomes Principal on July 1.

“The goal is to be visible and to be supportive of students and staff,” Daniels said. “And also, I want to be able to listen to what parents, students and staff have to say. And after listening, to work together collectively to be responsible for ‘Achieving the Honorable.’ I love that motto. It resonates with me.”

Burlingame High School has 1,360 students, while PHS has approximately 750. Daniels said he plans to use Piedmont’s small size to his advantage.

“I’m looking forward to getting to know students a lot closer on a more intimate level and hearing about what they want to do after Piedmont High School,” he said. “I’m a believer in supporting students with their dreams, but also being someone they can approach and talk to if they are going through something.”

Daniels will meet face-to-face with Kitchens for the first time on Friday, May 24, and said he looks forward to learning from him.

PUSD School Board Member Ray Gadbois took part in the selection process, which began on April 15 and involved a primary screening process as well as an interview by a panel of parents, teachers, administrators and PHS students.

“A lot of us were really impressed by the kind of experience [Daniels] had [as Assistant Principal at Burlingame High],” Gadbois said. “His experience is a lot of years working for a high-performance high school in the Bay Area with a similar kind of community and lots of smart, motivated kids.”

Gadbois also said Daniels excelled in promoting collaboration among faculty, students, and parents. Daniels’ doctorate program focuses on teacher collaboration.

“Here in Piedmont there’s lots of involvement by students and their parents and teachers in running the school so we wanted someone who really believed in a collaborative atmosphere,” Gadbois said.

Gadbois has seen the appointment of the past three PHS Principals, with Daniels as the first from out of district. Both Kitchens and former PHS Principal Randall Booker were promoted from the PHS Assistant Principal position.

“There’s [a lot] of value in bringing someone from the outside who might bring in some new ideas, a fresh way of looking at things, maybe even some best practices,” Gadbois said.