Principal Brent Daniels has sent out 3-2-1 surveys for students, so that he can get to know the school better and so students can voice their opinions.

He has been holding meetings with teachers and staff, called 3-2-1 meetings, to discuss three things he should know about the school, two things he should know the individual, and one thing that could be changed at the school.

The meetings allow Daniels to get to know the teachers and staff on a more one on one basis, and allow him to learn more about the school earlier during the school year.

“The idea is that through this process I’m able to develop themes about things that I should know about the school,” he said.

Daniels got the idea of the 3-2-1 meetings at a conference through the Association of California School Administrators (ACSA), whose goal is to create conducive learning environments for students through school administration.

Daniels has held a 3-2-1 meeting with 50 of 70 staff members, and hopes to be finished by the end of October.

“Some things that [people have told me] through the meetings is how polite students are, how students want to do well and want to learn,” he said. “The staff is also hardworking, and the community is highly involved in terms of parents and other groups into supporting students at the school to do well academically and socially.”

However, not everything Daniels has learned about PHS has come from his 3-2-1 meetings.

“I’ve found that the student body here is really polite, eager to learn, the staff is really hard working,” he said. A few possible areas for growth that have been brought up in his 3-2-1 meetings are the bell schedule, collaboration between academic departments, and the issue of student stress.

“When it comes to change, obviously we don’t want to do change for the sake of change,” he said. “Just because something changes doesn’t necessarily mean its going to be better. If we do any major changes, we want to make sure that the change is a thematic need throughout the entire school, and not just one particular people or group.”

Senior Tia Ikemoto also has some advice for Daniels.

“Some things he should know are that parents tend to be a lot more involve in their students’ lives than other schools, sometimes I feel like the school and other various organizations associated with the school ask for money too often, and there is a lot of pressure to go to a 4 year college,” she said.

Daniels values every students input, and wants to do his best to incorporate everyone’s voices, he said. He has also created a 3-2-1 online survey for parents to complete, so that he can gather input from a wider range of people.

“The 321 meetings have been awesome in terms of meeting with staff one on one, but I think the next step will be to actually visit more classrooms to get to know the students a little better,” he said.

Daniels has made a good effort to get to know the student body, through participating in many school activities, Ikemoto said.

“I think its very important for the principal to be accessible, and to have one on one conversations with everyone,” Daniels said. “That’s important because every person at the school has something they contribute, and can offer me information that’s important for me to know.”

Math teacher Diana Miller has also noticed Daniels’ enthusiasm about getting to know the students and the school.

“There is great benefit to this type of meeting, because although it is short, Mr. Daniels is trying to meet with each staff member,” she said. “It allows him to learn a lot about the existing culture at the school from many different voices.”

Daniels has shown interest in students by participating at club day, going on the senior picnic, and hosting ‘Coffee with Mr. Daniels’, which are informal meetings with parents and community members to discuss school council goals.

“I think it makes him way more approachable and gives me the idea that he really cares about the students’ well being,” Ikemoto said. “He’s a lot like Mr. Booker.”

Daniels’ next steps are to visit classrooms to get a better feel for the learning environment and to think about things that the school can work on each day to make it better.

“Piedmont is a great school in many ways, and it can also grow,” he said. “It isn’t perfect, but it has a lot of great things happening.”