The Piedmont Highlander

The Student News Site of Piedmont High School

The Piedmont Highlander

The Piedmont Highlander

Booker promoted to superintendent

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Randall Booker grew up in the circus. As a child, he performed as a bareback gymnast, doing flips on the back of a horse.

Now, he will be running a new kind of show.

“I grew up in the circus and to an extent, now I’m going to run a circus,” said the Assistant Superintendent of Educational Services.

On March 25, Booker was announced as the new superintendent, effective July 1. His promotion comes on the heels of the departure of standing superintendent Constance Hubbard, who will be retiring from her position at the end of the school year.

Getting There

Booker has worked in the district for 12 years, climbing the ladder and holding three different positions before being chosen as the new superintendent.

“I’m not the type of person to jump around,” Booker said. “I grew to fall in love with Piedmont. I’m loyal to Piedmont.”

He began his tenure in the district as the assistant principal at PHS. Two years later, he rose to become principal.After four years as principal, Booker took on his current role as assistant superintendent and, after six years as assistant superintendent, is now on the road to become the next superintendent.

However, his history in the district did not make getting his new position any easier. Although the Board of Education had first-hand knowledge of his accomplishments, it also knew of all his failures and missteps from the past.

“If you’ve been here for 12 years, you can’t fake it,” Booker said. “You are who you are.”

Board of Education President Andrea Swenson said that the Board approached the entire interview process with an open mind, treating Booker like any other candidate. Of the candidates, she said his specific plans and goals for the district made him stand out.

“He presented us a plan for Piedmont that was very impressive and built upon a strong foundation that Ms. Hubbard has built,” Swenson said.

Booker said that the interview process for the position was challenging and rigorous.

“If they thought they knew me before, they really know me now,” Booker said.

circus funGoals and Vision

Booker went to high school in Santa Rosa where he played soccer and pole vaulted. He was also on the baseball team, where he kept the bench warm for his fellow teammates.

“I played right bench and I was really good at keeping score,” Booker said.

Booker said that his amazing high school experience shaped his views on education.

“I didn’t have to worry about politics with my teachers or student unions,” Booker said. “I worried about sports, who I was going to take to the dance and my weekend job.”

Booker said he was allowed to focus on being a teenager in high school, an aspect that added to his entire experience.

“It allowed me to realize that I have the rest of my life to be an adult,” Booker said. “In high school I got to be a kid and that made high school really fun.”

He hopes to create a similar positive experience for students in the Piedmont district.

“I want students to enjoy school,” Booker said. “I want you to have choices, pathways and to feel good about them. I want you to be you in high school, like I was allowed to be me in high school.”

However, his journey was not always smooth. In middle school, Booker said he was terribly bullied, in part due to his involvement with the circus. Fortunately, when he went to high school, Booker got the chance to start over.

He wants to give Piedmont students the same opportunity.

“I want kids to feel like they can hit the reset button at any time,” Booker said. “Reset, start over, become someone different. If you don’t like something, change it, and be okay with that change.”

A Different Approach

As superintendent, Booker hopes to be a visible and interactive part of the educational community. He wants students to know the superintendent by face.

“I like to talk to students and work with students one-on-one,” Booker said. “They will probably be seeing me in the classroom and on campus from time to time.”

His active, hands-on approach can be traced back to his days as principal, when he would play drums in the pep band, participate in the rallies, and eat lunch in the quad.

Hubbard said that one of the changes students might notice is the visibility of Booker as superintendent. She and Booker have worked together for 19 years, they were colleagues in Albany before both coming to Piedmont.

Hubbard said that Booker has a lot to offer the Piedmont district as superintendent.

“He’s energetic but not hyper,” Hubbard said. “He really likes to include people, to listen to new ideas. He always listens with an open mind. He wants to try to figure out the kernel of contribution in whatever your idea is. He values disparate views. He loves to be convinced when you don’t agree with him. He already knows the community. He already understands the expectations. He understands the culture. He understands the bigger picture.”

Hubbard said that Booker has an understanding of the needs of the district, a quality that has been apparent since his days as assistant principal.

“What I really, really appreciate is his fundamental understanding that our job is to serve all kids,” Hubbard said. “You hear about all the pressure and having somebody as superintendent who understands that it’s not just more, more, more — more hours, more APs, more sports, more everything — you have to have a balance.”

   Past Accomplishments

Booker seeks to continue improving the quality of education at Piedmont, something he has been working on since his first day in the district.

“My philosophy around education has always been making sure we are really cognisant of and address the social and emotional needs of students,” Booker said.  “If you don’t feel safe, it’s hard to be engaged.”

This was his mindset in creating the Wellness Center in 2006. At the time, Booker was the acting principal at PHS. He noticed that the student body at the high school level had a serious alcohol problem.booker2

“We would be at school events like football games, calling the medics because a student had alcohol poisoning,” Booker said.

With the build-up of alcohol-related incidents, the district investigated and realized students were using it as a method to cope with stress.

“I didn’t want to be reactive in a disciplinary way — that wasn’t enough,” Booker said. “Yes, there’s discipline to do, but there’s also support to provide.”

With that in mind, Booker partnered up with parents and teachers to create a source of support for students. The team began investigating the idea of a wellness center and looked into Berkeley High’s already-existing center as a model. Later that year, the district unveiled the Wellness Center.

“I wanted to address the social and emotional needs of students,” Booker said. “I recognize how challenging school can be and we wanted to make sure, for those who are stressed, they have somewhere to go.”

As well as addressing emotional health, Booker made it a goal to improve physical health. When he came to the district, food service was far from its current status as Piper’s Cafe.

Instead of fruit salads and fresh-baked muffins, food service was dishing out nachos, soda, corn dogs and a plethora of other processed, mostly frozen, choices.

“If I could keep you from going to Bonfare or the gas station or even home, we could have a more cohesive culture on campus during lunch,” Booker said, “and the way to do that was through food.”

Booker looked to redesign food service. The school retrofitted the building, equipping the new and improved food service with a commercial and teaching kitchen. The newly remodelled kitchen allowed for fresher in-house foods, more food options, and more opportunities for students to be involved with food on campus.

“Food brings community,” Booker said. “It’s part of community.”

Booker was also involved in increasing the course offerings at the high school and bringing Regional Occupational Programs, such as ROP Biotechnology and ROP Sports Medicine, that increased funding for the district.

“It was important that we were able to provide not only academically rigorous courses, but that we coupled them with more experiential-types of courses,” Booker said. “I wanted a balance for kids. If you wanted to take a rigorous course, go for it. If you wanted to have more experiential learning, you had that opportunity.”

He also made it a goal to advent technology at the high school by introducing teacher laptops, projectors, wireless internet and other technological advances.

“Making sure students are literate by 21st century standards, making sure they have a relevant education, with tech embedded, is important to me,” Booker said.

Outside of academics, he expanded the athletic guidelines for students within the district.

booker 3When Booker came to Piedmont, out of district students enrolled in MHS could not play PHS sports. He worked with the athletic department in order to change regulations to allow all students to play Piedmont sports, regardless of their residence.

“If you’re a student, you’re a student,” Booker said. “Once you’re enrolled, it doesn’t matter to me where you live.”

Next Steps

Leading up to his promotion to superintendent, Booker will be working with the administration to develop a transition program to ease the district into the oncoming changes.

“It’s a good opportunity for the district to change,” Hubbard said. “We need new people, new energy. This is the natural time to go to the next step for the district. I guess we just have to swag out Disney for circus.”

Booker’s current position as assistant superintendent of business services will be posted and the hiring process will soon begin in order to fill the position by July 1.

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