As the 2022-2023 school year came to an end, and the graduating class of 2023 said goodbye to the Pleasant Valley campus, there was someone else who left our school that year, and who we all gave a warm-hearted farewell to: Mrs. Spaggiari, one of last year’s assistant principals. As a growing school, home to around 1770~ students (and more with each year), we have several assistant principals to ensure a quality education for everyone. Now, with the beginning of the current 2023-2024 school year, PV welcomes our new Viking, Assistant Principal Matt Kermen!
Mr. Kernan was happy to share interesting facts about himself and his background in education. He was a teacher for six years, and taught social science, US. History, and AP economics. After that, he was in administration for five years in Oroville, being an assistant principal for four years at Las Plumas High School. Then a principal at Prospect High School. According to Mr. Kermen, he was motivated to be a teacher because “[his] dad was a teacher, and [his] older sister got into education as well, as a teacher and now currently [works] as an administrator.” When asked about his plans for fostering a positive environment within the school, he said that he spends about “5-20 minutes in a classroom” at times, not just for any specific reason, but often because he “want[s] students to be able to see that [he’s] approachable when they see [him] in class.” He also values “positive language, [and] helping teach positive behavior”, prioritizing “keep[ing] students in school and in class, rather than exclud[ing] them through disciplinary practices”.
Additionally, Mr. Kermen is a member of PV’s “PBIS team”, or “Positive Behavior Interventions and Support team”, which is currently looking for “a parent or two, and hopefully a student or two, to be representative of some of the things that are going on here on campus.” While being a member of the PBIS team, he also spends time working with the MTSS team, or the “Multi-Tiered System of Support”, that takes over everything from social-emotional focus to attendance to behavior and culture,” all while managing other responsibilities such as dealing with safety concerns, such as fire drills, managing spring semester testing, and working with campus supervisors and custodians. According to him, something about our school that makes us stand out is how strong our school culture is. He “sees on campus, every single day, students wearing something that is connected to Pleasant Valley High School,” and likes how “there’s a lot of different things that students are involved in,” from band to drama, and how “[school culture] is everywhere.”
When asked what message he wanted to share with the school, he said to “help kids make good choices”, and that “[he] love[s] that peer mentorship is a lot more powerful than adults talking to students about things,” and that having “more students [who] can help be peer mentors to each other and help teach what good decision making looks like” is a big goal for him. We all know that familiar saying, “It’s a great day to be a Viking”; it’s on signs, it’s translated into Spanish and Japanese and put on T-shirts, and it’s our school’s long-standing motto. So, as we go into the new school year, and we make new memories and overcome new odds, let’s follow Mr. Kernan’s lead and remember that mantra, and ask ourselves the question, “how can we help each other make good choices?”
