Former MHS principal Charles “Chuck” Gary Jr. returned to serve as the interim principal from Nov.1 through the remainder of the 2022-23 school year, according to a ParentSquare message from the office of the Superintendent Cheryl Jordan. Gary, who was principal from 1988-2008, will lead and support administration and staff and work with the district as well, according to Jordan’s message.
According to Gary, the school’s budget is an issue of concern. “The budget is overspent,” Gary said. “The district is going to address the issues of the budget and the over-expenditure. My understanding was that the previous principal was pretty authoritarian around the budget, and that there was no involvement of any of the staff regarding funding.”
Staff leadership meetings on the budget were a precedent during his last term that he reinstated his first week back, Gary said.
“My intent is to have a budget process where all the money is on the table,” Gary said. “That means that nobody should be coming up to the administration’s office next year and asking for money. The leadership team and department leads should have already discussed it.”
Gary is also working with administration and security on student discipline and safety issues, he said. Campus security and discipline are always the most apparent issues, he added.
“We need a sense of community on campus, and the only way that administration can be a part of that community is to be visible in classrooms and on campus,” Gary said.
Relying on staff for lunch duty is inefficient, and issues like vaping in the bathrooms and students leaving campus during lunch require direct action, Gary said.
“There needs to be either security or admin at those places that people exit the campus before lunch,” Gary said. “These are people who don’t have a classroom and who are not dealing with students at the time.”
During school, restroom and pass policies should be preventative, Gary said. Making passes meaningful by having administration and security check on students outside during class is the first step, he said.
“I’ve been out there in the campus every day, and I have a hard time spotting any security, despite the fact we have eight on campus.” Gary said. “If the security were visible and in uniform, it’s a preventative measure and reduces the need to apprehend students.”
Observation is the most powerful tool to see what truly happens on campus, Gary said. One of the first issues he heard about was cutting in the lunch lines, so his solution was to set an example of active lunch duty, he said.
“One of my sayings, or ‘Chucky-isms,’ is to inspect what you expect,” Gary said. “So when I got back to MHS, I made sure to go to places where students were. That’s why you can find me at the cafeteria lunch lines every day, inspecting for cutting and introducing myself to the students.”
After listening to a presentation on state test scores at the board meeting on Oct.11, Gary felt he could address the persistent racial achievement gaps in state test scores, he said.
“Over 20 years ago, with the help of African American and Latino teachers and alumni, I started doing assemblies with African American and Latino students called Flamekeepers and Horizontes to address the prevalent achievement gap,” Gary said.
Horizontes and Flamekeepers were programs ahead of their time, Spanish teacher Kim Marion said.
Gary possesses all the qualities of a great leader, English teacher Heidi Shannahan said. Gary represents an era of stability that MHS needs, she added.
“After four principals, unfortunately, there isn’t much carryover on the day-to-day aspects of the job.” Shannahan said. “We’ve really needed that continuity, and we never had that.”
Marion’s job interview over 28 years ago with Mr. Gary took her by surprise as she had taught around the world but had never seen an African American principal, she said.
“The way he carries himself, it’s clear that this is his calling,” Marion said. “You can tell from one conversation that he is a lifelong learner.”
Gary grew up in Richmond, Calif., and moved to the Milpitas Sunnyhills neighborhood, one of the first racially integrated neighborhoods at the time, for high school, Gary said. Milpitas gave him his first opportunity to learn without restrictions, he said.
“When I came to Milpitas from Richmond, I was one of those kids in the school system that the counselor said I wasn’t college material, and I needed to do something with my hands,” Gary said. “At that time in history, the pathways were very prejudicial. It wasn’t about what you could do; it was about your skin color.”
Gary wanted to provide others the opportunity that Milpitas gave him, he said. He was motivated to become an administrator because he wanted the people in Sunnyhills to know what they were capable of, he added.
“I have an opportunity at MHS that a lot of people don’t, which is to see their impact 20 years down the line,” Gary said. “The experiences I have had in the past have led me to this moment.”