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Schools

The Ubiquitous They — Gary Jensen

Gary Jensen is the principal of Benicia High School

Who are you and what do you do in the community? I’m Gary Jensen, and I’m the principal of . I’ve just started my third year (as principal).

How did you become principal of Benicia High School? I was a high school and college baseball coach. I coached in the Midwest. I came to California because I got tired of coaching in the snow. So I started out in a high school in Southern California. The last couple of years the person that brought me out to California asked me if I had thought about going into administration. I said, “No.” So to make a long story short, I became an (administration) intern at that particular school district, and worked on my master’s degree at Cal State Fullerton. When this position became available I applied and was fortunate enough to get the position.

What do you like best about your job? Kids. We’ve got a great bunch of kids. They work real hard. We are never satisfied. We set a goal last spring to reach 900 on the API score. It’s been a mantra here. We’ve had two consecutive years of excellent gains. From the top down, the kids work hard.

What’s the hardest part about your job? Paperwork. The paperwork is just overwhelming. And staying current. It’s all about learning. It used to be all about teaching…but now the teachers have to do whatever is necessary to get the kids to perform. The days of pulling out a textbook, studying chapter one through 30 are over. Today it’s based on one test. So we try to do the best we can every day, and I expect the best out of everyone every day.

What’s the one thing you would like to accomplish as principal of Benicia High School? The number one item is to continue improving the school…to continue to have staff and students do their best. The second thing would be to generate community support. We have an athletic facility that is getting older day by day. What we are trying to do is generate some community members who would be interested in helping us move the facility forward. We are just now in the beginning stages of starting to talk about it. Not only would the school benefit, but the community would benefit as well.

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