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Photograph by Jacqueline Ramseyer
Lynbrook High School Principal Bill Richter was selected as the 2001 Principal of the Year by the San Jose Silicon Valley Chamber of Commerce.
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Lynbrook principal gets honors
By GEORGE MOORE
The San Jose Silicon Valley Chamber of Commerce has selected Bill Richter as its 2001 Principal of the Year. The Lynbrook High School principal will be honored at the Chamber's Legends and Leaders dinner Sept. 18 at the Fairmont Hotel in San Jose.
Richter is being recognized for his leadership and outstanding contributions since taking the reins in 1997. He said he must give credit to his involvement with a quality organization, including its students and families.
"It really is a school award, although I'm honored to have been selected," Richter said. "Like any principal at any school, it's nice to receive some recognition."
That recognition began when the associate superintendent of the Fremont Union High School District, Mike Hawkes, received a letter of application from the Chamber--sent to all 33 districts in Santa Clara County--asking to nominate one principal based on six different criteria.
The education committee at the Chamber then weighed the criteria from the returned applicants and made its selection, according to Teresa Johnson, director of governmental affairs and educational committee.
"He got excellent scores and remarks across the board," Johnson said. "He stood far and above the rest. It was obvious from reading his application that he puts his heart and soul into teaching and makes a wonderful contribution to the school and the district."
In the application, Hawkes said he focused not just on how the school has improved in terms of its students' learning and development--he also pointed out that many students at Lynbrook distinguish themselves outside the classroom.
Hawkes said more than 200 members of the school's math club won first place in the California league; the performing arts band and orchestra was selected as state honor band; the science team won the county science bowl, then placed in the nationals; and the chess club placed first in the county.
"Those were the kinds of things I thought were so important in addition to scoring well academically," Hawkes said.
Lynbrook ranked in the top 10 statewide, based on student performance on state tests, and has almost doubled its number of advanced placement tests since 1998.
The education committee at the Chamber created the award through its Excellence in Education program, and it involves recognition of a teacher and a student as well. Johnson said they wanted to spotlight not only the teachers and students, but the principals, whom they felt lacked recognition within the community. Walter Cronkite will be the keynote speaker at the dinner, at which the attendees will be made up of mostly business and community leaders.
Richter has integrated technology into instructional strategies--his first step was getting teachers to take roll and record grading on their computers. Many teachers created Web sites to communicate with their students and parents. Lynbrook is one of a few schools in the state that has established a comprehensive computer laptop program for students, and the school was recently named an exemplary Digital High School.
Hawkes said Richter is not only a leader in technology, but also is greatly involved with developmental mentoring, staff development and leadership programs for students.
Richter began his teaching career 35 years ago and taught for 19 years at both Fremont and Monta Vista high schools before becoming assistant principal at Monta Vista in 1985.
Hawkes said Richter has been key in the district's facility modernization and is overseeing a multi million-dollar renovation project at Lynbrook.
"Bill is a real leader, and there have been very few problems because he takes care of things," Hawkes said.
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