Photograph by Paul Myers

Martin St. John, superintendent and principal of the Lakeside Joint School District, helps a second-grader find a sweater to wear during recess. St. John, who will retire at the end of the school year, says he enjoys walking from class to class and watching children learn.

St. John leaves Lakeside to take up a new career

By Rebecca Ray

Martin St. John has spent 37 years planting seeds of knowledge in children's minds. But after June 30, he will literally plant seeds instead.

St. John, principal and superintendent of Lakeside Joint School District, plans to retire as an educator at the end of the 2001-2002 school year and take up a new career in his wife's landscape design business, Patricia St. John Landscape Designs, in Santa Clara.

St. John, 60, and his wife, Patricia, are avid gardeners. The tiny backyard of their Santa Clara condominium is filled with various vegetables and flowers. The St. Johns, as well as other residents in the complex, also tend a community vegetable garden.

Since Patricia is "the champion designer," St. John said he'll probably focus on accounting, bookkeeping and other business operations.

However, St. John will still be involved in the educational system. He says he's thinking of working in Patricia's business part-time and doing educational consulting "to keep his hand in" education.

Also, after spending decades as a teacher and administrator, St. John plans to become a student and take horticulture classes at a community college.

Although St. John, who has been with the Lakeside district for nine years, had thought about retiring for a year or two, he didn't decide to leave the one-school district until fall 2001. He said he chose to retire because "I think, more than anything else, I still had good health, I was still young, [and Patricia and I] got to the age where it was financially doable."

St. John says he thinks he will miss the Lakeside community more than anything else. "I've enjoyed being here immensely," he said of Lakeside Elementary School, which is in the Santa Cruz Mountains and has 135 students. "It is a very unique school with a real caring community and a real dedicated teaching staff. I think it's an example of what can happen when a whole community gets behind its school."

St. John added that what has made the K-6 school, which has existed since 1881, special throughout the years is that "people are very committed to this school," he said. "They work really hard to create an environment for their children that's very positive and very stimulating. I'm very proud to have done my part to keep that tradition going."

"[St. John is] really a people person," said Les McClane, who has been a district board member since 1991. "He has tremendous dedication to the kids and the school. He truly wants what's best for the children."

Originally, St. John, who was born and raised in Berkeley, wanted to be a coach. However, he says, there were more opportunities in elementary education. So St. John, who had received bachelor's degrees in political science and geography and minored in history at San Francisco State University, obtained a master's degree from the school in educational administration.

St. John got his first job in education in 1965 at his alma mater, St. Mary's in Berkeley. For three years he taught sixth, seventh and eighth grades and was a counselor. He was also the school's athletic director and coached basketball and flag football.

After he worked at St. Mary's, St. John moved on to public schools. For a decade, he taught kindergarten, first grade and sixth grade in the Las Lomitas Elementary School District, which has schools in Atherton and Menlo Park.

St. John says he loved working with each age group equally, because the children had unique identities and faced different challenges at each age.

Later on, St. John wanted to go into administration. But the Las Lomitas district was small, and there didn't appear to be an administrative opening. So he obtained a "teaching principalship" in the Mariposa County Unified School District, in the Sierra Nevada. For three years, he taught seventh- and eighth-graders during the day and focused exclusively on administrative work after school, because his school was too small for a full-time principal.

St. John said he went into administration, because "I just enjoyed problem-solving and working with people. And I felt that I enjoyed the challenge of developing a school vision." Also, he said, he wanted to be able to do more for schools.

However, he said, what he liked the most about being an administrator was that he could walk from class to class and watch children learn. "I think there's great satisfaction in creating an environment and finding the resources for teachers and children to develop really strong educational programs. That's the fun part of it," he said.

St. John obtained a full principalship when he moved on to the Hillsborough City School District. Three years later, he was principal in the Los Altos Elementary School District, where he stayed for eight years.

St. John says he applied for the superintendent/principal position at Lakeside when he felt he was ready to try more than being a principal.

McClane said that St. John was above the four or so other candidates and that hiring him was "a very easy decision to make."

McClane described St. John as being knowledgeable about school curricula and being a hard worker. Every time McClane drives by the school, he says, he sees St. John's car in the parking lot, even when the rest of the lot is deserted.

McClane added that St. John was "a real asset to the community."

St. John, who has two grown children, says he also looks forward to fishing and backpacking with his brother Leo, who is superintendent of the North Monterey County Unified School District in the Marble Mountain Wilderness in Northern California.

The Lakeside district recently interviewed candidates for St. John's position.

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