Penberthy Out To Change Kids Lives

Cleve Penberthy is consumed by a single question.

When a West Valley High School student walks across the Spokane Opera House stage to receive a diploma, has that student’s life been impacted?

“What I say is, we’re here to change your life, flat out,” Penberthy said, sitting in his cluttered office, surrounded by stacks of papers. Framed pictures lean against the wall, but have not been hung.

Penberthy, who begins his third year as principal of West Valley High School in the fall, has had more important things to do.

The first thing his colleagues will say is that Penberthy manages by moving around. Filled with abundant energy, Penberthy is constantly engaging teachers, students, parents - anyone he can - to find out what West Valley can do to improve a student’s education.

“What is it we could do differently to engage some of these kids,” he asks repeatedly.

In his two years, Penberthy has put some changes in place that move toward that goal. Some are small. Most are meaningful.

He changed sports practice time from 2:15 p.m. to 2:45 p.m. so athletes could use that half hour to see teachers or go to the library, instead of being forced to dash off to practice.

When students said they couldn’t stay after school for help because they had no ride home, Penberthy added an extra after-school bus route at 3 p.m.

He created an “achievement team” to work with at-risk students and set up a support center where they could get help with problems, academic or otherwise.

The goal is to challenge students, but care about them, too, Penberthy said. “You’ve got to get to know them before you can teach them.”

Working with the Amy Bragdon, principal of Centennial Middle School, Penberthy developed a program to ease students’ transition from eighth grade to the high school. Ninth-grade teachers and staff were available to answer parents’ questions and help arrange schedules during four evening sessions.

Perhaps Penberthy’s biggest hurdle was the change from a six-period traditional schedule to a seven-period alternating schedule with 97-minute long classes two days per week. In Penberthy’s first year, the schedule was developed. In his second, it began. At the end of the year, 82 percent of the staff voted to keep the new schedule. Student support also was high.

“It’s no small task to take a traditional school day and try to say maybe there’s another way to look at time,” Penberthy said.

Despite his accomplishments, Penberthy’s wish list continues to grow. Items to be examined are constantly stacked on, including: assessing graduation requirements, which haven’t been examined since 1983; developing a strong school-to-work transition program with the help of the new vocational education director; and examining school governance to ensure all parties have a say.

”(Penberthy) has delivered what he said he would do,” said Dave Smith, superintendent of West Valley. “The building is healthier now than it was when he came.”

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