A Scientific Mind in the Leadership Arena - little chat with Peter Demyan - Interview

School Administrator, Nov, 2001 by Jay P. Goldman

Peter Demyan, trained as a scientist but operating in the tumultuous laboratory of public school leadership, tries to look at his world through a "why not?" lens.

Why not reverse the standard succession of biology, chemistry and physics courses in high school if it leads to a more logical development of concepts and better understanding? Why not arrange with higher education institutions to let students earn an associate degree at the same time they complete their high school studies? Why not require every student to complete at least one college-level course as a graduation stipulation?

As superintendent of the 5,900-student San Jacinto Unified Schools near Palm Springs, Calif., Demyan is fundamentally reorienting the way a public school system promotes student learning. His mission, as he sees it, is to transform a community that's traditionally held modest, if not downright lowly, expectations for its school graduates to one where every student is a candidate for postsecondary studies and lifelong learning.

"Once you show it's possible to do something that's different from the norm, people will follow," says Demyan, who cuts a pretty imposing figure at 6-foot-3 and 270 lbs.

He has been the superintendent of San Jacinto, a majority Hispanic community of working poor about 90 miles east of Los Angeles, for only 21/2 years. But that's time enough for long-time stakeholders to realize what a profoundly different thinker and doer has landed in their midst.

"He shook us up ... with this idea of high school students going to a junior college at the same time to work on an associate degree," says Karen Robles, president of the teachers' union. "We live in a valley where typically students did not go on to college."

Adds Robert Calfee, dean of the school of education at University of California at Riverside, which is collaborating with San Jacinto on several initiatives: "Some of my colleagues do wonder, 'Where did this guy come from?' He'll give expositions that go on for some time, but he has this wonderful way of connecting."

Demyan's keen intellect and thirst for finding practical, data-driven solutions has been apparent from the day he came for his job interview. "While waiting for his turn to meet the board," recalls Alan Cornett, San Jacinto board president at the time, "Pete used two laptops to download our district's STAR-9 scores and did a regression analysis on them. It was quite extraordinary."

Demyan, who holds a bachelor's degree in chemistry and a master's in physics, never abandoned his scientific inclinations when he gave up a full-time faculty position in the education division at Johns Hopkins University after seven years. While there he worked on curriculum programs, alternatives for students with disabilities and magnet schools for purposes of desegregation. He left academia, much to the bewilderment of his faculty colleagues, for a chance to apply his research-based ideas in his hometown school district in Lorain, Ohio, where he began his career as a science teacher.

As Lorain's chief administrator for instruction, Demyan was able to demonstrate that attractive magnet schools, including what is reputedly the first public Montesson bilingual program, could be used to voluntarily integrate a school system.

Working with diverse student groups, he also began to foster a strong personal sense of social justice. That ethos led to a premature end to his first superintendency, in Yakima, Wash., when his successful efforts to narrow the achievement gap and raise the sights of minority students started to affect the supply of cheap local labor.

Demyan hasn't found the same cultural divide in San Jacinto, where he is proving that the key to success may be the removal of barriers. On this point, he recalls a former colleague, a surgeon of 40 years, on the medical school faculty at Johns Hopkins.

"In speaking to incoming medical students, this world-renowned surgeon told them what he had learned in over 40 years of surgery. He said he learned that he had not 'cured' anyone. Rather, he discovered that the surgeon's main task is to remove the blockages that keep the body from returning itself to health. My passion is to work with others to go over, under, through and sometimes beyond the barriers ... that impede them. Whatever it takes."

Jay Goldman is editor of The School Administrator.

BIO STATS: PETER DEMYAN

Currently: superintendent, San Jacinto, Calif.

Earlier: assistant professor of education, Johns Hopkins University

Age: 55

Greatest Influence: Despite being a chemistry major ready to go into organic research, I found great joy in tutoring struggling high school students. I told my adviser I would "try" teaching.

Best Professional Day: A three-way tie: as superintendent, presenting my son with his high school diploma; as an administrator, developing a magnet school in the arts, sciences and technology and seeing my daughter stand in line to sign up; as a doctoral student, having my grandparents, who helped me afford college, present when I received my Ph.D.