Santa Monica High School will welcome Stephen Franklin as its new House Principal following the SMMUSD School Board’s appointment of the position at its Aug. 1 meeting.
Franklin comes to SMMUSD from the Montebello Unified School District, where he has been serving as Senior Assistant Principal of Bell Gardens High School for the past two years.
Prior to that, he served as Summer School Principal and Assistant Principal at Bell Gardens High School, Dean of Students/Assistant Principal of Pasadena High School, Acting Dean of Students and language arts/history teacher at Elliot Middle School, English teacher with the Upward Bound Program, social studies teacher at Lincoln Multicultural Middle School, and a sixth grade teacher at Brightwood Elementary School.
As Senior Assistant Principal, Franklin worked with his peers to develop a master schedule that promoted rigor and maximized course offerings.
He supervised the counselors and advisors in promoting a college-going atmosphere throughout the entire campus as well as promoted career options through the ROP program.
Franklin’s past experience in visual communication and marketing provides him with a clear understanding that communication and collaboration with all campus stakeholders is the key to student success.
He promotes a safe, orderly, and positive school environment by facilitating meetings among educators, students, and parents to improve communication and resolve conflicts.
He supervises and supports the special education staff to ensure students’ needs and federal/state regulations are being met.
He has encouraged cohesion within the campus’s Visual and Performing Arts department to increase and vary performances/student work.
In order to ensure students feel safe and able to succeed as they transition into high school, Mr. Franklin works directly with the feeder middle schools.
By attending seminars on special education, disaster preparedness, suicide prevent and risk assessment, master scheduling, and conflict resolution, he continues to improve upon his knowledge of best practices to keep students safe and challenged in their learning environment.
Also at the Aug. 1 board meeting, Dr. Terry Deloria was appointed as the new Assistant Superintendent for Educational Services.
Dr. Deloria comes to SMMUSD from the William S. Hart Union High School District, where she has been serving as the Director of Special Programs and Staff Development for the past twelve years.
She is also currently an adjacent professor at Cal State Bakersfield, where she teaches secondary school credential candidates.
Prior to that, Dr. Deloria served as Assistant Principal at Canyon High School, summer school principal for seven summers, adjunct math instructor at College of the Canyons, and a math teacher at William S. Hart High School.
As Director of Special Programs and Staff Development, and in collaboration with the Directors of Technology and of Curriculum, she led the districtwide plan to transition to common core standards and assessments.
In order to improve student achievement, Dr. Deloria first focused on professional development for all educators, emphasizing the urgency for continuous improvement.
She coached teachers, assistant principals, and principals to analyze student achievement data to drive instructional decisions.
She also taught teachers how to evaluate their own role in student progress.
Dr. Deloria is well-versed in best practices to improve student achievement at all ability levels.
She has implemented a technology grant to improve student writing and college readiness, initiated an award-winning Intensive Literary Program for summer school, established an AVID (Advancement Via Individual Determination) program, designed math intervention programs, led a plan to improve instruction and increase rigor for special education classes, created a research-based alternative to eighth grade retention, and redesigned the English Learners program to exceed the state’s benchmarks for those students.
Additionally, Dr. Deloria has worked with Johns Hopkins University to better include parents in the support of student success.
She was named Administrator of the Year for 2011-12, received ACSA’s “David Millen Mentoring Award” and Valuing Diversity Award, received California School Board Association’s Golden Bell Award for the Intensive Literacy Program, was named District Teacher of the Year in 1997, and received the Wright Brothers Award of Excellence in Teaching Math.
