The wrong headline was printed with the Schuylkill Valley School District’s Back to School story Aug. 19. The headline incorrectly stated that Schuylkill Valley welcomes a new superintendent, when, in fact, Superintendent Dr. Warren F. Mata has been in the position for three years and says he is committed to Schuylkill Valley School District.
“I’m not going anywhere,” said Mata during a recent interview with the Item. “I love what I do here at Schuylkill Valley and I feel a commitment to the Schuylkill Valley kids and families.”
His son, daughter-in-law and grandson live in Schuylkill Valley. Mata see his position as a stewardship to the community and his family.
“I see this work as doing all of the things I can to make this an attractive place for families to come, to know that their kids get a really solid education and we do it in a way that makes sense financially for the community,” said Mata.
According to the school website http://www.schuylkillvalley.org/, “Dr. Warren F. Mata has been the superintendent of the Schuylkill Valley School District since July 1, 2012. Prior to coming to Schuylkill Valley, Dr. Mata served as the assistant superintendent with the Exeter Township School District. Dr. Mata also served previously as an elementary school and middle school principal in the School District of Springfield Township and as an elementary school principal with the Bethlehem Area School District. He began his work in public education as an instrumental and choral music teacher.”
Looking back at the past three years, Mata said, “Some of the things I feel really good about is we spent a lot of time, quietly but persistently, around safe procedures for the kids, to be sure that we have the appropriate safe guards in place.”
Small things he said people may not notice are the cameras throughout the buildings. There is also a more secure way for when visitors want to come into the buildings.
“Our protocols before were probably not as tight and maybe they didn’t need to be as tight before, but now we have clear protocols around that,” he said.
Mata also discussed technology in education. He said the district just upgraded the fiber optic backbone and the security around the Internet structure and technology has been upgraded, providing much more capacity.
“When kids begin to bring devices in we have the infrastructure, the capacity to manage that well,” he said.
The district has also spent the past couple years working with teachers on implementing technology in the classroom.
“What does it mean and how can you effectively use technology in a way that just isn’t neat bells and whistles but is really good educationally sound ways of doing it,” he said. “My way of thinking is slow, steady, correctly is the right way to go. We may not be as far as other districts but where we are, we’re solidly where we are.”
For example, he said the district has been working on tentative plans to bring a one-to-one initiative to ninth graders, working with parent focus groups, teachers, the high school principal, technology staff and the school board, he said.
“We’re slowly getting that in place because we think that what we do with the ninth graders, as we move through, that’s where we want to start,” said Mata.
Looking forward, Mata discussed his goals.
“One of the primary goals would be around technology. I don’t want to do technology just for the bells and whistles… I’d rather have our teachers think long and hard about how can I do things with technology that I couldn’t do before. Do it for the value add proposition rather than just to say I’m doing it. That approach takes a long time,” said Mata.
His goal over the next couple years is that every classroom uses technology in a way that truly enhances and is a value add to what teachers have always done in the past but it makes things more expedited or more intense or more quickly accessible to the kids.
Regarding infrastructure, Schuylkill Valley has a cinder track. Because sometimes Schuylkill Valley runners compete on artificial, rubber tracks they practice in other districts.
“There’s been a good group of people who have steadfastly worked on a stadium renewal, a stadium project, a stadium campaign,” said Mata.
In the future, Mata wants to be able to leave behind a legacy, that Schuylkill Valley effectively integrated technology, upgraded the stadium and preserved “the quality of education that our teachers so graciously provided and that is a hallmark of this district.”
Discussing the anxiety and agitation around state testing, Mata said he wants teachers to know that what they do everyday is much more valuable than whatever could be measured by anything like the state testing.
“Our teachers care deeply about our kids,” said Mata. “Our graduation rate is like 98 percent this past year. That tells me that kids find their home here, their academic and extra curricular home here. I want that to be part of what has always made Schuylkill Valley a strong district.”
He said 83 percent of students participated in some extra curricular activity, like band, theater and clubs. “There’s so much more to helping moms and dads raise their kids and give them wholesome positive things to do. That’s our job.”
“As all of the other stuff may come crashing down in around state testing and teacher accountability and all of the agitation about how public schools are not serving our kids well, we are serving our kids well,” said Mata. “I want our teachers to know deeply that I respect and that our board respects that steadfast work that they’re doing. That’s really important to me.”
Mata said he has a personal and professional stake in the community.
“What I love about this community is … that there is a real place for kids to grow up in this community,” said Mata. “I want to say this is a good public school… I am really committed to this community and this school district.”
