The fourth Brownell Middle School principal in as many years,
Greg Camacho-Light has been in and out of school for health reasons
for the past two weeks.
The fourth Brownell Middle School principal in as many years, Greg Camacho-Light has been in and out of school for health reasons for the past two weeks.
Superintendent Deborah Flores said Camacho-Light is expected to fully recover and be back to work full time, though she didn’t say when.
In the meantime, various administrators including Assistant Principal Kristen Shouse, who did not return phone calls, and Linda Piceno, former principal of South Valley Middle School and former assistant superintendent of human resources for the district, are filling in. Camacho-Light is also coming in as often as his health will allow, Trustee Rhoda Bress said.
“There’s a concern when a principal is absent for any period of time,” Bress said. “Brownell has gone through a lot and has had some difficult times, but it’s back on track.
“Given the support we are told is there, I expect it’ll stay on track,” she said. “I’m comfortable that the school is being taken care of.”
Though trustees hadn’t received word on how long Camacho-Light’s temporary absence would be, Trustee Mark Good said the most recent principal brought a sense of stability Brownell hadn’t seen in years.
“I see him as an anchor,” said Good, whose two youngest children attended Brownell. “Unlike many of the principals in the recent past, Greg is a longtime Gilroy educator. I see him as a long-term solution to stop the revolving door of the principalship.”
Trustee Francisco Dominguez said he expected to learn more details at Thursday’s board meeting.
“The issue (with Camacho-Light’s absence) is stability for Brownell,” Dominguez said. “He really initiated some good activities in terms of bringing stability. Part of the issue was that morale was so low and a big part of that was the high turnover.”
Dominguez said he believed Camacho-Light’s presence and efforts to work with his staff boosted morale at the school.
When Camacho-Light took up the principalship at Brownell, he inherited a school with a weakened math department entering its fourth year in Program Improvement, a federal designation given to schools that fail to met yearly academic targets and a title that Camacho-Light hoped to shed quickly.
He was preceded by Francisco Fuentes, a veteran teacher and middle school principal from Arizona who moved back home after only one year and filled the vacancy left behind by former principal Joseph Di Salvo, a San Jose educator. Di Salvo’s tenure was also short lived. He retired after a rocky year at the helm and succeeded Suzanne Damm, the last principal who served for more than a year or two.
An educator since 1994 in the Gilroy Unified School District, Camacho-Light started off teaching theater at Gilroy High School then took on the role of vice principal. He served as assistant principal at Ascencion Solorsano Middle School for a year before moving on to Brownell. Before coming to GUSD, he held several interesting positions, teaching in a one-room schoolhouse in San Benito County and serving as the mayor of Hollister in the 1980s. Born in Monterey, he’s a native Californian and resides in Gilroy with his wife, who teaches special education, and six children, who range in age from seven to 16 and attend Catholic school.
Brownell’s principals
2006 – Suzanne Damm retires after several years as Brownell’s principal
2007- Joseph Di Salvo retires after one year at Brownell’s helm
2008- Francisco Fuentes moves back to Arizona after one year at Brownell, Greg Camacho-Light takes the helm
