From Elementary to Middle School: Part II with Principal Dave Kubela

This is Part II of an interview with South Pasadena Middle School Principal Dave Kubela. To read yesterday's post with insight about organizational skills and bullying, click HERE,

Yee: I was struck by the high percentage of students who get stellar grades. I think the stats were about 25 percent of the students had a GPA of 4.0 and more than 50 percent had a GPA of 3.5 and higher.

Kubela: We have high performing kids. Eighty-five percent of our students score proficient or advanced on state testing, so the grades are pretty consistent with testing results. Most of the remaining 15 percent are in the basic range, and we really focus on helping them improve. You’ll find that our teachers are serious about grading.

Yee: What do you attribute this high achievement to?

Kubela: It starts with great kids and parents. When you have high performing kids, you raise the bar and everyone performs at a higher level. The downside is for struggling kids; the classes tend to move at a faster pace, and that’s why I focus on our intervention kids. Kids are coming in reading at a high level, and they have strong family support.

Yee: There are a lot of second- and third-hand rumors that some middle school kids are starting to experiment with sex and drugs. Maybe there are a few kids doing such things, but is this a problem that needs to be addressed? 

Kubela: Statistics have shown that in eighth grade, kids start experimenting and South Pasadena is not immune to that. I don’t think socio-economic status has anything to do with it. Project Alert published some statistics on eight graders experimenting: Eight percent with marijuana, 13 percent alcohol, 3 percent with cigarettes, 3.6 percent with inhaling. For SPMS, 8 percent of eighth graders would be 30 to 40 kids. These are real societal issues.

In my three years here, we’ve had one issue with marijuana and one with alcohol off-campus. We don’t have a lot of on-campus issues. Yes, there are a lot of rumors. I would suggest: Go to the source.  We regularly supervise the bathrooms, and I encourage parents to walk through campus with us. Though these incidents are rare, we take them very seriously. We added a new curriculum called Project Alert to educate the dangers, and we also supervise closely. The great thing about our kids is that they don’t want these problems on campus. The couple of incidents that have occurred, kids were the ones who reported to us. If you hear rumors related to schools, we need to know and investigate. 

Yee: Words of advice for incoming sixth graders and their parents?

Kubela: Give yourself time for adjustment. Help your children organize and manage time. Realize that your child is going through changes—hormonal, desire to be independent, resistance to teachers and parents and testing boundaries. All this is normal. Be supportive for kids, but set boundaries. Let them do the work themselves, but monitor them. 

The byline of this article originally stated that it was written by Kristen Lepore, which is incorrect. It was written by columnist Jessica Yee.