Bill Melton is a retired lifelong educator, world traveler, and deep thinker. Bill shares his tale of choosing the path less traveled, leading him to the world of education. He reflects on his career that includes tenures as a high school principal and a member of the Albert Einstein Academies Board of Trustees. The conversation then shifts to the present and future of teaching, examining the role of technology and how the pandemic has reshaped classroom dynamics. His passion for education, the continual evolution of learning, and the dedication required from educators resonates throughout our conversation, inspiring us to embrace the journey of personal growth.
Bill Melton is a retired lifelong educator, world traveler, and deep thinker. Bill shares his tale of choosing the path less traveled, leading him to the world of education. He reflects on his career that includes tenures as a high school principal and a member of the Albert Einstein Academies Board of Trustees. The conversation then shifts to the present and future of teaching, examining the role of technology and how the pandemic has reshaped classroom dynamics. His passion for education, the continual evolution of learning, and the dedication required from educators resonates throughout our conversation, inspiring us to embrace the journey of personal growth.
I always have maintained that if I was to drop dead tomorrow, in terms of my professional life, I couldn't ask for more.
Speaker 2:In this episode it was my privilege to sit down with Bill Melton. I first met Bill when he joined the Albert Einstein Academy's Board of Trustees more than 10 years ago. Bill is a retired, lifelong educator, world traveler, deep thinker, and this conversation touched on a wide range of topics, from his views on how education has changed over the years, what his legacy will be and much, much more. I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did. Welcome to the Superintendent's Hangout, where we discuss topics in education, charter schools, life in general, and not necessarily in that order. I'm your host, Dr Sharetta. Come on in and hang out. Welcome, Bill. Thank you for spending some time this afternoon for this chat. I was wondering if you could start out by sharing your origin story, where you come from, who you are, what brings you to this present moment.
Speaker 1:Well, I'm really from the East Coast. My father was a submariner and so there are big submarine bases all up and down the East Coast Maine, new London, where I'm from, north Virginia and Key West Florida. So I really lived until I was in middle school on the East Coast. My dad had come out here one time, coming back from Hawaii. They stopped off in San Diego and he liked it and so he worked it out to retire here in San Diego. So I came out here when I was in middle school and then, basically from then on, I became a San Diego person.
Speaker 1:I was educated here, lived here and I once in a while do. I've done a lot of skiing, so I do go to mountainous areas where there's lots of snow, but in the wintertime I do. I guess it's just in my blood. At my home I have like six deciduous big trees. I remember a neighbor said to me one time why do you have those trees? You have to rake all those leaves. Well, that is kind of a remembrance of how the seasons change. And then I, as I said, I was educated here, went up through high school in East County and then San Diego State and I actually originally majored in sociology, which I thought I would probably go into personnel work.
Speaker 1:But while I was in school I got a job at Helix High School in East County as a tutoring aide. In those days they had kids, had study halls in their program and so there was a teacher of record on the name. But the college guys and girls were the ones who really helped those kids out. And the more I did that, the more I really liked working with kids. And so just before I graduated there was a book very, very popular in those days called the Organization man and it was really an indictment of the business world and in fact it even had a chapter on how to marry the right wife, so you'd be a success. This book just scared me to death because it was everything I wouldn't want in life.
Speaker 1:Ironically enough, my father had arranged. My father had a good friend that worked for Honeywell, which is still a very big company today, and he worked it out. And the guy was, he kind of got it all set up so that I would get a job. And I went to an interview with this guy and this is really a month, the month I graduated and I can only tell you that everything in the interview had a nautical term. On the walls there were pictures of boats and ships, and the lamp on his table looked like one of those you know, the steering thing for a sailboat, and all this. And he kept saying things like you know we'd love to have you on our crew.
Speaker 1:This is going to be a graded. Every time he said anything nautical, I got more and more afraid that I was losing my life, and so I said at the end he says well, what do you think it? Are you ready to?
Speaker 2:and swear to God Are you ready to set sail? Yeah, are you ready to?
Speaker 1:jump in the crew and I said you know, I think I probably need to think about it. And you know what? That was the wrong thing. He didn't even accept that. He just said no, bill, I don't think this is the place for you. Well, thank God, right.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:So it helped me. I walked out the door. My father couldn't believe that I had turned down this job and but I told him. I said I'm sorry. He said what do you guys want in life? I had this all worked for you. Well, short, you know, long story short. I had quit my job. I was looking for another one. So then I thought, well, I'll go probation. They didn't have any jobs in El Cajon or in San Diego. So I went to LA where I heard there was openings. I did very well in the interview. It looked like I was going to get it.
Speaker 1:I was driving back to San Diego. You have to remember this was back in the 60s and it was such a smoggy day in San Diego that I mean in Los Angeles that I couldn't believe it. And the further south I drove, the more I thought I don't want to live here in LA. So when I got home, I meanwhile kept thinking I really enjoy working with kids. Maybe I should become a teacher and then I could do. And I gave it some thought and I will always remember the rest of my life.
Speaker 1:My wife said the best thing you could ever imagine. I finally told her. I said you know what? None of this is going to work. I really think I want to be a teacher, but I'm going to have to go back to school and get a credential and do some graduate work. And she said you know what? I always thought that's what you should do, but I figured you had to come up with that yourself. And that's how I got into education and then education. I started out as a teacher at that school, by the way, at Helix. Helix High School.
Speaker 2:That was pre-charter, obviously. Oh, yes, yes, very pre-charter. That's like 60s, you said, and that was that was.
Speaker 1:You know, it was just one of the schools in the Grossmont district. I think it was the third one that actually it was Grossmont, then Elkohon, then Helix, and so I started there in special ed and I had all the credentials. I figured I'll get a job. You know I'll have every credential. And I did. I started in special ed and then and they then Valhalla High School opened and they had openings because people were being pulled from every school. My principal liked what I did. He won me in the regular program and I was at those in those days special ed had lots of money. I felt like I was maybe jumping into something that would be not, as you know, fun. I could do so many things. But you know, I told the guy, after giving a lot of thought, that I wasn't going to change and he said I don't like that answer. He said so I'm going to give you one more week and after that I'll accept it. And in that week I went to the special ed people and I said what if this doesn't work out? We think you're doing a great job, we'll bring you back. So in that I went into the regular program and I never looked back, I, I taught. I had such great assignments.
Speaker 1:At one time there was a program that was a quasi requirement called social living, which involves some sex education and whatnot. It was a new course in the district and I taught social science. I also taught government. So they probably I don't know exactly why, but they chose me, along with another teacher from Santana, to train other teachers who were going to teach this class. I believe it was because of my background in sociology is the way I handle it, I guess but at any rate. So we had this extra job of training teachers and you know what, as I did that it was for two years and as I did that, I learned to love working with adults as well, helping them to develop and, and, by the way, finding out interesting things that adults do, the same things kids do. I had people turn in papers that were totally plagiarized and have to sit down and talk to them Only now I'm not talking to a high school kid, I'm talking to a colleague and. But that got me in the administrative trail, if you will.
Speaker 1:And and I remember when I left it's an interesting thing about education when I left, I taught government. As I said, this quasi retired class was a sophomore class. So kids that I has at sophomores I would get again as seniors and now they were, you know, another couple of years more mature. But it was the greatest assignment because you could sign up for the government teacher you wanted and the kids that liked me. It was like old home week. You know, here they are at the door. And when I left to become then I became a vice principal at the same school. I remember a colleague saying Bill, why are you doing this? You have the best assignment on the campus. But you know it's because of that other activity I had with teachers.
Speaker 1:There was an adult aspect of education that I wanted to be a part of. I wanted to be able to have a say in in in policies. I remember when we were doing this class we were sitting in a big room and it was the district people, different administrators. We were the ones on the ground. We were the ones actually working with these other teachers and also going into the classroom to see how it was being done. And yet there were other people kind of trying to direct it in the way they saw. And then I thought to myself I have the experience. I've been in the classroom. I want, at that same table, where my experience can, can have an effect on where it's going. And it may sound a little bit biased, but I felt like some of those people who had never really been in the classroom were making decisions that that they really didn't understand all the ramifications. And so that's how I continued and I I basically was very committed. I had a mentor who I'll always thank because he suggested I do this.
Speaker 1:But I went to a program in Orange County for a year.
Speaker 1:It was for principals.
Speaker 1:There was only two of us in there who were vice principals.
Speaker 1:He was from Orange County or somewhere in the LA area and myself.
Speaker 1:We did that for a year.
Speaker 1:But he told me, if you do this, it'll come back.
Speaker 1:This will come back, it's going to show your desire. And, by golly, when I was interviewing for a principal ship, I remember it came back to me. It was told back to me that you know you had these different committees you had to interview in front of, and it was a woman who was the head of one of the school's parent teacher association and she said I'm so impressed with that, with that Bill Melton, that he spent a whole year going to Orange County when there was no guarantee he was going to be a principal. So I always remembered that that man gave me some good advice and at finally, at some point I became a principal and and I can honestly say, in the scope of things, it was like a dream. I, I, I always have maintained that if if I was to drop dead tomorrow, in terms of my professional life, I couldn't ask for more, because I never. I wanted a principalship. I wanted to have the effect of a school and that my impact on how you could work people together.
Speaker 2:And so as a principal and I know you were very successful in many different ways, but one of the things that when I first met you I learned about was some transformative work that you did at Alcohol Valley Can you describe that? And some turnaround work that you did at that school. Right, I think it brought some national acclaim.
Speaker 1:Yes, you're right, it was. I had my period there. There were five years. That was just a heady experience, is all I can tell you. What happened was my school, where I was principal and I had been a VP there, by the way, for several years. Beforehand I switched from Helix to Mount McGill another school and then from Mount McGill to alcohol, and so I had been there. I knew the school.
Speaker 1:The school was a high minority, low income, lots of reputational things. We were always fighting to show people that this is really a good school. Now, on the same boulevard in the city of El Cajon where this school sits, is another high school at the far end of El Cajon, which is more residential areas that had like ranch style homes with lots of property. Most people knew to the area would think, oh, that must, those are better kids because they've got homes, ours, we were surrounded by apartments. So I fought that all the time and because of this and because of our low income, we were targeted with some federal money they had. It was an experimental thing they were gonna do and they targeted one school and it was El Cajon Valley, my school with a rather large amount of money to see what we could do. It was title one, money geared to try to work with the curriculum to help these kids be more successful. And so that was the beginning of this journey we took, and all I can say is that, from an educational standpoint, it was just wonderful because we had some funds that we could really start to do with.
Speaker 1:I then really start to work with my staff, and I won't be exaggerating when I say that during this period of time I had my typical day. I had two days is what I used to tell my wife. I had the regular school day and then, when the day was over and people left, I used to go home for dinner first, but it was too hard to then. It just broke the thing. I would just go out somewhere in El Cajon, get some fast food, go home and I would start my second day. I literally, for several years, never really got home until close to nine o'clock, and because it just took much.
Speaker 1:I was also a functioning principal as well as trying to change this whole school and the staff lined up behind me not easy. There were a few people that I had a little group of that they didn't want to change, and I always remember that when I went to a conference, a superintendent told me one time I was commenting about how you bring these people around to change the larger organization and this goes for any organization, not education necessarily, just all big organizations and she said you know what it's like popping popcorn? She said when you change your staff, when you pop popcorn, what do you get? She says there's some corn that starts popping right away. Well, in your group that's the teachers that jump right in. They're anxious for change, they'll do it, they're risk takers, blah, blah, blah. Then the popcorn starts popping like mad. And that's your general staff. They're just now coming on board. And then, if you remember how popcorn goes, then it slows down and there's a few last little poppers. That's the staff members that have held out. They maybe aren't really for it, but they do. And then, with popcorn, what you're left with there are a few corn kernels. And what do you do with them? You tend to throw them out, and so that's really what happened with my staff.
Speaker 1:It was that same type of thing, and when we started changing man, everybody got into it. We got again. I had a very good support at the district who kept funneling not just money, but the ability for me to do the things that I wanted to do. I remember this group the opposition was a small group but very vocal, and the math department chair happened to be this guy and I was finally having a line in the sand meeting where we're going to move forward or what. And this meeting was right after school. Everyone was going to be there. I knew it was going to be tough. I had a bathroom off of my office so I went into the bathroom really to get my thoughts together oh gosh, how am I going to handle this? And I stepped out and I saw a figure. I saw this figure just flying out of my office and I looked down and there was a card and it opened it up and it was from a very popular English teacher on my campus good teacher. And she told me. She said I want you to know something. We're all on pins and needles about this meeting today. She says but I want you to know you're going to do well. The opposing people. They're small but they're so vocal. And she said, bill, what you don't realize is the majority of the staff is right behind you. We just haven't been vocal, but wait till this afternoon and I just walked out of my office.
Speaker 1:I went to that meeting. I felt so energized and I started that meeting and blah, blah, blah. And sure enough, the opposition group, the guy. He was ready. He was always throwing out statistics and so we were changing to the quarter system, and so he had all this and he started in and, just like magic, other teachers started raising their hands and saying excuse me, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And I did. I could stand back and let the staff take them on, not just me. And that was the beginning of the real change at the school.
Speaker 1:And you know what I have a very important thing to think about. He was a good math teacher, by the way, an excellent math teacher but personally he was hard to live with. And when he was in my office one day, I told him he's put out some of these statistics. Well, we researched them and they were totally wrong. And I laid it out and I said how dare you say that? Look at theirs. I don't know where you got your stuff, but they're wrong. This is what it was all on the quarter system. And if I lived to be 100, I'll never forget what he told me. He laughed and he goes. Oh, bill, nobody ever checks statistics, and particularly what they know. I'm the math teacher nobody. They figure I know what I'm talking about. He goes. I make up some of my statistics and he goes. The problem is you did study this one. I have never forgotten that, because the deeper lesson in that was really a lot of people gain mileage through show and not real knowledge. I mean we all need to learn from those kind of statements.
Speaker 1:And so our school continued. We came up with so many Everybody. I had committees for curriculum, for athletics, for every aspect of the school, and we were all. People worked, they worked, and then on top of that we started getting attention. And that's another interesting thing about life If you start getting some press, then you get more. And so somebody told the press and they told us what was going on. And so one thing led to another and we were invited to Houston, texas, to present our plan at a conference. And so everybody got excited and so we did, and of course the district was helping me out with this. We were there by the Houston and we had this and we were so excited. We were laying out everything and we never lied about it.
Speaker 1:Our school had its problems. We had a lot of problems in that community, but we were surmounting them and kids were getting excited. It was a very heady time. We did that. We come home that got press and what you know, in the next five years we went to Washington DC, providence, rhode Island, boston, and I think that went in that and then, of course, houston. And it was just like amazing, every time you did another trip there'd be more press on it. The district was just, they were loving it Because there was so much publicity on this one school that had been always the problem school, and so all I can say is that it was a time that you saw, I saw change.
Speaker 1:I saw people get excited, I saw kids proud of where they were at, and so, as a principal, I have to say that my time there was the best and it couldn't be better. And then I say this but I'm not trying to brag, but, as I said, when press follows you and you start getting the good reports, it goes beyond you, and so, sure enough, hanging in my den in my house was because a legislator in Sacramento heard about what was going on in El Cajon. He sent someone from his office down to spend a couple of days at our school and he took pictures and everything else and they went back and the upshot of that was and I don't remember the date, it's hanging it's an official document from the legislature naming a particular day that year Bill Melton Day and I just thought how you could go full circle from oh my god, we're getting this money, maybe we can do something all the way to that. So that's kind of my trajectory of education, at least in public.
Speaker 2:That's very inspirational and I knew the general broad strokes of that, but some of the details really fill it out for me. So thank you that. I think you've been very humble In the past so you didn't tell me most of those things in there. I think the education world received a real gift when you resisted the nautical businessman whatever. That sounds like something out of a movie. So you retired and soon after retirement you're asked to come visit a charter school and eventually you end up on I think in the beginning I think that was what we were transitioning from a governance council to a formal board with a 501 c3. Can you describe that Whole transition and and what board governance has meant to you in your life?
Speaker 1:you bet that was an interesting aspect because it was the year I retired. I Joined a a class at Grossman College, a German class, because both of my kids are married to Germans. They met them independently, so I'm not quite sure what the stats are on that, but at any rate we were going to Germany one is from northern Germany, the other one from Berlin and so I Took this class. I was in the class and the professor Came up to me and said didn't you just retire as a principal? And I said, yes, she goes. Well, you know, there's this charter school, albert Einstein, and they're getting ready to to expand into a middle school, and I bet they could use some, maybe some, information you might be able to give them. So I Took the number at that time. The person in charge, I believe, was Lucy Fowers.
Speaker 2:Lucy Fowers and.
Speaker 1:I Made a call and she said why don't you meet me here on a Saturday? And so, and there was like one or two people with her and I was just going to give them. So that's what happened. So we start talking now. At the time I did, I did realize they didn't know, like they didn't even understand campus, you know supervisors, because it always been elementary up to that point, it was still a small operation. And she started asking me this and asking me that and told me this and blah, blah, blah. And what did I think about? Certain things that are viewed in the elementary. And so I was doing all that and then, when the day ended, she said, by the way, she said, you know, we are now going to transition to an actual governing board, which should be nice if you would get on that. And so I said okay.
Speaker 1:And ten years went by and it was a whole different world for me, one that was also very interesting, very challenging. Very early on, I do remember and this is an interesting side thing because I had a good friend who was a elementary teacher and we used to travel. He and his wife would travel with my wife and I, and he was he, he and I had been, our trajectories were somewhat similar. So he, he was just going to retire, so he still had. He was in the last year of his teaching and I had just witnessed here a teacher who had been given an improvement plan and he just blew it off and so he wasn't brought back. I Just felt that was so refreshing because in the public sector it was far harder and, let's face it, I mean every organization can have people that you kind of wish they had chosen another line of work and it was a very exhaustive process. I was refreshed by that. I mean he was given a chance to improve it. He just so I mentioned that in the car and this other guy said oh, there you are, you've gone to the dark side. And I said what do you mean? He goes. Well, that's the charter movement. You know you have no protections and I thought that was so interesting and I always remembered that as I spent my next ten years in the charter movement. No teacher ever needs to worry about their position when they're doing their job, and particularly your stellar teachers would never need to worry. So I always thought that was kind of a funny thing. The coverage seems to always be for the one who's doing a mediocre job, but I just it.
Speaker 1:I saw a different way of doing things. I got in on the ground floor, it now they actually went into a middle school and where it was separated, and and then I just have to jump ahead that during that period of time it was Decided that we were going to actually build our own middle school, and so during that time the finance person didn't quite. She couldn't grasp that whole picture. So we did a lot of Visitations in this in the early stages of this probably a year's worth, yeah and we went up to as far north as there as LA, looking at different schools, how they, what they look like, how they did. Every time we would have lunch afterwards and this particular person was always there and she always put a wet blanket on it as if, you know, we couldn't do this, we couldn't do this, and life, you know, is interesting, that twists and turns of life. She became ill, so she had to leave that position and the new people that we brought in, we went to a professional group. They told us right away you guys are healthy, you can financially, you can do this, and so we then really got serious about. Maybe we can do this, and we did, and it was private. We did our own financing.
Speaker 1:There's a school up in LA called the Oscar de la Jolla school. I think he probably put most of the money into it. We thought that's what we want, something that had had this Modern, industrial look. It didn't look like just a school. I can honestly say that the middle school we have now is better than that one, and I to this day I'm not exaggerating, I get goosebumps. I just came up to this building today and I look at it and I realized that I was a part of that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the board had to help make that happen and and and we hadn't. I'll be honest, we had many times we worried about it. We didn't know if we could do it. Quite one member of our board was a real estate Developer. He at first thought it was going to be a money pit and you listen to people like that but yet other things suggested no, it's not that way. And so we Surrounded all those obstacles and and because of the way it was done, it was done on a private basis.
Speaker 1:I know that I at that time I was president of the board. I know that I was able to come many days, put a hard hat on and Met in the office downstairs of the architects and the builders, so I was on the inside track of hearing the problems, how they were going to change it, how they did this, how it was a fascinating, fascinating experience. And when it was done, I Like I said, I look at this building and I think that's something real, that that's that's dreams can become real and that building is there. A lot of people made it happen, but I know that I had a piece of that, so yeah, and your name is on the plaque too, on the front, so and by the way, in the in the play, in the stepping stones going up, or my grandkids right, that's a family, a family project.
Speaker 2:How has education changed over the course of your career? You've got, you've had, an Really interesting perspective, because you had a distinguished career in a traditional public setting and then a distinguished governance career in a in a public charter setting, and then you have family members who are, who are Educators as well, and then you, of course, you've seen the trajectory that your grandkids have gone through in charter schools and now I often to college and everything. So, right, what are some things that you've seen change over over the past decades?
Speaker 1:Well, it's an interesting thing because I feel, I Feel that education there's two types of change. One is the change with respect to the students themselves. The other is is with the staff. And I think that you know, in looking at my own experience when I was a principal and how we, we felt we were cutting edge so we were doing all kinds of new things as time went on and then as I went into the to the Charter movement, I felt that Charter was kind of an example to me of how the public was changing kind of behind it. In terms of the staff, I was always, I was always impressed with what charter teachers were able to talk about and do and and and and they were throughout ideas so easily that might involve their workspace and whatnot in the terms of their time, whereas in the public school they were not so open. And so when I think of change, when I look at how did some of the protocols change, charter really led a lot of that and that that was refreshing. So I became a very positive charter person because I could see where it was. It was stripping away some of the Regulate it regulations probably not the right word, but the restrictions. Having those pulled aside, allowed people to be more creative, and so that, I do feel, is where the charter helped, because, by the way in time, the public saw it too and they also saw what public people were saying about I like this because they can do this at the Charter. So they figured they'd better start doing something similar. So they kind of were in tandem. Now the students were a benefit of that.
Speaker 1:When I look at the, when I look at the Trajectory, the real change in terms of student performance I could see were kids. But but whether your charter or public, you still had some of those same problems which were you know, we're kidding ourselves if we think we're ever gonna have the magic bullet that every kid is gonna be, you know, sitting there totally Engaged. You work to try. That's a goal. You work for that. You work for that. I can almost give you an aside.
Speaker 1:I worked with the teacher who eventually became the national teacher of a year with when Carter was president. Now, she first was teacher of the year for the Grossmont district, then she was teacher of the year for the California, then she became national. She lived near me and many times her car seemed to be in the garage. So I was always taking her to work. And After she became teacher of the year for California and, by the way, the reason she was she was so far ahead of her time. This is she taught women studies. There was nothing like that. She taught minorities and she had games and things were in and in Simulations in her room that were so far ahead of their time. That, I think, is the hook If she wasn't doing it for show, but she just was far ahead.
Speaker 1:But we were driving to school one day was this was like within you know, half the school year after she was teacher of the year California and she said Bill, I just I feel so I'm an imposter. I said what do you mean? She said I'm supposed to be the best teacher in the state of California and I still, in my history class, I'm teaching kids and I see, I see the ones who are disengaged. They're like staring at the wall waiting for the lunch bell to ring, and we had a great discussion about that because it was. She really felt guilty. Why aren't they all just totally plugged in? I'm the best in the state and that's where I think we need to be honest with each other.
Speaker 1:So when I talk about the student changes over the year. There were some that allowed students to be a little freer and to be do a little more challenging, on both the charter and the Public side. But, as I said, we're kidding ourselves if we think whatever we come up with is going to be the magic bullet. And I have to go back to when I went around the country with my own school making presentations during the question and answer period, always got somebody and they were all educators asking the question what are you doing about absent? What are you doing about absent is what are you doing about kids who just don't seem to care? Those are germane to anything that we're working on, and so I find that part of the challenge. Because I did cut tardiness. We did, we could see it, we put it on a graph, we did cut in the classroom and we changed the social structure of the school. But those are challenges and to me they're exciting.
Speaker 1:Now where I where I have to say, the biggest change I've seen in terms of student behavior, and it's it's, it's a in some cases I hate to blame it, it's like everybody wants to blame the pandemic, but what I have seen, I've observed it, even with my own grandkids in schools, since the and my daughter is a first grade teacher and my son, law, is a high school teacher. So I see it from all sides. Since the pandemic students, there's a different way of how they're achieving and I'm not sure in the long run how this is going to play out. Number one, something I was never used to as a teacher across the board it seems like much more leeway in terms of deadlines. You use my own, my own grandson. He's in high, he's a junior in high school. If you when his, when his grades come out at a period, those aren't real grades, because he'll say no, no, I have all these tests I can make up and I've got these other simus, turn it and darn if it doesn't turn him in in a, as long as you make those things up. But and that's happening across the board my, my son in law, who is the high school teacher, says it's like there is no pure cut off anymore.
Speaker 1:Sometimes you try to do it and and it's almost like, excuse me, many people do say it's because of the break in the regular schooling that happened in the pandemic and so you had to start doing so much stuff from home and all that. So that's a great change and it kind of falls into what I think is going to happen down the line, because for the students, I do believe that within the next 10 years there's going to be more out of school type stuff. I think you're going to have more internships, more things where you'll maybe report into class For, you know, particular checkups or working with your advisor, and then Back out in a way that's very, that's kind of like the European style in terms of internships, which are more rigorous there. So that means, if you're going to do it here, that comes to that. We're talking about rigorous internships so that they're not just out, you know, filling time somewhere else.
Speaker 1:But I see, I see the classroom becoming. It's certainly less than when I was a teacher, where you had specific deadlines and you had specific times to do things. And now the staff has also changed in that respect because I, not being a principal myself right now, I imagine there's teachers who are very frustrated with this aspect because if you're an old school quote unquote you want to think that there's a deadline and it's done or it's not done, and yet when everyone around you is allowing so much makeup. Where does that put you in the scheme of things? So I think the staff, they're going through internal changes.
Speaker 1:What does my, what is my role, what is my role as a teacher am I? Am I now guiding them? You know what, what is my role? I feel like that's, that's Principles on campuses right now. I believe if they're on, if they're on the top of their game, they're addressing that with their staff, helping them understand. And it shouldn't. You know, it doesn't mean having a set deadline is wrong, but if, if the world is changing to a degree, you've got to figure out how you're going to plug that in and make it so it all moves forward and I think that makes it does make sense, and I think technology is also has an impact on that right even even something like turning in an assignment used to be Turn it in on Friday.
Speaker 2:Or I know I was my daughter's just finished her junior year in college and we were talking about turning in assignments and when I was in college they would say 5 pm Friday. You're banging this thing out on your word processor or your typewriter. Then if you had the money, you had a computer and you printed out your dot matrix printer and you ran across campus and you slid it under the door or you stuck it in the In the professor's mailbox by 5 pm and then their assistant or someone come and take the basket and now Friday could mean 1159, 59.
Speaker 1:Absolutely pm my, my daughter, granddaughter, who's in college in Colorado, sent me an essay. She was concerned about her word choice and so she asked me if I would proof it. And she had to have it in by 1159 that night. And so you're right, all these these ideas, it's all so governed by technology and allowing kids to in the choices they're making. I had to. Can I give you a little example?
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, I'd love an example.
Speaker 1:My grandson showed this to me. You know we were all talking about.
Speaker 2:He's very tech savvy?
Speaker 1:yes, he is very tech savvy, and so we're all talking about AI and what effect it has on school. Well, I don't know if you're familiar with Breaking Bad. Yes, I am a lot of people have seen it. Well, he and.
Speaker 2:I, my family lives in New Mexico, near Albuquerque.
Speaker 1:And I have a grandson in college in Albuquerque and he says that they have all these little signs around there. But so anyway, but, lucas, we watch that together and so it was a good commonality. So he did this with me sitting there. He went on to AI and he asked the question. If you are familiar with the series, he becomes a drug lord himself and just as vicious as other. But yet he started out because of having cancer and he's a good guy Now, all the way through it, if you think about it, family is what's important to him. That's a good value, but in the process he becomes a vicious drug lord.
Speaker 1:Well, what Lucas did is he asked AI, could you please explain to this effect, could you explain the dichotomy between Walter White being a good person and a bad person, because he certainly showed exhibits of both. And boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. Within within five minutes, lucas read me the essay, which was a very well constructed essay, about that dichotomy of personalities and why it happened, and I thought, wow, I mean, when you think about it, it'll be interesting.
Speaker 2:I remember you've spoken to your son, who was a physician, about the use of AI and medicine.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:That's also something they're talking about. Right is, and I happen to know he's an emergency room physician or he was.
Speaker 1:Yes, he is.
Speaker 2:And so high stress environment. You know, lots of checklists under pressure, lots of Things to run, protocols to run through, right and and we're all human and so so none of us are perfect but they're talking about AI supporting with that running through protocols and checklist itself and being able to analyze results. You know I'm not a physician, so I don't understand all the the granular detail, but the concept is that it can do.
Speaker 1:It could eliminate. He has talked about one thing it could eliminate. Where the pandemic hurt, particularly in emergency rooms, is you have people out of work Because of either being sick, plus nurses start going to other places because they were one.
Speaker 1:They got it was like it's almost like disaster pay and so when you'd get a new person in in the emergency room, as Billy said, you have to know instantly you're in an emergency situation. It's life and death when you put your hand out for the tool you need or the medicine. You need to know that. That's correct, right. But he said there was time lost all the way through this. It's now getting better because there's less movement, but the nurse, who knows the place, knows exactly where everything is. She's not thinking she has to reach for it.
Speaker 1:Well, a person who's who's subbing in there. And he asked for a certain drug. She doesn't. Maybe where do you? Where is it? She's looking in the cupboard. And he said and no longer did you have the trust of when your hand went out that particular instrument that slapped in his hand is the correct one. He'd have to stop and look to make sure. And he said those are so small in and of themselves, but they're not when you look at the totality of an emergency situation. So a I, he said, could help to eliminate by giving you a. This is the way it is. You know whether it's medication or something that they could see were In less things like that.
Speaker 2:It could be absolute where the person you know, it's like a backup to the person who's not there and it never gets fatigued and it's not. It's not emotional at all, right. It doesn't, it's not afraid, it's not anything. What do you think your personal and professional legacy is and will be?
Speaker 1:Well, professional is? I do believe it's two things. One, I do believe I seriously changed a school. I was at the tip of the spear because if it was going to happen, I had to help make it happen. And so I feel like, and for the staff and for kids that were there at that time, I believe in my heart their lives are different because of that, and I hear back from the staff every now and then when I have we'll run into the they'll always say, oh, bill, that time with you was so wonderful, blah, blah, blah. And so I know that, and so to me that is a that's a nice feeling to know that I helped that. And then the other is sitting in that building right next door. I literally mean it when I say I walk up those steps. I feel like of the of the entire time I was on the board and I was because it was a new board. I was president almost 10 years, and so I do feel like I really helped.
Speaker 1:I was instrumental is a good word in that one. I was instrumental in helping make that a reality, and so I thought of it today. By the way, when I drove up before I was coming, I was down at the stoplight and when I looked down the street I thought there she sits, there she sits because I watched it from when they were digging up the dirt, and now it's a reality. And then, for me personally, I believe that I believe I've touched kids and and and and. Obviously, in my own family, I believe I've, I've been a, I've been a, an example of taking on challenges and and and and and working through them. I'd like, I believe, that people who really know me and who have been around me I believe that's what they would say you know, he took on those hard things and he stayed with it.
Speaker 2:And I can say from watching you as a grandparent that that and you've said this to me that there's very little in the world that makes you happier than than spending time with your grandkids. And I know you. You put extensive mileage on your car and extended, and you know your grandkids brought you into the 21st century with iPhones so that they could, you know, keep you tethered, and, and so I know that that's given you a lot of joy and and and rejuvenated you as well, to, to, to, to share in raising them as well.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and being a role model.
Speaker 2:So you have a long and impressive resume, both professionally and personally. What do you still want to accomplish? What do you still want to see? What do you still want to experience?
Speaker 1:Well, I'm a big traveler and so I I believe that travel is a great equalizer and you learn so much from other people and it just it, it, it balances your life out. It really does. It's hard to I've often tried to say when I run into someone who's never traveled and they say, well geez, I never seem to get around to it, I try to explain to them this is not a thing of you, don't get around to it. You do it because it does change your perspective and and makes your life so much more richer. And so I still want to do that. I still want to. I have a big trip planned this spring, and so where are you?
Speaker 2:going.
Speaker 1:I'm going to Portugal and do a week on a small river thing to out of Porto, with one stop in Spain, all the way down the river Duro and then back, wow. And then from there there's five of us who are then flying to Madrid, going to spend five days in Madrid, and then this is a funny thing I was planning to come home. My son, who's quite a skier they're going to be in Switzerland with a guide type thing and he called me and he said now when is this that you're going to end up? My trip was ending on the very day that they were ending up, so, instead of coming home, I'm now flying from Madrid to Palermo, sicily, and I'll be there a day ahead of them, and then we're going to spend a week touring Sicily Wow. And so that worked out really good, and good food along the way too.
Speaker 1:Well, and there's a very interesting thing about that's the full circle. When I was in college I had a fraternity friend. We were going to go in and go to Europe together, so we're saving our money. We had reservations on a ship. He was raised by his grandparents and so they used to own a lumber company here in Yolkhaum and so about. I would say April, his mother, who's really his grandmother said your uncle, who again would be the grand uncle, had a heart attack. And she said your dad can't be running this lumber thing without more help, so you're going to have to stay. So, okay, he stayed.
Speaker 1:I of course wasn't to me. I wasn't that mature at that age. I couldn't imagine traveling alone when I don't know why. I didn't think I could. So I went off and I bought a Thunderbird, which even in those days this was in the 60s it was a 57. It was still considered a classic. Too bad, I don't have it today, but at any rate, when we were planning to go, I chose aggregate toe, I think it's how you say it in Sicily because it has beautiful ruins and one part of them are under the water, so it's constantly washed and the mosaic floors are supposed to be gorgeous, and so that's what we're going to do. Well, okay, here we are now full circle my age now me, my son in Sicily, and my daughter-in-law and I are re. We're kind of doing the whole route. We're going to do the whole route and I'm taking on that section and be a guide, and I thought isn't?
Speaker 1:that interesting Clear back to you because in a way I never had that college-age thing of running around Right.
Speaker 2:So that's a gift to be able to do that Kind of a full circle.
Speaker 1:So that's one of the things that I and then I still also feel like I do want to be. I always want to be learning. I really do Anything that's new. I work at technology all the time. It's different for our age group, but I really do try to learn. I've taken classes on it and, of course, my grandkids are great mentors.
Speaker 2:What do they call them? Digital natives?
Speaker 1:Right, yes, right, well, even my daughter does really well, you know, and she's very much more techie than I am. But the grandkids, they just seem to know exactly what to do.
Speaker 2:Yeah, my daughter is. She had an extra semester's worth of credits. It's a long story, but her college wouldn't let her graduate early, so she took. She's taking this semester off and she's about to fly to Ireland oh good for her and doesn't really have a concrete plan in Europe, which is when, you're, you know, 21 and you've saved up some money and that's a great thing, right? Absolutely.
Speaker 2:To just be able to be free enough to make some decisions on the fly and doing some homestay, and those are things that you never forget. Maybe I'll have a chance to fly and meet up with her somewhere if our schedules connect.
Speaker 1:Oh, that would be great yeah.
Speaker 2:You've been very, very generous with your time and I have just one more question for you. But before I get there, is there anything that we haven't touched on today, that has been rattling around in your head, that you'd like to say, like to mention? And if not, that's okay, it may occur to you later.
Speaker 1:No, I guess, I guess I'm okay, you'll probably be driving home and then you go. I should have said that, right.
Speaker 2:I should have said that it's funny. One of the first time, the first episodes, I told people look, you, can you know if there's anything that you don't feel comfortable with and this podcast, we can remove it, you know. And then so that night they called me hey, I have an issue with the podcast. I'm like, okay, what do you want me to take out? And they said, no, could we add some stuff? Could you add in here and here and there? And I said, well, it's going to sound kind of weird in the flow of the conversation, let's just save that for the next episode.
Speaker 1:I guess the only thing I would maybe add and it has to do with your question about the kids and how they change it's hard to put this into words, but what I, what I was really trying to say, is you could have five classes on student behavior, or you know, including learning, trying to. You know, how do we teach them to learn? There's so many and there have been over the years different plans, different programs, all geared to help kids learn. Help kids learn. But when it's all said and done, it really is a complex. It's a complex thing of trying to match that kid with whatever, with whatever program or method you're using, and it it will work for some, but it won't work for the other.
Speaker 1:And to me and I really feel this way, when I was at the head of trying to and we were changing curriculum, you always had to remember that curriculum is a wonderful thing and if you can tailor it and you can work at it and by golly you can start seeing results.
Speaker 1:But the magic is how do you get to a few kids that it just doesn't, it escapes them, not because they don't want it, and that to me, whenever anyone talks about kids and learning, that's the magic of education because we're always working to try to find that piece that works and when we do it and we see that change in a kid, it's amazing, it's wonderful. But then we've always got to be thinking of the other other kid and it's never. I always think that for a new teacher, that's probably one of their biggest disappointments sometimes, because you go through all this stuff and now you're at student teaching and it happens, and now you're out in the classroom and aren't they feeling, in a way, the same thing that merely the best teacher in the state of California that's what she felt. Why do I have some kids that their eyes are glassing over and I'm the best person in California? That's the magic of education and we can never just, we never can just step back and say that's not gonna work. We always challenge and push forward.
Speaker 2:I just spent a couple of days with my two brothers and they're both educators, and between the three of us we have 85 years of experience in education. That's a daunting number. I have a good portion of that myself. And so we were talking about mentors and we all went to the same schools and so we knew roughly the same people, were close enough in age and the people who we cited as mentors were all different and the people who we felt connected to were different, and despite having the same parents and living in the same household, we all came out very different, with different interests and different skills and abilities.
Speaker 2:And so trying to match I think what you're saying you're getting at is that there's no way to have one size fits all and your teacher of the year, teacher of the year in the state. It's a little bit like that story about the monk who's trying to achieve enlightenment and every day he gets up and he carries wood, chops wood and carries water, chops wood and carries water, and eventually he goes up on the mountain top and sits there and gets enlightenment. And he comes down from the mountain and they go what are you gonna do? And he goes I'm gonna chop wood and carry water, because that's all you can do every single day. You can never give up. You can never go. I figured it out.
Speaker 2:I mean the teacher who says that they figured it out and that this is gonna work for every kid every time. It's just that's a big red flag right there. Well, before I ask you this last question, I can really say that this has been an honor for me to talk with you. You've been a mentor for me, a friend, for a long time.
Speaker 2:I remember in my early years as the principal of our middle school, when I was 34 years old and an issue had come up, and I remember there was one time I went to the person who was my boss at the time. She was like I think you need to call Mr Melton. I'm like I don't know, I'm just kind of little intimidating to call him. You had just started on the board. She goes no, no, no, call him. He's a nice guy and I remember I calling you and you just took all the time in the world to talk through something that for you was a very basic challenge and I was just getting my leadership feet wet. I just finished my credential. So, as we've both kind of grown in our lives and our experience, you've always been someone who I looked up to and so that's, if you can, for whatever it's worth. That's part of your legacy with me in the Einstein community.
Speaker 2:My last question is this so I happen to know you live in East County, so I know you take the eight freeway East every day or you will after you leave here. So this is a hypothetical. But you're given the chance to design a billboard Bill Melton's billboard for the side of the freeway, on the side of the eight freeway, and people are passing it at 70 miles an hour and they're tired going home from work or they're excited in the morning. Whatever it is. What does Bill Melton's billboard say to the world?
Speaker 1:Well, something that I do believe in myself, I would. It would say Bill Melton, he cares, and that kind of wraps up not only the personal side of my life but the professional. I did have somebody ask me once when I it was a strange thing that that whole year of working so late, and I did have somebody say to me, why do you do this, jesus? It's just your, it's your school. You've got another life. You know. Why are you doing this? I would drive home and I think about that. And you know what? Because I cared about that school, I cared.
Speaker 1:And probably the best thanking I've got is from other people that I worked with at that school. I've heard them say that word. They say well, bill, when you were there, man, you cared, I lived that school, you know, 24, seven, and I'm that way with my family too. So I guess, caring and I'm not bragging, I'm not bragging, I just feel like. And so if, if, if I, you know, or if somebody said, when I'm gone, you know, what do you think of Bill? I would like to think that they. Well, you know he cared about what he was doing. That's why we didn't give up on this building when we had, you know.
Speaker 2:When we could have many times.
Speaker 1:Yes, absolutely.
Speaker 2:Well, I think that's a apropos place to finish today. Bill Melton, he cares and I really want to thank you for taking the time to come on today and to chat, but it means a lot to me.
Speaker 1:Well, thank you, thank you.
Speaker 2:Thank you for listening to the superintendent's Hangout. You can follow me on Twitter at DVS 1970. Please be sure to share this show with friends and family on social media and in the real world. Thank you to Brad Bacchial for editing and production assistance and to Tina Royster for scheduling and logistics. Thanks for hanging out and have a great day. Music playing.