A cycle of continuous change has been happening since 1996 at Galileo, as 9 different principals have led the school during that time, with none having served longer than 5 years. This is highlighted by the current academic year where 2 principals—one of them in the interim—have held the role, with a new principal expected for the 2024-2025 school year.
Going back to when Galileo High School changed its school name into Galileo Academy of Science and Technology in 1996, principal Ms. Chiun-Sally Chou arrived from another school district and served until 1999 marking the start of the new trend of principal turnovers. According to Ms. Grinnell, assistant principal Mr. Richard Maggi took on the role after Ms. Chou left and continued to expand the school’s new career pathways during his 3 year tenure.
Then in 2002, after Mr. Maggi decided to leave, West Portal Elementary principal, Ms. Margaret Chiu, was reassigned to become the new principal of Galileo. When asked about his experience with changing administrations, former Math Department Chair Mr. Page said, “When I first started, Margaret Chiu quickly came in and gained the support of the staff right away.”
However in 2006, Ms. Chiu left Galileo to become an assistant superintendent for SFUSD. The school then promoted assistant principal Ms. Vicki Pesek into the role where she served until her retirement in 2011.
After Ms. Pesek’s tenure, Mr. Marcus Blacksher, who previously worked as an assistant principal in the district, became principal before moving to Pittsburg Unified School District in 2015, where he was allowed to coach—SFUSD policy does not allow administrators to coach sports—, eventually Mr. Blacksher became the district’s Athletic Director.
Following Mr. Blacksher’s departure, Mr. Michael Reimer, also from the district, served as the principal from 2015 until his removal in 2017, following various complaints over sudden changes to school policy and structure from staff and students during his short 2 year tenure.
Then in 2017, after coming from an assistant principal position at Albany High School, Ms. Tami Benau served at Galileo until 2022 when she became the Director of SFUSD iLabs.
The following year, Marshall Elementary Principal Mr. Peter Avila became the next principal of Galileo until his sudden removal in the Fall of 2023 for undisclosed reasons. Assistant principal Mr. Ambar Panjabi has since taken on the role in interim until the end of the 2023-2024 school year before he plans on transferring to an assistant principal position at Presidio Middle School. Next year will be the 10th principal at Galileo in the last 25 years.
When asked about his experience and thoughts of the changing administrations, art teacher Coach Mark said, “There is a lack of continuity for the vision of the school in regards to academics and athletics, with different administrators pushing for different agendas.”
Sharing similar sentiments as Coach Mark, Mr. Page added, “It has been really hard every time a new administration comes in because they want to change the school to match what they think it should be,” adding, “I think that is what leads to this revolving door because of the resistance put up by teachers, growing Galileo’s reputation as a hard place to manage and the confrontational environment that gets in the way of teaching.”
In contrast, English Department Chair Ms. Gates said, “I think it has barely, if at all, affected my teaching and has very little impact on the decisions I make for how I relate to students.” She continued, “In terms of being a staff member, of course it is nice to have the feeling that leadership at the school is invested in the success of the school and experience of the students and staff, as well as making it a meaningful educational and professional experience for all.
Others believe that leaning on the long time staff at the school would help make things smoother for new administrators coming in. Former English Department Chair Ms. Moffet commented, “I think that the administration should take advantage of the various expertise and knowledge that has existed so that new people can come in and look at what has worked and what has been done.”
Health Academy teacher Mr. McDowell said, “I understand some of the reasons why we have rotating principals. The principals don’t get paid enough for the work they do and they are put into impossible situations on a daily basis.” When asked about his anticipation for the coming year, he said it would be hard to tell how the school moves forward with various factors influencing the outcome.
Ultimately, with varying thoughts on the situation, it appears that this cycle will continue with more administrative positions going unfilled and major policy changes taking effect for the coming year as a new bell schedule gets implemented and relatively new administrators and staff help with the transition.
