Brummett moves forward

Brummett+moves+forward

Frances Wu, News Editor

Matt Brummett, who once spent his days teaching students about civic responsibility, has decided to take on some more responsibility of his own by stepping out of his classroom and into his new office. Brummett is now the Instructional Dean for the Social Studies, English, and the PE/Health divisions at Diamond Bar High School.

As a result, Deans David Hong and Gabriel Aguilar have each been re-assigned to different departments as well, due to a combination of Brummett’s pre-existing Social Science background and the other deans’ desire for new challenges.

Hong is now the head of the Math, Science, and Fine & Performing Acts divisions, while Aguilar has taken on the Careers/Technology/ROP, Foreign Language, and Special Education sections.

As an Instructional Dean, Brummett’s job is to work with teachers and GLCs to accommodate the students’ needs, as well as meet the teachers’ needs.

The deans work with Vice Principal John Terry to create the master schedule and determine class sizes.

“Our job is, first and foremost, to oversee teachers in our division and to support the school from an administrative setting,” Brummett said.

Brummett, who has been interested in becoming an administrator for a few years now, had encouragement from several existing administrators to apply for this position.

“Ms. Real, Mr. Aguilar, and many other administrators have given me the opportunity to build my resume … I was definitely interested [in this job] and I talked it over with my wife [GLC Jenna Brummett]. We thought it would be a good opportunity for me to pursue, and lo and behold, I was fortunate enough to be hired,” he said.

Currently, Brummett has only set short-term goals for himself, saving any large-scale projects for the upcoming years.

As of now, his main goal is to focus on getting to familiar with all of the teachers in his divisions and to build relationships with them.

Additionally, he is working on improving different departments of the school in order to maintain the school’s accreditation from the Western Association of Schools and Colleges.

He, like the other deans, also still teaches one class, Economics.

Not only is Brummett a new administrator at the school, he also became a father in April.

In order to balance his family and his job, the dean has had to make some adjustments to his schedule, working longer hours during the weekdays and finishing all of his work so that he is available to spend quality time with his family on the weekends.

“We’re very fortunate; my wife is on a nice, long maternity leave, so she’ll be able to spend some time with the baby…I’m not coaching anymore [because] there were some long hours with coaching [girl’s soccer] and teaching that, in a similar situation, would have taken time away from my family,” he said.

Clearly, there are some major differences between teaching and administrative work, and having been a social studies teacher for several years at DBHS, Brummett has had to adjust his priorities.

Although he has already served a few administrative positions before, working as the former WASC co-writer and the assistant SBAC coordinator, Brummett is taking extra measures to ensure that he does the best job possible.

In order to prepare himself for his new role and do the best job possible on the DBHS campus.

He is taking classes at Cal Poly Pomona, as well as keeping in contact with one of his mentors.

“I think anytime you’re stepping into a new position, whether it be a dean or a teacher or whatever you may be doing, there’s always a learning curve when you begin something, so I’ve learned a ton already in the first week on the job and I learn something new everyday,” he explained.