Running Into A New Gig

Kevin West's office looks more like it belongs to a gym teacher or coach than that of the principal of George Mason Elementary School. The shelves and walls are crowded with sports memorabilia and posters for Washington area sports teams. Sometimes a passerby can even hear "The Dan Patrick Show" podcast playing from his computer.

"I love to be involved in sports. I love to play sports. I love to follow sports," said West, who will run the Army 10-miler this fall with his wife Katie. "I'm a huge sports fan."

While there's no denying West's affinity for athletics, a shelf stacked with educational manuals and other literature more than gives the principal away.

A career educator, West took over as principal of George Mason Elementary in late July, moving back to the Northern Virginia area after spending several years working in Arizona schools.

He says the most important things he's trying to do as principal is maintaining the tradition of academic success that has made George Mason the school that it is.

"From everyone I've spoken to, from people in the district to people in the community, they say what a great school George Mason is," West said. "The school has many wonderful traditions and has been achieving very well for a very long time. It's a very successful school and there's a great foundation here."

West is originally from the Alexandria area and earned his undergraduate degree from James Madison University. He went on to obtain his master's degree from Marymount University and received his first work as a professional teacher in the Fairfax County public school system.

Opportunities took him west, where he went on to earn several awards as a school administrator. But the lure of home (his wife is also from the area) and the idea of reconnecting his children—Matty, 8, and Isabella, 6—with their aunts, uncles and cousins was too great to pass up.

"When I began looking about coming back, I really identified with Alexandria City Public Schools in terms of the vision of the school district," West said "Its philosophy about education is really focused upon the right things. I just truly thought it would be a great place to work and an area where people are doing great things for kids."

West believes a lot of school districts get hung up on standardized testing and measures like No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top. In his eyes, the Alexandria school system has a greater vision.

"While (standardized testing) is something we have to pay attention to, that can't be the only focus because that's only a minimum of what we expect from kids," West said. "Alexandria does have expectations well beyond the (Standards of Learning) and just achieving on tests. We're also interested in creating students who are creative thinkers and collaborative problem solvers and really developing those 21st century skills."

With that in mind, George Mason students will continue their work with "Habits of the Mind," the school's exemplary program that works as a framework for problem solving. In the program, students are addressed with an unknown and then identify different skills and strategies to solve problems.

"We're going to get a little deeper with that," West said. "We're going to continue have a huge emphasis on student achievement and continue moving the school forward. Student learning is going to be at the forefront of everything we do. That's the heart of the matter and that's what we're going to continue to focus on."