After being the main administrator in charge of enforcing discipline at the school for the past four and a half years, assistant principal Kevin Mount has decided to step down from his position at the end of this year, citing unhappiness with nature of the work.

Mount said he first considered changing jobs two years ago because he felt unhappy with his situation.

“My wife came home from a run and said, ‘You’ve got to quit. When you’re not happy, I’m not happy, so now we’re not happy,’” he said.

Deciding to step down from the assistant principal role wasn’t easy for Mount. He considers himself “not the bravest person in the world,” and he said that it took significant courage to “take the leap of faith.”

“There are going to be times in your life when you’re going to be challenged and it’s going to be scary,” he said. “But then, you have faith that things will be OK.”

From teacher to administrator
Mount began his career here as an English teacher in the fall of 2001. Over the next five years, he taught English 9, English 11 Honors and AP Language and Composition, before eventually taking an administrative job at the district office.

“I didn't leave [my job as an English teacher] because I was unhappy at Saratoga,” he said. “I just left because I wanted another professional challenge.”

At the district office, Mount ran Nova, an alternative transition program for students in the district, as well as independent studies and adult-ed programs. Along with coordinating summer school, he also helped with state and federal programs, including the budgets, and ran programs in career technical education, new courses and instructional material.

In 2010, Mount’s position was eliminated in tight budgetary times. Fortunately for Mount, an administrative position opened up at Saratoga, and then-superintendent Cary Matsuoka encouraged him to apply for the job.

“The timing was just coincidental and it all worked out,” Mount said. “I liked the school and was happy to be back.”

Since then, he has been an assistant principal for four and a half years. In total, he has worked at the school for almost 10 years.

A change in heart
Mount said there are many reasons for his decision to leave; none of them had to do with the staff or students. He simply felt that he didn’t want to be “the guy who has to hold people accountable and take care of discipline.”

He also said that being the assistant principal in charge of discipline wore him down mentally and physically because the job demanded so many  difficult conversations with students and their parents.

“While I love this place, the staff and the kids, I don’t want to do this anymore,” he said. “I don’t want to be the sheriff.”

Professionally, Mount said he’s not exactly sure what he wants to do, but he feels that he is ready for another challenge.

“Everybody wants to keep growing and developing, and I think that I just need to do something different to satisfy myself,” Mount said.

In order to continue growing as an individual, Mount has chosen to pursue a more creative path.

“There are some areas professionally and personally where I want to grow that I don’t think I’m going to be able to do [if I stay] in this job,” Mount said.

When he was 15, Mount picked up a guitar, taught himself to play and has written and played music ever since. He is also interested in art, painting regularly in his studio.

Because he enjoys the arts so much, Mount hopes to become a more creative person as he incorporates his music and artwork in his daily life. In addition, Mount hopes to publish a volume of his poetry soon.

“That’s part of my plan and vision for downsizing my work life,” he said. “I think the creative part not only helps manage stress, but I think everybody needs something in their life that connects them to something larger [than] themselves.”

One of Mount’s main goals is to scale back the stress in his life, as he has felt afflicted from the high expectations that are piled on teachers and administrators in a school like Saratoga.

During his first two years as assistant principal, Mount said he enjoyed the exciting and fast-paced work. Now that the  novelty of the work has worn down, Mount feels that things have gotten hard for him, especially because his own children have left for college. His daughter graduated from college last year and his son has two more years of college.

“You raise your kids and then they leave home, just like a dirty rotten trick,” Mount said. “When you have kids, you don’t really have to look so far for meaning because it’s all right there in front of you, and you see it every day.”

When his children left for college, Mount felt that the focus of his life was gone. Once he realized that his children were starting their own lives, Mount had to decide how he would carry on.

“It got hard to make sense what my purpose was in life,” Mount said.

Plans for the future
Next year, Mount plans to work part time for the district office while he considers what he wants to do next. Instead of being an administrator, Mount will be on a teacher contract, supporting the staff there and helping them. He feels that his experience as an administrator can aid the team.

“We’ve got kind of a young staff at the district office so I think they’ll be happy to have some experience,” Mount said. “I’ll just be quietly working behind the scenes to hopefully help everybody look good.”

As an evaluator and supervisor, Mount observes  classrooms to help and mentor less experienced teachers. In the future, he wants to continue working with new teachers, since he finds this work to be meaningful and important.

“It would give me more of an opportunity to be one-on-one with people, and I really like that,” Mount said.

According to principal Paul Robinson, the school has more than 70 possible candidates to choose from for the position. Interviews began May 18. Robinson, along with the administration, a few teachers and student and parent representatives, were involved in the interviewing process. He hopes to announce the new assistant principal a few days before graduation, after getting approval from the school board at a meeting on June 2.

Since Robinson has known Mount for several years, he will miss having him as a fellow administrator.

“[Mount] is as fine of a teacher as I know. He’s also an outstanding educator and administrator,” Robinson said. “He’s so professional in how he does things, in the interactions he has with students [and] the interactions he has with the staff.”

Even though Mount is ready to move on in his life to pursue more options, he said he will miss the “amazing staff and students the most.”

“I’d like to give a shoutout to the administrative team, since they’ve been so supportive of me through some pretty difficult times,” Mount said.

He is also grateful for the caring environment that the staff shows toward each other and to the students. When he announced his departure, the staff wished him the best and understood his circumstances.

“I’ll definitely miss the people. Saratoga has good people,” Mount said.