E.P. Foster principal returns to roots Accelerated Learning Resources

E.P. Foster principal returns to roots

Carlos Covarrubias, former assistant principal at Pacific High, takes over as principal at E.P. Foster School in Ventura. Covarrubias started his career in education as a paraeducator at E.P. Foster.

Occupation: Principal at E.P. Foster School in Ventura.

Age: 35.

Education: Bachelor’s degree, liberal studies, and master’s degree, educational leadership, both from CSU Northridge.

Residence: Oxnard.

Last book read: “What the Dog Saw,” by Malcolm Gladwell.

Favorite place: Anywhere he can watch the Dodgers play.

Quote: “There’s no such thing as ‘I can’t do it.’ ”

Other interests: Die-hard Dodgers baseball fan, jazz, reading.

For him, it feels like a return to his roots.

“I think my heart and soul are working with that community,” said Covarrubias, 35, an assistant principal in the Ventura Unified School District for the past three years.

“That’s where I grew as an educator. That’s where I became an educator. That’s where I learned I wanted to be an educator,” he said. And now he feels like he’s getting a chance to give back.

It’s the last job he ever dreamed of while growing up in Compton in the 1980s and ’90s. There was a lot of gang and drug activity in the area, he said. School was more about surviving than studying.

Covarrubias was 16 when his mother lost her job and decided to move the family to Oxnard. A single mother, she had a brother in the area and wanted to change the environment her kids were growing up in, he said.

For the first time, he started putting more effort into his classes. With few friends and a night job at Taco Bell, he spent lunch hours doing homework. He had to maintain at least a C average to keep his work permit, he said.

It turned out the work came easily to him. After high school, he went to Oxnard College, tutoring chemistry on the side.

Covarrubias still never considered a career as a teacher. But then the store where he worked relocated, and he was unemployed for a few months. His sister, an instructional aide for the Ventura Unified School District, encouraged him to apply for a job in a school.

Carlos Covarrubias, former assistant principal at Pacific High, takes over as principal at E.P. Foster School in Ventura. Covarrubias started his career in education as a paraeducator at E.P. Foster.

He didn’t think he would like the work, but he was wrong.

For about three years, Covarrubias assisted teachers in their classroom and sometimes helped supervise the cafeteria. He was sold once he saw the impact he had on kids.

E.P. Foster staff encouraged him to become a teacher, and soon he was taking classes at CSU Northridge.

The first in his family to get a college degree, Covarrubias plays down his achievement. He owes a lot to the staff at E.P. Foster, who inspired him and helped him navigate the system, he said.

In 2001 he started teaching at E.P. Foster, where he stayed for five years.

“Knowing I was part of laying down those academic foundations for kids was really, truly gratifying for me,” he said.

At that time, teachers at the school were moving from working more independently to collaborating with their colleagues. Covarrubias led a lot of that work at his grade level, said Michael Babb, principal at E.P. Foster School at that time.

Covarrubias credits Babb with inspiring him to seek a job as a principal and was one of the first people he called after being named to his new position.

Babb wasn’t just his boss. Covarrubias also taught his children.

“I saw him as someone who cared and went out of his way and was patient and persistent with my own kids,” said Babb, now a regional director in a state program that provides technical assistance to districts and schools.

“He maintained a high expectation for what students ought to be able to do, and he got really, consistently high work and good behavior,” Babb said. “I think he holds those same expectations for himself.”

After E.P. Foster, Covarrubias taught at De Anza Middle School for two years, while getting his master’s degree in educational leadership from CSU Northridge. He then worked as an assistant principal at Cabrillo Middle School and Pacific High School.

He is taking over at E.P. Foster from Michael Tapia, who is moving to Montalvo School as its principal.

A first impression of Covarrubias is a man who is quiet and focused, said Glory Page, retiring longtime principal at Cabrillo.

“But boy, does he know how to lead,” she said. “He’s a person who understands kids so well. And he understands teachers so well.”

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