Monte Vista has recently acquired a new assistant principal for the 2013-2014 school year.

With the loss of Mrs. Petish, who now works at Charlotte Wood Middle School, assistant principal Gary Peterson was hired to fill her spot.

Peterson’s background includes a lot of teaching experience. After graduating from Pepperdine University in 2004, Peterson started his career as a teacher. He worked as a high school and middle school math teacher for ten years before moving up in the ranks to become assistant principal at Mt. Diablo High School, located in Concord.

After two years of employment there, Peterson decided he wanted to broaden his horizons as a school employee and came to Monte Vista.

“I wanted to grow personally,” Peterson said. “That is what fueled me to come here.”

He needed to branch out of his comfort zone and become more experienced in his work as an assistant principal.

Peterson’s responsibilities at Monte Vista include overseeing all aspects of the school, but his specific duties are focused on sports, testing, and the math and social studies departments.

Although being an assistant principal here at Monte Vista is a hectic and time consuming job, it does have its perks. Peterson enjoys seeing all the student involvement at this school as well as the school spirit that Monte Vista brings to football games and it’s spirit weeks.

Mr. Ballou, another assistant principal, as well as the rest of the administration, all get along with Peterson.

“He’s awesome and a skilled assistant principal. He’s a solid fit for Monte Vista,” Mr. Ballou said about Peterson’s arrival to Monte Vista.

Peterson has only been here for a month and is still figuring out all the kinks and quirks Monte Vista has, but he believes that since he has a different set of experiences from a variety of schools, he can use all of those experiences at Monte Vista to make it a better place.