Administration Staff

Greg John profile

At 9 a.m. on many weekday mornings, the 2XX or so students of Berkeley’s John Muir Elementary School stand in a wide circle in the schoolyard and lift their right feet, then their left feet in unison. Leading the exercise is Principal Greg John, the newest member of the school’s small and tight-knit teaching community. Mr. John joined John Muir in the fall of 2005, and quickly began fusing his educational philosophy and personal interests with the school’s existing traditions. He moved the Monday morning assemblies outside, weather permitting, and began teaching the students the ancient Chinese art of tai chi.

Principal John came to John Muir after three years at San Francisco’s Treasure Island Elementary School, a campus that served some of the city’s most disenfranchised families and “made my skin tougher.’’ Before that, he worked as an assistant principal at Willard Middle School after getting an administration credential from Hayward State.

Mr. John grew up in Southern California and studied piano performance at UC Santa Barbara before deciding that teaching was his true calling. He took a master’s degree in English at Long Beach State, worked at an inner city high school, and, after moving to the Bay Area, taught high school in Fremont. Mr. John stepped out of the classroom to work in education reform for several years where he focused on closing the achievement gap between rich and poor kids.

He brings his reform ideas to John Muir, where one of his goals is to have a school “where you can’t predict on the basis of economics or ethnicity how students are going to do on performance tests.’’ He also wants to build on the school’s environmental philosophy, adding solar panels to the facility, and to expand the music offerings with a chorus. John Muir is a “high-performing place’’ with a collection of “excellent teachers who work well together,’’ he says. “Our kids here are going places.’’