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Schools

Former Bakersfield Teacher Named LVUSD Tech Director

Philip Scrivano says part of his job will be to make sure students are "fluent in all kinds of technology resources" by the time they graduate from Las Virgenes Unified.

The Las Virgenes Unified School District has appointed Bakersfield resident and former teacher Philip Scrivano as its first chief instructional technology officer.

The post was created as a result of a recent retirement in the school district's senior leadership team, and restructuring of the district's top management. However, it will not bring any extra cost to the district.

Scrivano's responsibilities will include "implementing the school board's vision for technology as well as the network infrastructure, support services, student testing, and data analysis," according to a press release.

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"Everything we know about how youngsters learn today and what they need to know to be successful in the 21st century is going to be rooted in technology," said Superintendent Donald Zimring. "If we try to ignore that or believe we can continually adhere to practices we did 50 years ago, we are no longer serving our youngsters… Kids learn from cell phones, they learn from YouTube. They no longer only learn when they walk into class and open a textbook."

Karen Kimmel, the school district's chief business official, said the position pays $100,224 a year.

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Scrivano, who will start in late October, was chosen out of more than two dozen applicants. He said his aim was to achieve maximum results with the resources available.

"We're going to be very efficient with the funds that we have and every dollar we spend is going to affect the classroom," he said, adding, "I want that by the time students graduate this district, they are fluent in all kinds of technology resources."

He said his secondary aim is to provide teachers with all that they need to help students achieve their goals.

Scrivano began his career in education as a sixth grade teacher at Leo B. Hart Elementary School in Bakersfield, and went on to become an assistant principal at the school.

He also served as the chief instructional technology officer for the Kern County Office of Education.

An expert in technology and infrastructure, Scrivano has worked in both the public and private sector. His last job was vice president of professional development at Lightspeed Systems in Bakersfield.

Even though he hasn't formally started yet, Scrivano has already created a Facebook page and Twitter feed (Lvusd_edtech) for the school district.

"My goal is to let the community know how the district is using technology to make progress every single day. It is also a medium to get feedback on our work from the community," said Scrivano.

Scrivano says he knows that making changes within the LVUSD won't always be easy. 

"Whenever you have new leadership come into a district, there will definitely be some challenges in working with people," he said. "There will be differences in the first six months which will be the roughest, and I hope after that I can get a buy-in with the teachers and be able to get a real feel for what we need to do in order to increase student achievement."

Zimring said Scrivano is a good choice to help the district achieve the school board's objective with respect to learning techniques in the 21st century.

"[Scrivano's] background was a perfect match for what we were looking for. He is an all-in-one incredibly talented package," Zimring said.

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