Harvest Prep Academy gets new principal
Jose Reynoso takes helm at San Luis campus
SAN LUIS, Ariz. — Jose Reynoso has a familiar challenge ahead of him — raising academic performance among his students.
But this time, he doing it at a new school.
The former assistant principal at Southwest Junior High School in San Luis is the new principal at the San Luis campus of Harvest Preparatory Academy, a Yuma-based charter school.
Reynoso, who has 17 years of experience in education, was named in July as principal of the campus attended by 680 students from kindergarten through eighth grade.
“I am very excited,” he said. “I grew up here and I began working here. I feel like I’m at home.”
He added, “My goal is to help to raise the quality of instruction and to gain the support of parents. We are going to work with zero tolerance in the classroom, so that discipline leads to effective teaching.
“We will apply the policy here that no one will be left behind,” he said. “All those students who are below achievement will be given tutoring. Those who are in the middle will be pushed to advance, and those who are doing well will be invited to take advanced classes.”
He said highly performing students will be encouraged to enroll in college-level summer classes offered through Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Talented Youth, or take part in other college preparatory programs offered to gifted pupils at the junior high and high school level.
Reynoso previously worked in the Gadsden Elementary School District, which serves San Luis and neighboring Gadsden. He joined the district in 2001 as a teacher, eventually becoming assistant principal of Southwest Junior High.
Reynoso, who holds a doctorate in education, joined the charter school as a teacher at the main campus in November, before being offered the position of principal in San Luis.
“It’s an honor that educators in the public school systems see that they can make an impact on (students) in this type of system,” said Mario Ybarra, Harvest Preparatory Academy’s vice president. “They are coming (into) a school system that is public but has some aspects of a private school. Here discipline is very structured, it is positive discipline in that the children show respect toward their teachers.”
Reynoso joins the charter school just as it undertakes the second phase of expansion at the San Luis campus, in which two 26-classroom buildings and an amphitheater for events are scheduled to be built.
The San Luis campus had nearly 100 students when it open in its original location in the Plaza Riedel Shopping Center in 2008.
The expansion, said Ybarra, will allow the charter school to serve students through the 12th grade, Ybarra said. Kindergarten through 12th grade instruction is already offered at the main campus in Yuma.
Reynoso is the second of two ex-administrators of Southwest Junior High to join Harvest Preparatory Academy. Richard West, who retired as principal at Southwest, is now a principal at the main campus.
“There is a lot of wisdom in educators like them, and all that experience and wisdom they have is needed,” Ybarra said. “It is they who will can have an impact on new generations of educators who are coming.”