At age 61, educator plans to continue involvement in local education

Glen Webb poses in front of his office with administrative office support Michele Bergeron. Both retired Dec. 17 from MHUSD.
Photo by Marty Cheek

By Marty Cheek

Glen Webb’s eyes moistened at the Dec. 14 board meeting when Morgan Hill Unified School District trustees and colleagues gave him their best wishes as he steps into retirement. He jokingly attributed the tears to his “allergies” from the flowers presented to him.

Webb spent 36 years in a public school career at MHUSD. Friday Dec. 17 was the last day on the job, but it’s hard to step away. At 61, he plans to continue being involved in local education with consulting work and other activities.

“I’ll probably be spending a lot of time on the phone mentoring colleagues and helping out where I can,” he said. “It’s hard to let go completely. You still have a lot to give, although in the structure of the way things work in education, you kind of hit a ceiling and after so many years.”

Webb started his education career in 1981 at his alma mater Silver Creek High School in San Jose, working as a substitute teacher and football coach. In October 1985, after the death of a Live Oak High School teacher, he was hired as a science and math teacher. He also scouted for the football team and coached wrestling and track.

“My greatest joy is seeing the many students who I have had the privilege to teach go on to successful careers and lives,” he said. “Many of them are right here in our own community, and many have children I now have the privilege to meet as they come through our schools.”

After more than two decades teaching and coaching, he entered administration in 2008. He spent two years at Martin Murphy Middle School as assistant principal, five years at Britton Middle School as principal, and six and a half years as the director of curriculum, instruction and assessment. With a mind for math, he led the district’s strategic planning efforts. For his work, he was recognized by the California School Boards Association as a finalist Golden Bell Award winner for aligning data driven school plans for student achievement and the district’s Local Control Accountability Plan.

Webb also saw his share of controversies in MHUSD during his years. In the late 1990s, he formed a community action group called CARE made up of concerned citizens who exposed conduct by then Superintendent Carolyn McKennan over contracts relating the construction of Ann Sobrato High School and the remodeling of Live Oak High School. The negligence resulted in tens of millions of dollars in cost overruns and short-changed the two schools on planned improvements.

He also exposed unearned summer school credit being granted by football coaches at local community colleges so that student athletes could be academically eligible to play. This led to the removal of head coaches at Gavilan and De Anza colleges.

Webb grew up in Hayward as well as Apple Valley in Southern California. He is one of three brothers and his brother Lloyd was also an educator at MHUSD. His parents instilled in their sons a strong work ethic, especially in their school work. Webb and his brother Earl were both high school valedictorians and Lloyd was a salutatorian. Webb attended the University of Southern California as a presidential scholar. He graduated from San Jose State University.

During his college years, he worked during summer at the Ford plant as well as at Montgomery Wards chasing shoplifters and Great America chasing fence jumpers. “I worked any job I could get that would fit around my class schedule.”

At Great America at a summer job, he met a young woman named Gail. They dated for six years and  married at age 25. Webb had just started as a teacher at Live Oak soon after the wedding. “I said, ‘I need next week off. It’s my honeymoon.’ They gave it to me.”

Webb and Gail raised their family in Morgan Hill. Their three boys, Steven, Anthony and Garrett, went through the MHUSD schools El Toro Elementary, Britton and Live Oak. Steven is a forensic scientist,  Garrett is a physician’s assistant, and Anthony is an architect. He is proud of their achievements and plans to spend much of his retirement time helping two of his sons on major home renovations in Willow Glen and Gilroy.

“I like to build stuff,” he said. “That’s going to be keeping me busy for quite a while.”

Gail and Webb are also planning a vacation trip to Europe when the pandemic conditions allow it.

At the Dec. 14 meeting, board president John Horner praised Webb’s nearly four decades of service to MHUSD district as a dedicated teacher, coach and administrator. He recalled the first time Webb called him to request a favor.

“John, we need a robotics team. Can you help me?” Webb asked. Horner replied: “Why do you need a robotics team?” Webb replied: “That’s what the students want and I’m trying to figure it out.”

“So that’s just one version of a lifetime of doing that,” Horner commented. “What do the students need? How are we going to get it? Who can I call?”

Webb appreciates his years employed in public school education.

“I am grateful for the opportunity of a career, a living, and an occupation with purpose that I have had with Morgan Hill Unified,” he said. “I have had the privilege of working with many great mentors whose influence has been instrumental in my life.”