Ooops! Steve Maher still at Hart Ooops! Steve Maher still at Hart (June 17, 2005)

by Jeb Bing

W e don't like to make mistakes, but calling Steve Maher a "school administrator" at Foothill High School, as we did in our cover story photo caption last week, was a whopper. And here's why. Maher, who is principal at Hart Middle School, which he opened five years ago and where he plans to stay, said the phones started ringing shortly after the Weekly was delivered to school campuses early last Friday, with callers asking if he was changing jobs. Even in this final week of classes, with so many school district reassignments being announced, he said the rumor mill is still churning that he's heading for Foothill.

To set the record straight, Maher, 59, plans to finish out his Pleasanton career at Hart. He is Pleasanton's longest-serving principal who has both taught and served as principal at more schools than anyone else in the district - ever. It's just that Foothill was never one of them, and won't be, where his friend Kevin Johnson holds the top post. To be sure, Maher is well known on the Foothill campus. He coached girls' varsity basketball and championship teams for seven years, stepping down only a year ago. His daughter Lindsay Maher-Garrett teaches freshman English there. But Hart is more than his school of choice for eventually wrapping up what is now a 34-year career in Pleasanton - the only district where he's ever worked. He was named principal of the school in 1999 to work with architects and contractors as they completed construction, and he opened Hart one year later in August 2000.

The school's name is as precious to Maher as the facility itself, Named for the late Thomas S. Hart, who died in 1975 at the age of 49, it was Mr. Hart who hired Maher after he served as a student teacher at Harvest Park in 1971. Mr. Hart was then assistant superintendent, and likely a candidate one day for the top position. Maher met with him in the school district's office on the second floor over what is now the Blue Agave Restaurant. The two hit it off famously, and Maher recalls many noonday luncheons when Mary Hart and her husband would gather a few teachers for informal discussions. Maher, who earned a Master's degree in Education and a teaching certificate from Cal State University, taught at numerous schools as Pleasanton's school-age population started growing. Besides Fairlands, these included Alisal, Vintage Hills, Donlon and even summer school at the old Pleasanton School. He also was principal at Alisal for five years, Donlon for six, and at the new Pleasanton Middle School from 1996 to 1999, when he moved to Hart.

Maher and his wife Tina, a senior administrator at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, have three daughters, who, Maher proudly points out, are all teachers. Besides Lindsay at Foothill, Kelly teaches kindergarten at Hearst Elementary, and Shay Maher Galletti teaches a Regional Occupational Program class, instructing high school students how to be classroom aides. At family get-togethers, the pace and quality of education is often a topic. Maher remembers that he taught kindergarteners the alphabet; daughter Kelly finds her kindergarteners can already write and are moving even faster. At Hart, middle school is almost college prep, with seventh and eighth graders now completing their first year of high school level foreign languages and algebra. As much as students know more about the world, Maher said they are also more worldly thanks to more adult fare in prime time TV and at the movies, and mostly on the Internet where kids today spend much of their time. But kids see the challenges ahead and want to be prepared. "They're much more savvy than we were a few decades ago," Maher said. "I guess that's OK."

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