Over Cal High’s 50-year history, it has been led by a roster of 11 principals who each left their mark on the school.
So where have these principals gone since leaving Cal?
Cal’s first principal Ernie Berger served from 1973-83.Berger’s leadership was tragically cut short by cancer, but his impact lives on.
Cal’s stadium is named after him and there is a memorial dedicated to him next to the scoreboard at the north end of the field.
Originally, Berger led Cal as an intermediate school, featuring grades 7-10.
Vice Principal Phil White succeeded Berger from 1983-86, followed by Joseph Rancatore Jr. (1986-92), who passed away in 2020 at the age of 88.
Rancatore’s obituary featured many comments about his kind character. Several Cal students during his time as principal shared their stories and memories.
“His kindness and graciousness were out there for us to see and feel,” former Cal student Janice Elliot said. “He had a wonderful sense of humor.”
Maurice Ghysels assumed the role of principal from 1992-93, succeeded by Katie Curry (1993-95) and Rob Stockberger (1995-99).
Stockberger had worked as a teacher, administrator and coach in the district, and he was greatly loved during his time at Cal.
English teacher Ted Levey and health/PE teacher Joe Sussman both said Stockberger was a great principal.
“I felt like [Stockberger] really had a vision for the campus and for the school, and wasn’t just putting out fires,” Sussman said.
Stockberger left in February 1999, when he was promoted to the district’s director of secondary education. But his love for the school and students never stopped.
“The piece of the job I’ll miss is the chance to interact with kids daily, ” Stockberger said in a story published in The Californian.
Mark Corti replaced Stockberger and became the school’s longest serving principal, leading the school from 1999-2014.
Corti transferred to the school district in 1989 and created the elementary school physical education program. In 1993, he became an assistant principal at San Ramon Valley before coming to Cal.
“I hope to increase the school spirit to a higher level than it already is,” Corti said when hired. “I would also like to continue the tradition of academic excellence already present. ”
The biggest challenge Corti faced was running the school while construction was ongoing for 12 years.
With the student population growing, the school needed more classrooms, teachers and staff to keep up.
One of the major events during Corti’s time at Cal was in 2015, when a teenage girl assaulted multiple students in the quad. When school officials tried to break up the fight, she punched Corti three times in the face and bit two school officials.
Corti now works as an interim assistant principal at his old school, San Leandro High School.
Sarah Cranford replaced Corti and worked at Cal from 2014-18. Principal Christopher George was at Cal for most of the 2018-19 school year, and now works as the district’s director of instructional services and district communications.
George said his role was to help the school transition in many ways. He believes Cal is a fantastic school and loves how it is run as a team. During his time at Cal, there was a threat posted online targeting the school.
It was later identified as a fake, but the incident deepened his appreciation for the school community,
“Just watching how the community came together to keep kids safe and how the community came together with staff to really rally everybody…to see how a community came together in a time of crisis,” George said.
George was succeeded by Megan Keefer, who was the principal at Cal from 2019 until 2022, when she stepped down from her role as principal to become an English teacher at Dougherty Valley High School. In 2023, she became the principal of Montair Elementary School in Danville.
Keefer’s first year as Cal’s principal was when the pandemic emerged. Keefer said she wanted to ensure a sense of comfort and safety for students.
One of her main projects was Cal’s student leadership class. She brought in two distinct leadership teachers who collaborated as co-instructors.
They established a Student Equity Council in response to the challenging times, particularly in the wake of the murder of George Floyd.
Keefer said she realized the need for students to have a platform and a voice and made a more inclusive and participatory culture at Cal.
This involved creating various forums for student expression along with the changes of leadership to be more student-orientated.
“We had to get creative in ways to get students to feel socially, emotionally, academically safe again,” Keefer said.
But it wasn’t just students being affected. Sussman believed Keefer was attempting to manage multiple tasks simultaneously, which ultimately proved challenging for everyone involved.
“We’ll just leave it at that [the process and problems the school faced during the COVID-19 pandemic] was tough, trying to do everything at once,” Sussman said.
Current principal Demetrius Ball is in his second year on campus. A former Army veteran, Ball was previously principal at Iron Horse Middle School.
English teacher Donna Montague said she has a good relationship with all of the principals that have come and gone since when she first started nearly 40 years ago in 1986.
Montague believes that each principal helped Cal in a different way.
“They all bring their own flavor and their strengths,” Montague said.
