Thomas Forbes is an ASU Cronkite School of Journalism student assigned to cover Mountain View High School for AZPreps365.com.

Since Mike Oliver became principal at Mountain View High School in the fall of 2021, his goal has been to positively change the schooling system to match the ever transforming digital and complex world that shifts every day.

Oliver’s passion comes from the simple argument that the school system has not changed in over a century and that it is not preparing students for the new technologically advanced world that is evolving rapidly.

“A lot of people say education is broken,” Oliver said. “I say, no, it’s not broken. Education is doing exactly what it was designed to do. The problem is, it was designed during the industrial revolution of the 1890’s where the aim was to put kids on assembly lines.”

“This system no longer fits the purpose of the world that we live in,” Oliver added.

Oliver and his staff visit and tour schools across the Valley and around the country to gain innovative ideas and learn what those schools are doing to prepare their students for success.

“At Mountain View, we’re completely reimagining the great American comprehensive high school education system,” Oliver said. “As we do that, we go out and get information from other schools and develop relationships to learn from each other.”

Athletic director Joe Goodman has worked with Oliver at Mountain View since 2021 to help propel the schools education system.

The administration combination of Oliver and Goodman helps both of them develop ideas and execute a plan to further develop the school’s programs for students.

Former Super Bowl winner and Mountain View student-athlete Joe Germaine was hired to take over the football program in 2021 and was one of the many actions Oliver did to advance the school to a more advanced level.

“Mr. Oliver has really brought excitement and innovation and the ‘cut the lock’ mentality to really do things outside the box,” Germaine said.

The ‘cut the lock’ part refers to an actual broken lock Oliver keeps on top of his meeting table in his office. Oliver keeps the lock symbolically after literally cutting the lock to a multi-laptop storage container to allow students to use the computers when school was only remote because of the lockdowns caused by the pandemic.

Oliver said he broke policy allowing students to use these computers to continue learning, but did not care because his priority was to allow students to learn.

Oliver is in his third year as the principal of Mountain View and continues to tour innovative schools across the country to continue learning and growing himself.