2015 California Honoree Matthew Harvey

Matthew Harvey

Teacher
CORE Butte Charter School
Butte County Office of Education
Chico

Though he’s only been on the staff at CORE Butte Charter School for a year, Matt Harvey has jumped right in and, in the process, become an indispensable part of the school. He teaches higher level math courses and has already made his mark. For the first time in the school’s history, there are two sections of Math 3 that are both filled to capacity. This is a clear indication that Harvey is the kind of teacher students want.

Harvey collaborates with teachers in other disciplines to integrate math into English, history, health and science lessons for a 21^st century learning experience. Toward this end, he has developed career technical education classes focusing on health and medicine.

Hard work doesn’t scare him and he’s embraced doing extra work on the math team, including researching a strengthened math curriculum. He has volunteered to be a math lead in the school’s Medical Sciences CTE (Career and Technical Education) pathway, which he’s assisting to implement with the help of Butte Community College. In addition, he offers study hours, teacher office hours, and tutoring support, attends almost all home sporting events, and chaperones school dances.

Harvey previously taught at Princeton Junior-Senior High in Princeton, California. There, the school’s API scores increased from 687 to 800, a first-time jump that took it from being one of the lower-performing schools in the area to one of the highest; Harvey’s direct work and development with the students were key to this growth.

During a student crisis at CORE Butte Charter, Harvey demonstrated empathy and compassion. He generously extended himself to students and showed himself to be a person of integrity to his new Butte colleagues.

He has been called “an absolute standout when it comes to parent trust,” and is considered thoughtful and caring. He won’t hesitate and will immediately put a project on the back burner if a colleague, student or parent needs help. His reputation is that of an educator who excels at identifying school problems, then rolling up his sleeves to fix them.

Harvey is currently leading the long-range planning and pacing for instruction at CORE Butte, and is a Western Association of Schools and Colleges accreditation category leader. As a leader of Butte’s CORE Schools Investigative team (also known as CSI), Harvey meets with staff members to address school concerns and generate ideas.

Harvey earned a Bachelor of Science in 2008 in math education from California State University, Chico.