L.A. District Seeks New, ‘Collegial’ Management Style : 3 Strict Principals Discipline Themselves Out of Offices

The era of the hard-nosed, gruff-spoken school principal may be coming to an end in Los Angeles.

Three city school principals, all of whom had repeated troubles with their teachers, recently have been removed from their jobs in what top school officials say is a plan to emphasize “collegial” rather than confrontational relationships between principals and their staffs.

Los Angeles Unified School District Supt. Harry Handler, who put 50 administrators on probation last year and reassigned the three principals last week, said he believes principals should have a “professional relationship” with their teachers, and not act as foremen supervising assembly line workers.

He added that he expects to see a “mutual respect, a sharing of decisions and better communication between principals and faculties. “We think it’s important to have a collegial environment, and the management style has to adapt to this,” Handler said.

That description hardly fits the three principals who were removed, said Wayne Johnson, the new president of the United Teachers of Los Angeles. He has campaigned against several administrators who “specialize in making the teachers’ lives miserable.”

“They treat the teachers like they are privates in the Army,” Johnson, a former social studies teacher at Hamilton High School, said of the three principals who were reassigned. “There are 100 ways, some subtle and some not so subtle, to harass teachers and these three were masters at it.”

Handler said in an interview that he has talked with Johnson about the need for better working relationships between principals and teachers, but he denied that union pressure played a role in the ousting of the three principals.

“We were at work on these situations before Wayne took office,” Handler said.

Associate Supt. Sid Thompson, who handled the three cases, said he listened to complaints from teachers, but like Handler, did not discuss the moves with union officials.

“We talked to some of the teachers and promised to look into the problem. But we didn’t get any pressure from the union. And I never talked to Wayne about these cases,” Thompson said.

James Good, a veteran principal at LeConte Junior High in Hollywood, was to many the epitome of the big, tough-talking school principal who brooked no opposition from faculty or staff. Last week, he was reassigned to a desk job in the district administrative offices.

After only one year on the job at Riverside School in Sherman Oaks, Principal Barbara Roe had angered a group of the faculty, and the dispute spilled over into the community, dividing parents into groups that favored and opposed her. She was transferred to Lemay School in Van Nuys last week.

Harold Taubman, a principal at Santa Monica Boulevard School in West Los Angeles, also was removed and is now on an extended leave, according to district officials.

Handler said the district acted not because the principals were “necessarily wrong,” but because of divisive situations at the schools. These are “usually not cases where one side is right and the other is wrong,” he said.

Among the 50 administrators who were told last year that they needed to improve, “about half have retired or resigned,” said district spokesman William Rivera. “A few have been demoted, and the rest have shaped up.”

Because his approach is so unusual, Handler’s plan to closely evaluate principals and other administrators has gained attention from educators around California, including Bill Honig, state superintendent of public instruction.

While school administrators talk much about the need to evaluate teachers and to weed out the incompetent ones, teachers point out that school districts rarely evaluate administrators and weed out those who are ineffective.

Last year, when running for president of the city teachers’ union, Johnson said he would campaign against the few principals whom teachers cited as being among the worst in the district.

‘Gone After a Few’

“We have gone after a few of these people, and he (Handler) has moved a few of them that we’ve complained about,” Johnson said in an interview last week.

“I’m impressed that he’s been willing to listen. He’s not going to give us the farm, but I think it shows he’s as interested in improving the administrators as the teachers.”

However, the union has been less enthusiastic about the transfer of a teacher and union leader at the Riverside Drive School at the same time the principal was moved. In response, the union has filed an unfair labor practice charge against the district.

Handler said the Riverside school case was particularly troublesome because “everyone begins to choose up sides and the parents get involved. It’s just bad for the children and the instructional program. It’s in everyone’s best interest then to just transfer the principal and start over.”

However, district officials so far have failed to take action in the longest-running dispute and against the principal who Johnson said is “No. 1 on our list.”

Uphill Battle Fought

Since taking over as principal at Banning High in September, 1982, Estela Pena has been fighting with a large group of teachers, more than 20 of whom have since resigned or transfered to another school. Pena has said that she replaced a popular veteran principal and has been trying to establish higher standards at the school.

Johnson, however, echoing the complaints of some Banning teachers, described her as “dictatorial, arrogant, arbitrary and inexperienced.” Pena has never taught in a high school, which some school officials admit privately is virtually unheard of among high school principals.

Pena is the daughter of Hilario Pena, a former top district official, and the wife of associate superintendent Jerry Halverson, the district’s third-ranking administrator.

“Do you think having a husband as the associate superintendent might have something to do with her staying there?” Johnson asked.

Handler said it did not.

“That has absolutely nothing to do with it,” Handler replied. “Jerry has never spoken to me about it, and I have not talked to him about it.”