Stormy Year Ends in Taft Principal’s Transfer

A turbulent year at Taft High School, which began last September with crowded classrooms and teacher shortages, has ended with the transfer of the Woodland Hills school’s principal to an inner-city junior high school.

The school year was marked by Taft parents’ repeated complaints to district officials, the filing of a grievance against the administration by teachers for the first time in the school’s 25-year history and the last-minute cancellation of campus extracurricular activities because of poor grades by students.

The transfer of Richard Caballero, the school’s principal for the last two years, to Carver Junior High School in Los Angeles was included on a list of new administrative assignments released this week by the Los Angeles Unified School District.

Carole Singer, the leader of a parents’ group that asked for Caballero’s transfer, said “a great deal of parental pressure” was put on the school district to remove him.

But Eugene McAdoo, an administrator in the district’s senior high division, denied that the pressure was a factor in the move. McAdoo said Caballero was transferred because he had experience at a year-round inner-city junior high school similar to Carver, where there was an opening.

Caballero, a 35-year employee of the school district, said he was notified of his new assignment June 28 and reported to Carver the following Monday. Although he is returning to a junior high school, Caballero said he does not view his transfer as a demotion.

Met With Successor

Caballero said he met Monday with his successor, Ron Berz, the principal of Monroe High School in Van Nuys for the last three years, to discuss problems at Taft. “They were there,” he said. “But we’d come a long way toward getting them solved.”

In September, Caballero said, crowded classrooms and supply shortages were caused by a new grade reconfiguration plan that added ninth-grade students to the campus, and by an unexpected increase in the number of inner-city students voluntarily bused to the school.

David Solkovits, president of the Taft chapter of the United Teachers of Los Angeles, said the problems faced by Taft teachers “persisted into January.”

Solkovits, a history and government teacher, said that in October the teachers filed their first-ever grievance with the district, alleging that the campus had become “an intolerable place to teach.” The document was signed by 100 of about 120 teachers at the school, he said.

He said teachers were not asking the district to remove Caballero, but “to see to it that his job was being fulfilled.” A teacher survey listing purported administrative problems also was presented to the district, Solkovits said.

Solkovits said that the teachers complained that there were not enough supplies such as textbooks, paper and fluid for duplicating machines; that a lack of supervision led to students’ being tardy or absent, and that the campus looked like a “pigsty” because no one was hired to supervise its cleaning.

“The bathrooms were absolutely filthy,” Solkovits said. “They got so bad the kids wouldn’t even go in them.”

Teachers were under emotional stress for the entire school year, which ended last month, because the necessary administrative services were not provided, he said.

Solkovits said he and Berz are scheduled to meet next week to discuss the problems. “I’ve got high hopes that he’s going to be a good man,” Solkovits said. “Teachers are willing to cooperate. We look for better times.”

Singer, the leader of a group of PTA members, said she and other parents met with former school board member Tom Bartman and repeatedly complained about Caballero at school board meetings.

Staff Members Quit

Singer said that, during Caballero’s tenure as Taft’s principal, important staff members, including a vice principal, the head janitor, the head counselor and the school nurse, quit their jobs. She, too, complained that the condition of the campus had deteriorated.

“There were desks out in hallways,” Singer said. “In some cases, students had no desks. There were no supplies for others. The academic level went way down and stayed there.”

Former PTA president Phyllis Hurwitz said that she is “extremely happy” that a new principal has been assigned to Taft. She said she believes Caballero was “put in a bad situation” that he “tried very hard to handle.”

Solkovits said the new grade configuration and the increase in students bused to Taft from central city compounded Caballero’s problems.

Caballero said that, although he would miss Taft and its “beautiful campus,” he could see positive aspects to his new job. Carver, he said, is a year-round school, which means he will receive about $9,000 more a year in pay.

Caballero said “many positive things” happened while he was at Taft. “Test scores went up. Course offerings were increased,” he said. “I feel good about these things.”

Caballero said he graduated from Carver in 1947.

SCHOOL PRINCIPALS

These are new principals of San Fernando Valley elementary schools:

Joan Marks, Carpenter Avenue, Studio City.

Herb Kanigher, Lemay Street, Van Nuys.

Barbara Roe, Strathern Street, North Hollywood.

Jean Lau, Andasol Avenue, Northridge.

Robert Miller, Castlebay Lane, Northridge.

Liz Sullivan, El Dorado Avenue, Sylmar.

Linda Pacheco, El Oro Way, Granada Hills.

Ed Krojansky, Liggett Street, Panorama City.

Al Parde, Montague Street, Pacoima.

George Jones, Plummer, Sepulveda.

Theodore Dederick, at Stonehurst Avenue and Vinedale schools, Sun Valley;

Loretta Norwalt, Sylmar School.

Kassaye Makuria, Telfair Avenue, Pacoima.

These are the new principals of San Fernando Valley secondary schools:

Jean Drier, Holmes Junior High, Northridge.

Ted Siegel, Sylmar High.

John Anderson, Monroe High, Sepulveda.

Ron Berz, Taft High, Woodland Hills.

In the Las Virgenes Unified School District, Donald Bathgate will be the new principal at Camarillo High.