Controversy Rages Over Principal : Parents Deny Racism Is Involved in Dispute at School

Months of conflict over the performance of Serra Junior-Senior High School Principal Marie Thornton has divided the Tierrasanta community and the teaching staff at the 2,500-student school, producing charges of racial bias from both Thornton’s critics and supporters.

A group of Tierrasanta parents and Serra teachers have been calling for Thornton’s ouster since December, publicly denouncing her as “autocratic,” and accusing her of destroying morale in the two years she has headed the school. More than 100 parents signed petitions calling for Thornton’s removal.

The conflict has caused some teachers to leave the school or apply for transfers. In recent weeks, it has escalated into a debate as Thornton--a black principal at a school in predominantly white Tierrasanta--has received support from black parents living outside the community.

Last week, the controversy spread to the Board of Education, where three trustees and Supt. Thomas Payzant publicly rebuked Trustee Larry Lester for personally polling the school’s teachers on whether they had lost confidence in Thornton.

The controversy has become so heated that Payzant last week called for a cooling-off period and suspended the work of a psychologist hired by the school board in January to investigate the turmoil at the school. On Friday, Payzant sent memos to the school’s staff, asking them to stop discussing the conflict as part of the cooling-off effort.

But Thornton’s critics remain adamant that only her departure will calm tension between some teachers and the principal. “I don’t see at this point in time where it would be productive for her to stay,” said Jim Sundahl, the teachers’ union representative at Serra. “It would be damaging. The community is not in favor. The staff is not in favor.”

Thornton’s opponents accuse her of arbitrarily slashing successful school programs with little discussion, of stonewalling attempts to mediate conflict, and of picking on popular teachers in an attempt to “tame” the school.

“It’s the entire way she manages and administrates the entire school,” said Carolyn Sutton, a leader of the community effort to fire Thornton.

But Thornton’s supporters say teachers and parents were spoiled by collegial decision-making under two past principals, and resent having to adjust to Thornton’s more independent leadership style.

“I don’t see her as autocratic,” said Faith Whitehurst-Miller, a teacher who wants Thornton to stay at Serra. “I see her as a firm decision-maker. She has done research and had input when she makes a decision. But (she is) definitely a firm decision-maker.”

“My position is that she’s the manager, and even if you don’t like the boss’s decision, she’s the boss,” said Emmett McCoy, a Tierrasanta parent who supports Thornton.

“A contingent of teachers had decided before she even put her foot in the door that she was not going to be a success at Serra,” said a teacher who asked not to be named because of Payzant’s request for a cooling-off period. “And they have done everything that they could to stand up against her and be uncooperative with her.”

Thornton, who began her teaching career 25 years ago and rose to become principal of Bell Junior High School before taking over at Serra, declined to comment on most of the controversy. But she said she believes the conflict began because, “as a new principal at Serra, I have had to reprimand some teachers and implement some policies that have not been so palatable.”

The changes include a greater emphasis on academics and requirements that students spend more time on certain classroom subjects, she said. The result has been a rise in test scores since she took over in September, 1984.

Thornton’s critics trace the genesis of the dispute to some decisions made at the beginning of this school year. Without consulting parents and teachers, they say, she cut back a popular three-day educational field trip and attempted to eliminate a successful remedial reading program.

Parents also complained about Thornton’s decision to prosecute four students who strewed toilet paper around school grounds--an annual tradition for seniors--and teachers were angered by a decision to eliminate the job of head counselor Yvonee Dyson while she was on maternity leave.

The reading program was reinstated two days later. The field trip was cut back because it would have left the school with too few teachers, Thornton said.

But parents said the abrupt decisions and subsequent bitter meetings with Thornton ultimately led to their petition drive to seek her removal.

“The complaint with the parents is the same as with the staff: there is no response,” teacher Kim Solvey said. “She just looks at you. She just stares.”

Charges of racial bias, traded at parents’ meetings held by psychologist Norm Chambers in January and February, became public March 4 after the Rev. George Walker Smith presented the board with petitions signed by about 2,000 of Thornton’s supporters.

Smith, a black activist and the pastor of Christ United Presbyterian Church in Golden Hill who served on the school board for 16 years, said at the meeting that disgruntled teachers should “transfer out” if they dislike Thornton.

Critics charged that the petitions were gathered mainly in black churches and signed by people who support Thornton because she is black.

“Their backing is based solely on one thing: that they have a common race with this person,” said Henry Cunningham, a leader of the parents’ group. “And they cannot accept that a person of her race can be incompetent or challenged on incompetence.”

“Let them have this paragon of excellence,” Cunningham added. “We don’t want her.”

His group has invited the school board to replace Thornton with another black principal.

McCoy, a Tierrasanta resident with a son at Serra, disputes claims that black parents support Thornton solely because of her race. “I resent the fact that (parents opposed to Thornton) think we can’t make a fair decision just because we’re black,” he said.

Smith said he became involved because Thornton was being treated unjustly. “If it was a white principal, I would have done this,” he said. “There’s nothing racial (involved).”

In an earlier effort to cool the simmering conflict, the school board in January had approved payments of $11,000 to hire Chambers to investigate the turmoil at the school and suggest solutions.

But Thornton’s critics charge that Chambers has only added fuel to the fire. At staff meetings in January and February, teachers were asked to stand up before Thornton and their colleagues and publicly criticize her, teachers said. Some broke down crying; others refused to comply, teachers said.

Parents said that at least two of the meetings involving Chambers became point-counterpoint debates between Thornton supporters and her critics. Thornton herself became involved in verbal clashes with a teacher and a parent at a Feb. 12 Parent-Teacher-Student Assn. meeting, according to Thornton’s critics.

Some parents became irate when Chambers released an interim report, listing in one section more positive than negative comments about Thornton. Claiming that the report was an inaccurate reflection of teacher and parent sentiment, they convinced board member Lester at a Feb. 18 community meeting to attend a Feb. 20 meeting of the school’s staff.

At that meeting, Lester, whose district includes Serra, held a secret ballot of the school’s teachers on whether they had lost confidence in Thornton. While he has refused to reveal the results he presented to a closed session of the school board Feb. 25, Lester said they are “widely at variance with some information supplied to us on earlier occasions.”

Lester’s efforts earned him public criticism from three school trustees--who said he “undermined” the board’s relationship with school management--and the admiration of some teachers critical of Thornton.

“The majority of the staff there are appreciative that Lester came,” said Steve Haiman, a teacher who is one of Thornton’s most vocal critics. “There would have been a mass walkout if Lester hadn’t been there. People were fed up with the kinds of hoops Chambers was putting us through.”

Whitehurst-Miller said that the public criticism was necessary to allow everyone to air their grievances. She said the process Chambers set in motion has been abandoned before it had time to produce solutions.

Payzant has vowed to retain Thornton as principal through the end of the year, promising to assess her performance along with all other district principals when he considers next September’s assignments. The parents’ group is equally adamant that she must be removed.

Thornton said she is not thinking about the future. “My plans are to provide and do all the things I can do this school year,” she said.