Demotion of School Principal

In one of many telephone conversations with Los Angeles Unified School District administrators after the demotion and transfer of Jean Lau from Sylmar Elementary School, one of Supt. Harry Handler’s assistants told me Lau was placed at our school under Board Rule 4212. (I am sure of that number because I jotted it down on a piece of paper as he spoke.) The rule covers selections of employees in absence of an eligible list.

It is common knowledge that the list of eligible principals has long been exhausted, and that the person replacing Jean Lau had either not taken the test or had failed it. In this case the new acting principal has not taken the examination, and since the test is not given every year she already has an unfair advantage over Lau.

Mrs. Lau had been at the school a couple of months when it was time to take the principal’s examination. Not only was Lau new at her job, but here she was going to be tested by a new process, and add to that she was in the first group to be tested by fire. She passed everything with high marks but the oral session.

No consideration was given to the fact that she had been an acting principal for four or five years before the test, and that she was getting good marks from most of the parents and staff at the school. There is not a principal alive who will receive perfect grades from everyone, and Lau is no exception. So what?

The majority of us in Sylmar want Jean Lau back at her post.

DORA POHL

Sylmar

Pohl is a teacher’s assistant at Sylmar Elementary School. Development in Sylmar