Principal Demoted; Board Won’t Give Name to Irate Parents, Just a Number

The Huntington Beach City Elementary School District on Tuesday demoted a popular principal in a closed session, then refused to divulge the woman’s name to a standing-room only crowd of angry parents and instead announced her Social Security number.

“This school board says it was protecting personnel (in not revealing the principal’s name), but we think they’re really just trying to protect their hides,” said one parent, Shirley Carey.

Carey said she and other parents are discussing a possible recall action against the school trustees.

No reason was given for the school board action.

The dispute has increased tensions in the district, already hit by a one-day teacher strike last month. Huntington Beach City is still the only school district in Orange County not to have settled a contract with its teachers for the current school year.

Despite objections from hundreds of parents, the Huntington Beach elementary school board voted behind closed doors late Tuesday night to remove Rita Jorgensen as principal of Hawes School, 9682 Yellowstone Drive, and to reassign her to a teaching job next year.

2 Social Security Numbers

The school board, however, did not announce the name of Jorgensen and another demoted school administrator after it took its closed-door action Tuesday night. Instead the board released only two Social Security numbers.

“Our board, after getting legal counsel on this, wanted to protect the employees’ right of privacy,” said school district Supt. Diana Peters on Wednesday.

The district’s lawyer, Steven Andelson, said nothing in the state’s law on public meeting requires the school board to specify whom it reassigned. Andelson noted that the Brown Act, the state law on open meetings, only requires a public body to disclose the names of anyone appointed, employed or fired in a closed-door personnel session. Andelson said that since the employees under closed-door discussion were reassigned--neither hired nor fired--the school board did not have to make public their names.

“The school district only released the Social Security numbers of the two employees as a courtesy,” Andelson said.

However, under federal law, the Social Security Administration cannot divulge identities of holders of Social Security numbers, said Virgil Kocher, a staff official with the Social Security regional office in San Francisco.

Peters, the district superintendent, said the school board was not trying to hide or disguise its demotion action. Peters said the board wanted to protect the privacy of the two demoted employees. The two employees can identify themselves to the public later if they choose, she said.

Since both teachers and principals are public employees, paid by public funds, their identities cannot be withheld indefinitely. The state public records law requires disclosure of the status of teachers and other public employees.

A 1980 attorney general’s opinion noted that the state public records law, in effect, complements the open-meetings law. That opinion said disclosure of actions such as personnel reassignments must be made public, even though the Brown Act may not require a public agency to announce its actions immediately after a closed-door session.

Reassignment Confirmed

Jorgenson confirmed late Wednesday afternoon that she was one of the two reassigned employees, but she declined to comment on the action. Jorgenson has been an administrator in Huntington Beach City School District for a total of 13 years, having served at Perry, Eader and Smith schools as a principal before coming to Hawes as principal two years ago. “She has been an excellent, excellent principal, and the parents love her,” Carey said Wednesday.

The identity of the second administrator, reportedly an assistant principal at another school in the district, could not be confirmed Wednesday.

The school board and Supt. Peters did not publicly disclose the reasons for removing Jorgenson as a principal. Under the Brown Act they are not required to make such a disclosure.

Carey and other Hawes parents said they had heard before the board’s meeting Tuesday that Jorgenson might be removed as principal. The parents started a campaign to urge the school board to keep Jorgenson as principal. About 350 people, most of them concerned about Jorgenson, packed the Tuesday night meeting,

“Every person in the audience who spoke was in favor of Rita Jorgenson,” Carey said. Carey noted that the board members did not discuss Jorgenson during the meeting and that no mention was given after the board’s closed meeting on how they voted on the demotions.

The school board went into closed session about 10 p.m. and returned at 11:30 p.m. with its message about reassignments affecting two Social Security numbers.

Carol Autrey, president of the teachers’ union, the Huntington Beach Elementary Teachers Assn., said Wednesday that the dispute over Jorgenson has worsened district-employee relations.

“If Supt. Peters doesn’t like Rita Jorgenson as a principal, I don’t know what she wants,” Autrey said. “Rita is popular with the teachers, with the students and with the parents.”

Autrey said the school board “may have taken on more than it realized” by angering the Hawes parents. Autrey added, “The Hawes parents are very organized.”

Autrey and Peters confirmed Wednesday that the school district still has not settled on a contract for the teachers.

School board president Karen O’Bric could not be reached for comment on Wednesday.