‘Excess’ Coach Survives the Cut at Patrick Henry, But Future Is Uncertain

Late last spring, P.E. teacher Walt Baranski, a veteran at Patrick Henry High School, was declared an “excess” teacher because of declining enrollment at the San Carlos area school.

He was one of five Henry teachers who were told that their services would no longer be needed come fall.

After 17 years at the school, Baranski, 49, was told he would be used as a substitute throughout the district and might have to find another job.

“Now, I’ve got to pick it up after 17 years and go find something else to do,” he said last May. “I just want to go to a place where I can help somebody.”

Today, Baranski is back home at Henry, in a surprise school district assignment made in the wake of community agitation over the prospect of losing the popular coach.

The news of Baranski’s plight caused an uproar among alumni and boosters in the San Carlos community. Many people approached the San Diego Unified School District’s board to plead for his reinstatement. Others sent letters to Patrick Henry administrators and to Principal Shirley Peterson, claiming an injustice was being done to perhaps the school’s most popular educator.

He was Henry’s head junior varsity boys’ basketball coach for 15 years, head junior varsity football coach for 12 years, athletic director for five years and head football coach for three years.

When he served as athletic director, Baranski spearheaded a 1983 drive that raised $125,000 to install lights at the school’s football stadium. On Nov. 10, at half-time of the final home football game, the mortgage for the lights was burned in a small ceremony, and a plaque was placed at the stadium. It reads:

“The lights in Donald W. Giddings Stadium were inspired by and are dedicated to Coach Walt Baranski. Patrick Henry Football boosters, 1983-1988.”

Popular because he always had a close rapport with students, his unmistakable exuberance and spirit overshadowed a degenerative arthritic disease Baranski suffers from, called ankylosing spondylitis. The disease has slowly eroded his once 6-foot-4 athletic body, severely limiting his ability to get around and leaving him dependent on crutches, a wheelchair and a golf cart.

Throughout the summer, it appeared that Baranski would not return to Henry. But the day before the school year began Sept. 13, Baranski made a call to district headquarters to find out whether he had an assignment.

“I made the phone call,” Baranski said. “Dennis Brown (the placement officer) said, ‘Walt, we’re going to keep you back at Henry.’ It was a big sigh of relief. I thought, ‘Great! I’m back at Henry.’ What a great calm came over me. It was a good feeling to know I was back. Still, there was that question mark. What am I going to be doing? What will they allow me to do?”

Baranski is on special assignment, with his tasks at the discretion of the principal. For the first time in 18 years, Baranski went to work without a real position.

“So the first day, I report not knowing what I’m to do. I show up at breakfast and I’m sitting visiting with the guys and everybody’s saying, ‘Glad to have you back. What are you going to do?’ I said, ‘I don’t know, I was told to show up.’ ”

It took a little while, but Baranski ended up as coordinator for a pilot tutorial program, which is also being tried at five other city schools. He was also assigned a career math class, similar to one he taught last spring. Less than a month later, he was given a second career math class.

“I’m just happy to be back there,” he said. “I would dread having to pack up and leave. The fact that I’m comfortable in my surroundings has made it easier for me. I’ve always done what I could do; if I needed help, I asked for help. I’ve never used my handicap to any advantage, but in the situation that I’m in, using my golf cart, being familiar with Patrick Henry and the staff and the students, it makes everything much easier for me, and for that I’m grateful.”

But according to Principal Peterson, Baranski is still an excess teacher and his assignment at Henry will be reevaluated at the end of the semester in connection with enrollment and and budget figures.

“Walt was placed at Patrick Henry in excess and basically given an opportunity to remain at the school so he doesn’t have to travel each day,” Peterson said.

Many “excessed” teachers are placed in a substitute pool, replacing ill teachers at different sites on a daily basis, until they are either permanently reassigned or permanently let go.

That is something Baranski abhors.

He would prefer to remain busy and get back to coaching.

“Let me coach again,” he said. “If there’s a position we can use Walt, let Walt do the job. If he can’t do the job, then tell him so. I can still do the damn job, just give me a chance to do something. I don’t want to feel useless, I’m not useless.”