Memories of a Principal

Doug Dutton went to see the principal Thursday. The last time, he had to stay after school and think about his offense, which was running in the halls.

But this time, the Brentwood bookstore owner got a hug rather than a lecture from former Colfax Avenue School Principal Frances R. Pfortner, who 23 years after retiring returned to the North Hollywood school for a ceremony dedicating its newly remodeled library in her name.

“She was very strict, but much loved as well,” said Dutton, who attended Colfax in the 1950s along with his brother Dave, owner of the family’s North Hollywood bookstore.

Dutton--one of several former students whose children now attend Colfax--joined other parents and former teachers in their praise of Pfortner.

“I don’t believe I know this person you are describing,” Pfortner, 83, said in the midst of the ceremony. She was principal from 1951, when the school opened, to 1966, when she retired.

Pfortner, now a Goleta resident, received proclamations from the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors and Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley. Third-graders read an original poem dedicated to Pfortner, and a second-grade class performed an abbreviated version of “Stone Soup--A Rock Opera,” an original musical that the class adapted from the popular children’s book “Stone Soup.”

Former student Tony Walker, now the parent of two boys who attend Colfax, said he moved back to his former neighborhood largely because of his memories of the school.

“Boy, she meant business through her very presence,” said Walker, who thought up the idea of naming the school library after Pfortner. “I had my days when I had to sit on the bench in her office. But even though she was strict, she was very caring.”

Selene Hoffman, who worked as school nurse at Colfax for 30 years and had five children attend the school in the 1950s and ‘60s, said her children always felt protected there.

Troublemakers were not tolerated, she said. “When a child was behind closed doors with her, their attitude definitely changed,” Hoffman said.

Pfortner, who started teaching school in the fall of 1928, was also a training teacher and head recruiter for the Los Angeles Unified School District, her employer for 38 years. She taught sixth grade at several San Fernando Valley schools during the 1930s, including at Hayvenhurst, Pacoima and Lankershim schools.

Kathy Lee, one of the district’s two Valley assistant superintendents, said Pfortner was her first boss after Lee graduated from UCLA in the early 1950s. Pfortner was temporary principal of Franklin Avenue School at the time.

“She was my mentor and my role model,” Lee said. “Every single person she worked with grew because of her involvement.”

Lee and others who worked under Pfortner said she was a creative teacher and administrator, willing to try new ways of getting children to learn.

“At faculty meetings, we had all kinds of ideas and she’d say, ‘I understand what you’re saying. I’m not sure I agree with you, but I’m willing to let you try it,’ ” said Emogene Boggio, a retired teacher and principal.

Pfortner said after a tour of classrooms at Colfax that she is pleased with what she saw.

“In any good school, there are still the same fundamental things,” said Pfortner, who never had any children of her own. “It comes right down to the teacher and the parent. Helping children to be creative is the strength of any school.”