Ousted Morningside High Principal Says He’s Being Made a Scapegoat

It has been less than six months since Arthur H. Murray became principal at Morningside High School in Inglewood. But in that short tenure, he has faced enough problems to last a dozen school years.

Just as school started, a computer balked and student schedules were hopelessly bungled. His school did not have enough books. Bathrooms were badly vandalized. Students said substitute teachers were often incompetent.

Last week, school board members said Murray may have inherited many of the problems, but that he did not do enough to correct them. They ordered him reassigned to another post.

But Murray’s saga was not over. While he awaited reassignment, hundreds of students walked off campus last Friday to protest campus conditions. The boycott continued on Tuesday. And on Thursday, just when calm seemed ready to return, a power outage interrupted classes for most of the morning.

Murray said in an interview Thursday that he is being made the scapegoat for problems that existed long before he came to the Inglewood school. Some teachers and students agree.

Murray said he does not know if he will stay with the district and is so disillusioned that he is even considering taking a job in business. “Education can ruin you,” he said.

In his last job, as principal of Delano High School in the San Joaquin Valley, Murray found himself at the center of controversy.

Murray, who is black, swapped charges of racism and incompetence with his mostly white teaching staff. He faced a walkout and picketing by some students when he demoted an assistant principal. And he resigned a little more than a year ago, several months after a fistfight with Delano’s superintendent of schools.

Inglewood school Supt. George McKenna and several school board members said this week that they did not know Murray had been a controversial figure in his last job. Board members said that, although it might not have changed their decision to hire him, they wish they had known more about Murray’s record at Delano High.

The trustees said they had been thinking of improving the screening of administrators and that revelations about Murray this week had reinforced that desire. Principals should be interviewed not only by a district screening panel, but by board members themselves, trustees said.

But Murray said the school district was well-informed about his past.

He said that he told an interview panel in Inglewood about his numerous disagreements with teachers in Delano. And he said he told McKenna that he had been in an altercation with Delano’s superintendent.

“I think it’s important to mention those things,” Murray said in an interview. “Being controversial is not bad. If anything, I think it shows that you are willing to take a stand and fight for something you believe in. And I thought those kids in Delano were being shortchanged.”

In a memo to Morningside teachers Thursday, Murray said he will not challenge his removal from the school. He thanked teachers for their support and said he could not do his job “in the midst of constant turmoil, battling the superintendent or any or his cohorts, some of whom tend to embellish the misfortunes of Morningside High School.”

McKenna did not return phone calls seeking comment.

Murray, who received a Ph.D. in education from the University of Michigan in 1976, said in an interview that he is so disillusioned that he may leave Inglewood and seek a job in business.

His tenure in Delano also ended on an unhappy note.

Murray came to the farming community of 21,000 in August, 1987, as the high school’s first black principal. The majority of students were Latino, with minorities of Filipinos, Anglos and blacks. About 80% of the teachers were white.

Murray said this week that he felt educational standards in Delano were low and that teachers were not working hard enough. He instituted a sign-in policy to encourage teachers to get to school on time and required instructors to assign homework on certain nights of the week.

Teachers charged that Murray forced the changes on them without discussion and acted vindictively toward those who opposed him, said Ray Trask, former leader of the Delano teachers union.

Murray faced further problems when he demoted one of Delano High School’s assistant principals to a teaching position, alleging that the man, who is white, discriminated against minority students.

More than 100 students, who supported the ousted administrator, walked out of class and picketed across the street from the 2,000-student high school.

Murray’s problems in the district came to a climax in June, 1988, when he fought with then-Supt. Leonard Dalton. Murray said he denied a teacher’s request for a day off, saying the instructor had already taken too much time off, but Dalton overrode the decision.

The two scuffled in Dalton’s office at school district headquarters. Each man told police the other was the aggressor and, since no one witnessed the fight, criminal charges never were filed, said Lt. Ron Williams of the Delano Police Department.

Overlying many disputes in Delano is a patina of racial tension, many in the farming community say.

Longtime teachers, most of whom were white, said Murray wanted to move them out and replace them with minority instructors. Murray said white teachers bridled under his leadership because they were lazy and didn’t like taking orders from a black man.

Murray was generally supported by two Latino school board members and one black board member, but Murray and others say he often ran into opposition from the board’s two white members.

One of his school board supporters this week called him “a great motivator and a great role model for our kids here,” while one of Murray’s detractors called him a “domineering fellow . . . who blames everyone but himself for problems.”

Murray filed a complaint with the state Department of Fair Employment and Housing over his treatment in Delano. He charged that racial prejudice led to the fistfight, previous reprimands by the superintendent and the district’s failure to renew his contract.

The school district settled the case in January, 1989, when Murray agreed to leave the school and drop his complaint with the state agency. In exchange, sources in the district said, Murray was given a $75,000 cash settlement.

Inglewood school board members said they were disturbed that school district administrators did not learn how Murray left his last job.

Board member Thomasina Reed speculated that Murray’s record might have been sealed as part of his settlement with the Delano Joint Union High School District.

Indeed, current Delano Supt. Ruben Trinidad said this week that Murray’s file only includes a terse summary of his settlement with the school district.

But Inglewood board member Joseph Rouzan said a few phone calls to Delano teachers would have greatly improved Inglewood’s screening.

“I can only assume that the background check was inadequately done,” Rouzan said.

Inglewood school board members said they first heard about Murray’s troubles in Delano from a reporter. They said they still do not know enough to judge his actions in his last job, or whether any of his activities would have precluded them from hiring him in Inglewood.

Some teachers and students said they don’t appreciate the district’s removal of Murray.

“The new principal has never really gotten a chance,” said one teacher, who asked not to be named. “Everything he does is second-guessed by the school district people.”

Several students said they agree.

“The problems were here before he got here,” said senior Eric Hughes, 17. “Now they’re trying to pin the whole thing on him.”

Other students said Murray could have done more and that he seldom appeared on campus during the first three months of school.

“There are still some people who say, to this day, that they still don’t know who the principal is,” said Abdul Omar Khan, a sophomore.

Murray said there was a good reason he wasn’t out, getting to know students: He was too busy trying to correct the scheduling problems caused by the haywire computer.