Principal, 2 Teachers at Gompers School Will Be Reprimanded : Protest: Actions stem from conduct linked to a student demonstration at the racially troubled school.

The principal at Gompers Secondary School and at least two teachers will be reprimanded by San Diego city schools Supt. Tom Payzant for their actions in a Feb. 23 student demonstration that came close to a violent confrontation when many city police responded.

Payzant announced at Tuesday’s school board meeting that he will be issuing letters of reprimand, counseling with supervisors, and transfering one or more teachers after his investigation. He not only investigated the February incident but larger issues of teacher rebellion and curriculum problems that continue to trouble the high-powered science-math-computer specialty school, the district’s best-known, with a tradition of winning national academic awards.

Although Payzant said he will not reveal specific punishments because of labor contract regulations, several key board sources told The Times that reprimand letters will be placed in the files of Principal Marie Thornton, teacher Rhoenna Armster--whose forced transfer from Gompers by Thornton precipitated the demonstration--and teacher Toni Wisehart, who sources say encouraged students to join the protest.

The same sources, all of whom asked not to be identified, said that administrators would like to arrange the transfer of Wisehart and perhaps other outspoken Gompers teachers who the district believes have been actively undermining the school’s controversial renewal plan. But Wisehart teaches advanced senior-level science courses, and the district would be hard-pressed to find a mid-year qualified substitute teacher.

They added that Thornton herself, to avoid removal as principal, will be under more pressure between now and the end of school in June to show improvements in campus morale and performance.

Payzant and the board strongly considered her immediate removal during the past two months--even before the demonstration--but backed away after realizing the storm of community protest and possible legal action that would follow, several sources said.

Yet one knowledgeable source said, “I strongly suspect she won’t be back next September,” saying that Payzant and a majority of trustees have been frustrated by Thornton’s inability as the school’s leader for the past three years to coalesce a faculty still sharply divided over the renewal plan.

Thornton declined comment Tuesday on Payzant’s comments, but Armster, a business education teacher, harshly attacked Payzant and the trustees, calling Payzant’s decision regarding her role “highfalutin’ garbled messages” to avoid blame for what she believes is a flawed renewal plan. Wisehart could not be reached for comment.

That plan, in its first full year of implementation and a result of pressure from black parents of resident students, is an attempt to extend the special math-science curriculum at the school to all of the predominantly black neighborhood students who attend the seventh- through 12th-grade school.

That is a radical change from past procedures over almost a decade, under which only a small portion of neighborhood students participated in the magnet, with an equal number of white students who voluntarily attend the campus through a busing program under the district’s integration plan. The remaining neighborhood students attended non-magnet junior high classes and left Gompers after the eighth grade.

One of the major controversies has involved the requirement that high school-level teachers, who formerly taught only a few students in specialized magnet classes, also teach at the junior-high level. Armster, who was transfered to Lincoln High in February, was particularly vocal in her objections to the changes, saying that many non-white students are not adequately prepared for the advanced curriculum, and that tutoring, counseling and other academic support plans for students have been poorly carried out or not at all.

White student enrollment at Gompers has dropped from 413 to 269, out of about 1,400 students, from 1988 to this year, as many non-resident parents objected to the renewal plan, which they fear will dilute the curriculum.

“The depth of feeling and intensity of emotion people bring to the discussion (of longstanding Gompers issues) makes it very difficult even for the most objective observer to establish clearly who and what are right and wrong,” Payzant said.

Although Payzant said he supports the rights of students to exercise free speech on controversial school issues, he said school officials have equal responsibility to ensure the safety of students and avoid disruption of academics.

About 300 students left classes and demonstrated noisily but peacefully at Gompers on Feb. 23 until almost 40 police officers arrived and threatened them with nightsticks and Mace. Police officials last month apologized to the Gompers community and to school administrators, saying that errors in communication resulted in the unjustified numbers showing up. Several officers have either been reprimanded or transferred to other duties because of the incident.

Payzant said that, based on reports from staff members and people in the community, he concludes that Thornton did not adequately plan for the demonstration, though she knew of it a day before it took place, and failed to consult teachers and tell them how they should handle events.

Payzant said, “There is evidence that one or more teachers did not act professionally during the demonstration and actively encouraged students to participate, which is contrary to district policy.”

Payzant also placed blame on himself and other central office administrators for failing to appreciate the volatility of any event taking place at Gompers and not to have taken closer oversight of planning when also informed a day before.

“School district employees who committed errors of omission or commission will be dealt with appropriately,” he said.

Payzant added, “I will support administrators who take appropriate personnel action where any employee is not fulfilling his or her responsibility to implement the (renewal plan) or is working in any way to undermine it.”

But board sources said Thornton’s management style in carrying out the plan has become a major problem despite those longtime teachers who continue to fight its implementation.

“The board is comfortable with what is being done now, but if there are no changes in morale by June, the board will be pushing very hard for major changes,” one source said. “We’ve seen no success in (Thornton) bringing the two sides together.”

Another source said, “The politics of the situation do not allow for her removal now,” though adding that the longstanding tension over curriculum and equity at Gompers brings any management problem facing Thornton to immediate districtwide attention, whereas similar problems at other schools remain largely unpublicized.

“You can’t blame it all on Marie,” a third source said, “but the reality is that she has had management problems elsewhere--at Bell Junior High and Serra High before this--so it’s been an ongoing pattern, and the additional problems of malcontents and magnet considerations at Gompers have only exacerbated them.”