Parents Protest Demotion of Principal in Costa Mesa

The demotion of a popular elementary school principal to a teaching job brought angry protests Wednesday from parents, who demanded an explanation.

Frank Feller, principal of Killybrooke Elementary School, was ordered back to the classroom for the 1991-92 school year on a unanimous vote Tuesday night by Newport-Mesa Unified School District trustees. The vote was taken after a two-hour closed session of the board. Dozens of parents and teachers had spoken out earlier in support of Feller.

District officials and the school board’s president would not discuss the reasons for Feller’s demotion, citing state law prohibiting release of personnel matters discussed in closed session. Their decision left parents and teachers angry and puzzled.

“I cannot for the life of me understand why the board would disrupt a system that is working so well,” Barbara Toohey, a sixth-grade teacher, told the board. “We cannot understand what he has done that deserves a demotion.”

John W. Nicoll, district superintendent, said Wednesday that the board reassigned Feller to a teaching position “after listening to the recommendations of the administration, which in this case would be the superintendent and the staff, and listening to Mr. Feller.”

“I would be surprised if parents did not have feelings of loyalty toward the principal,” Nicoll said in response to the parents’ protests, “but the decision was recommended to the board and the action was taken.”

Feller, 55, who met with the board for 30 minutes Tuesday night, is not prevented by law from disclosing details of the meeting, but declined to elaborate Wednesday.

“I love education, so teaching is certainly not a demotion,” Feller said. “It’s a little financial setback.”

Thomas Godley, the district’s assistant superintendent for budgets and personnel, said Feller will be placed “at the highest end” of the teacher salary scale, which ranges from $24,753 to $50,000 a year. Principals receive from $48,841 to $63,851 annually.

Feller, an employee of the district for 23 years and Killybrooke’s principal for four years, was praised by parents and teachers as an effective administrator who brought innovative programs to the school.

“He makes the teachers very happy, he makes the students very happy,” said Lynn Snyder, a school volunteer. “But he must have made someone unhappy.”

Parents and teachers echoed Snyder’s theory that Feller’s demotion resulted from a personality conflict with district administrators rather than professional incompetence. The district and the school board vehemently denied those accusations.

“It’s our responsibility as a board to make sure that any personnel recommendations are based upon thorough (and) objective evaluation,” said Newport-Mesa school board President Sherry Loofbourrow. “ . . . When we make a final determination whether to accept a district administrative (recommendation), we take all input we receive into careful and thoughtful consideration. We did not do it hastily; we did it in a very thorough manner.”

Kathy Koenig, president of the school’s Parent-Teacher Assn., said she and other parents thought that the board’s decision was little more than a “rubber-stamping” of administrative directives.