N. California Principal Gets Lorbeer Job : Schools: The Pomona Unified board announces the replacement for Jack Housen, who was ousted over parents’ protests.

The Pomona Unified School District on Monday announced the appointment of a Northern California educator to replace the controversial principal of Lorbeer Junior High School in Diamond Bar.

Jack Housen was transferred to the classroom after 25 years as an administrator because the school board said he was not a “team player.”

Housen said he plans to retire June 30 and is considering a lawsuit against the district.

Housen’s supporters, who mounted an unsuccessful campaign to keep him at Lorbeer, said he was a strict disciplinarian who raised academic standards and brought order in a district plagued by low test scores and gang violence.

Constance T. Shotts, principal of Rhonert Park Junior High in Sonoma County, will take over as principal of Lorbeer on July 1. Rhonert is in Northern California’s Cotati School District.

Pomona officials said that although they like to promote from within, it is not unusual to go outside the district for principals. The principal of Garey High School in Pomona was hired from outside last year, they said.

Michael E. Daniels, assistant principal at Ganesha High School in Pomona, was named Lorbeer’s assistant principal. He replaces Lucretia Peebles, who left the district to become a principal in Moorpark.

Housen, 69, had been principal of Ganesha and was transferred to Lorbeer in 1983 over his objection and that of parents, who mounted a campaign to retain him.

In his quarter-century with Pomona Unified, Housen received consistently high marks on his evaluations in academic matters and management but had run-ins with district officials over procedural matters.

This spring, Housen accused the district of playing politics and retaliating against him, in part because he refused the administrators’ order to reverse the suspension of a student. The move into the classroom would mean a pay cut of $20,000 each year.

“This is the kind of thing that is going to be to the detriment of public education,” Housen said this week. “It really isn’t education anymore, it’s empire building, and the kids are the last thing they consider in all this.”

District officials said privacy laws keep them from elaborating on their reasons for transferring Housen. But a letter to him cited his failure to be a “team player.”

Meanwhile, Housen’s supporters vowed to work to oust school board members in the fall election. Three of the five seats are up for reelection.

“The people on the board better watch it because we know who they are and we can get rid of all of them,” said Claudia Thompson, whose children attend Lorbeer. “Our children mean nothing to them and that’s obvious, otherwise they would have left Jack Housen where he is.”