Principal for a Day : Program Gives Executives an Inside Look at How Schools Run

Jeff S. Wald strolled the campus of Hollywood High and remembered his New York school days back in the 1950s. How kids were poor, but seldom hungry. How gangs fought with fists, not guns. And what was crack cocaine?

On Tuesday, Wald was “Principal for a Day” at a school where meals served in the cafeteria are the only nutritious food some students will have all day. More than 80 teen-agers on campus are pregnant. And student groups discuss everything from getting out of a gang to staying off drugs.

School is no longer what it was, said Wald, who heads his own television and film production company. But the determination he sees on campuses like Hollywood High reminds him of what it can be.

Wald was one of more than 100 community leaders and business executives who left behind their corporate duties to observe firsthand the responsibilities of running a school. The third annual Principal for a Day program is the centerpiece of Educational Partnership Week, organized by the nonprofit Los Angeles Educational Partnership to link community resources with public schools.

Comedian Paul Rodriguez joined Wald at Hollywood High where the two men talked to students, stopped in classrooms, and ate pizza with student government leaders. The school has 2,200 students, mostly Latino and Armenian. Twenty-two languages are spoken at the school, and most of the pupils speak English as a second language. The 89-year-old school is the alma mater of numerous celebrities, including Judy Garland, Carol Burnett and Lana Turner.

“It’s been amazing,” said Wald, who last year was principal for a day at Mary McLeod Bethune Junior High in South Los Angeles. “Both years I’ve seen tremendous teachers and dedication. That doesn’t mean things are perfect. But for the most part, I’ve seen students who really want to learn, and teachers who really want to teach.”

Wald--a member of the group Education First, which addresses educational concerns through the media--said he realized that “kids and teachers today live in a far more complicated world” than when he attended school. So, “it’s great to find people who really care about children and do great things in spite of (the problems.)”

Rodriguez, one of Wald’s clients, signed autographs and joked with students who crowded around him in the schoolyard. But the former high school dropout laced his humor with the message that education is the key to success--and life would be hard without it.

“All the problems society has can be nipped in the bud here,” said Rodriguez, who promised he would return soon to participate in a discussion group with Latino gang members. “If these kids aren’t given any hope and opportunities, then other institutions will have to deal with them”--like prison.

According to John McDonald, a spokesman for the Los Angeles Educational Partnership, which organized the activities, the one-day visits have resulted in equipment being donated to schools throughout Los Angeles as well as the sponsorship of various school programs and services by local businesses.

Wald, who said he raised $7,000 last year for Bethune Junior High, hoped to encourage famous Hollywood High alumni to come back and talk about their achievements. In a city like Los Angeles, Wald said it is easy for high-powered executives to forget their obligations to the rest of the community. “In this city, you sit in your car, and you’re isolated,” he said. “There’s not a connection. . . . This is a good way for someone like me to see the realities.”