Parents, Teachers Want Principal Out

Parents and teachers at Eastman Avenue Elementary School appealed to the Los Angeles Unified School District board of education last week to remove the school’s principal, Dorothy Padilla.

Parents say Padilla, who was out sick most of October, has caused divisiveness among parents and teachers and had left the school without effective leadership. Among the teachers’ complaints are that they have to make appointments to see Padilla and have had supplies taken from their classrooms without their consent.

Parents have collected more than 800 signatures calling for Padilla’s ouster, and a small group has been picketing the school daily to call attention to their concerns. In a separate move, 45 of the school’s 49 teachers have also signed a petition asking the district to remove Padilla.

Padilla, who returned to work on Tuesday, said she wants to set up meetings with the opposition groups to understand their complaints. She believes her absence may have aggravated problems that under normal circumstances would have been addressed and solved.

“It is a rather surprising turn of events, but I still have quite a bit of support,” she said. “There were quite a few people who let me know that today. They told me to not let it bother me. It’s surprising and hateful.”

Padilla, who has been with the district 21 years, added that she does not know some of the parents who have been picketing the school for more than a month and suggested some of them may not have children at Eastman. She declined to elaborate on the illness that has kept her out of school during the picketing.

After addressing the board on Monday, parent Tomas Fresquez agreed to meet with Deputy Supt. Ruben Zacarias and Board President Leticia Quezada to discuss the problems. Quezada told the parents that private meetings are necessary because of LAUSD’s policy against discussing the work performance of its employees in public meetings.

“I know you are doing this because you are very concerned and the parents are very concerned,” Quezada told Fresquez. “We want to come to a resolution as soon as possible.”

About 30 parents who chartered a bus with a sign that read “Padilla Must Go” stood up and applauded when board members Roberta Weintraub and Warren Furitani expressed concern that the parents had been stonewalled before the meetings.

“You have come to the right place,” Furitani said. “As far as the next step in finding solutions, I think we can deal with something right now.”

“This is the best response I’ve gotten in months,” Fresquez responded.