Principal Ousted After Parent-Teacher Protest : Education: Critics cite concerns about absences and divisiveness. The district seeks bilingual replacement for Eastman Elementary.

Parents who picketed Eastman Elementary School for weeks have succeeded in ousting Principal Dorothy Padilla and are awaiting her replacement.

They hope Los Angeles Unified School District officials will use the parents’ criteria in finding a new principal. But for now, they say, their work lies in reaching out to Padilla’s supporters and putting the school back on course.

“This is a lot harder than the other part,” said parent spokesman Tomas Fresquez. “It’s easier to unite on something like that than (the work) we have to do afterward.”

More than 800 parents and nearly all the school’s teachers signed petitions asking the district to remove Padilla, who had been Eastman’s principal for three years. In complaining to the Los Angeles Unified Board of Education, they cited concerns about extended absences due to illness and said she tried to cause divisions between parents and teachers.

Padilla had been out sick for most of October and returned to find parents picketing the school daily. She met with parents, teachers, staff and with Assistant Superintendent Evangelina Stockwell. The principal requested an extended medical leave a short time later.

Parents received word during Thanksgiving week that Padilla would not be returning. Padilla could not be reached for comment.

Stockwell said she has promised to find a replacement after the holidays and is looking to move an experienced principal from another school to Eastman. “It’s going to be a challenge,” Stockwell said. “I’m looking for someone with good human relations and someone who will enhance the bilingual program.”

The parents listed the qualities they want in a principal, signed it and sent it to Stockwell. They asked for someone who is fluent in Spanish; willing to work with the parents, teachers and students; and is supportive of after-school activities, Fresquez said.

“It was neat because not only the parents on the (picket) line, but the other parents also signed it,” Fresquez said. “That was the first time we did something together.”

Stockwell has enlisted the help of Uvaldo Palomares, an author and specialist in human development, who volunteered to help the groups at Eastman come together.

In one attempt to heal the divisions, parents and teachers are collecting food and toys to fill 20 holiday baskets for families at the school, Fresquez said. “This is a real first,” he said of the parents’ new clout. “No one believed that this could be done.”