Ventura High Principal and Aides Reassigned : Schools: Officials hoping to improve image of the campus want a team skilled at dealing with the media. But some teachers and students criticize the action.

Concerned about Ventura High School’s image problems, school officials announced Wednesday they are reassigning the principal and some of his deputies to other posts.

But the move is drawing criticism from some teachers and students.

Principal Jerry Barshay will transfer next fall to a newly created position in Ventura’s adult education program. He will be replaced by Balboa Middle School Principal Hank Robertson.

Also, Assistant Principal Diane M. Wootton, who has been at Ventura High School 28 years, is scheduled to go to the local continuation high school.

And Helena Torrez-Reaves, another assistant principal who is a favorite among Ventura High students, is the top candidate to replace Robertson at Balboa Middle School.

The sole reason for the shake-up, Ventura Unified School District Supt. Joseph Spirito said, is to bring Ventura High a management team skilled at dealing with the media and able to improve the public perception of the school.

“When you want a change in direction, you change leadership,” Spirito said. “What I need at Ventura High School right now is somebody who can go in there and deal with the perception of the school and be open to the press.”

Ventura High School has had to struggle against the perception that it is inferior to its cross-town rival, Buena High, ever since Buena was built in the early 1960s.

But Ventura High’s longstanding image problem has been aggravated by a spate of recent, highly publicized incidents that included the stabbing death last year of school football player Jesse Strobel near the school on a Friday night.

Although the slaying occurred off campus and after school, it fueled community fears that the school was not safe.

Also last year, Ventura High’s longtime football coach, Harvey Kochel, was convicted of having sex with a 15-year-old student. And this year, swim coach Dale Hahn was suspended without pay because of similar allegations involving sex with students.

Even more recently, a small group of Ventura High students has been involved in racial fights, mostly at after-school basketball games.

Despite this string of problems, some teachers and students said Ventura High administrators should not suffer the consequences for the school’s poor image.

“We’ve had some incredibly bad luck,” said David Hess, a Ventura High history teacher and student-government adviser.

Although a number of teachers believe the shake-up will benefit the school, Hess said, “There are some people that feel the administration is being scapegoated.”

Some students also agreed that Ventura High administrators should not take the heat for the recent incidents. “I don’t think they should blame them for the school’s problems,” said 16-year-old Alexis Pate, a junior.

Student morale at Ventura High was low last year after Strobel’s slaying, Alexis and other students said. But they said the mood on campus has improved significantly this year.

School officials said the changes are not intended to punish Ventura High administrators.

Spirito said he believes Robertson will be better than Barshay at improving the school’s public image because he is well-known in the community and skilled at dealing with the press.

Affable and well-liked by his colleagues, the 58-year-old Robertson taught chemistry and math for 12 years at Buena High before becoming assistant principal and then principal at Balboa in 1977. He has three sons who all graduated from Ventura High.

Although Barshay has a similar number of years in education, including some in adult education, he came to Ventura only three years ago from the San Gabriel Valley, where he was also a high school principal.

Spirito said Barshay and the rest of the school administration have not done enough to counteract bad publicity over the suspension of Hahn or other recent incidents. “I felt that there should be more open communication,” he said.

But Barshay said state privacy laws had constrained him from talking publicly about the Hahn and Kochel cases. “There’s been some very difficult personnel situations at this school that I’ve had to deal with,” he said.

Despite school officials’ contention that the shake-up at Ventura High is needed to spruce up the school’s image, some parents said they could not care less what the general public thinks about the school.

“I don’t care that we have a bad image because I know the school is doing good,” said Paula Ward, who has had three children attend the school. Ward added that she believes one reason for the school’s poor image is it has more minority and low-income students than Buena.

Nevertheless, Ward said, perhaps changing the administration will help change public perception.

“I guess we won’t know till we try it,” she said.