Tatum Named Principal at Oxnard High School

The Oxnard Union High School District has named one of its most popular administrators to head Oxnard High School, where the current principal resigned under pressure from some teachers.

Daisy Tatum will take over from Rick Rezinas as principal at the school at the end of this school year.

Known for her good rapport with both students and teachers, Tatum, 49, will face the tasks of uniting a divided faculty and moving the school’s 2,400 students in January from Oxnard High’s 5th Street campus to a new building on Gonzales Road.

But Tatum, who will be Ventura County’s first black female high school principal, said she is up to the challenge. And she said she is thrilled to return to the same school she graduated from 32 years ago.

“I think I’m just excited because I’m going back to my high school.”

A graduate of the University of Arkansas, Tatum joined the Oxnard district in 1969 as a physical education teacher at Channel Islands High School.

In 1974, she became a vice principal at Channel Islands and has since held various administrative jobs, making her the second longest-serving administrator in the district. Only Hueneme High School Assistant Principal Jim Miller has more administrative experience.

Despite the long record of service, Tatum had been passed over twice in her bid to become a principal.

In 1987, her application to head Hueneme High School, where she had served as assistant principal since 1980, was turned down in favor of Terry Taylor. When Taylor became ill and unable to serve in 1992, the district again passed over Tatum.

Despite protests from parents, teachers and students, district officials named Joanne Black to run Hueneme High and appointed Tatum as principal of the district’s continuation high school and independent-study programs.

District Supt. Bill Studt said Wednesday that Tatum had needed more experience working with school curriculum issues, experience that she gained during her past 1 1/2 years at Frontier Continuation High.

But it is Tatum’s talents as a consensus builder that district officials said they are counting on when she moves to Oxnard High.

“I think she’ll be able to pull the staff of Oxnard High together,” Studt said. “I think she’ll be able to provide a focus for the school.”

Tatum will be the third principal at Oxnard in the past seven years.

The district hired Rezinas three years ago after the school was rocked by a violent brawl between black and Latino students. Rezinas replaced Ruperto Cisneros, who had served in the position three years.

Under Rezinas’ leadership, Oxnard won a $116,400 state grant to revamp its curriculum to enhance learning. But some of Rezinas’ specific ideas for restructuring the school ran into trouble.

His plan to put Oxnard High on a year-round calendar sparked heated opposition from parents and some teachers, leading district officials to scuttle the proposal. And other restructuring proposals from the principal also caused controversy among school staff, according to parent leaders.

Rezinas has accepted a position as principal at Rancho Cordova High School outside Sacramento.

Some Oxnard teachers said Wednesday they expect Tatum to bring positive changes to the school.

“I am just excited about the change,” veteran swim coach and science teacher Larry Raffaelli said. “I think its going to improve morale.”

Tatum won the position at Oxnard over four other finalists, including three from inside the district. The board approved her by a 4-1 vote, with Trustee Janet Lindgren the lone dissenter. Lindgren could not be reached for comment.

But board President Nancy Koch said she chose Tatum because of Tatum’s commitment to helping students in all aspects of their high school experience--academically, personally and socially.

“She really is somebody who students, high school kids, relate to,” Koch said. “We’ve known that all along.”

For her part, Tatum said she tries only to treat high school students with respect.

School administrators need to remember, Tatum said, that each student is an individual. “And that person has goals and that person has dreams. You want to try to help them to hold on to their dreams.”