FULLERTON : School Principal’s Transfer Protested
A group of parents and students at Nicolas Junior High School are protesting the transfer of the school’s popular principal.
Mary Dalessi will not be back next year, and the protesters, a handful of whom carried picket signs in front of the school Wednesday, say they will appeal that decision next week to the Fullerton School District board.
The board voted last month to reassign Dalessi, Supt. Duncan Johnson said. Beginning next fall, he said, she will be a classroom teacher.
Dalessi, who has been Nicolas’ principal for nine years, said she had asked to be switched to a teaching position and had hoped to keep her transfer quiet.
But some parents and students who learned of her new assignment this month began making “Save Our Principal” placards and circulating a petition to keep the veteran educator at Nicolas.
Dalessi “cares very deeply for the kids,” said Pat Prescott, whose son Billy, 13, is a Nicolas seventh-grader.
“My kids love her,” said Prescott, who is organizing the protests.
Dalessi, 50, said she appreciates the parents’ concern, but added, “I don’t want the school turned upside-down over my job.”
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