Leaving School, With Honors : Principal Patsy Tafolla Wins Praise for Activism at Revere

Nobody told her the job would be easy, but when Patsy Tafolla took over as principal of Paul Revere Elementary School six years ago, she was stunned, and a bit frightened, by what she saw.

Many of the students were coming to school hungry or sick, unable to concentrate on their studies. Drug dealers and prostitutes were plying their trades only yards from school grounds, which often were vandalized and marked with graffiti at night.

“I never felt like leaving, but I felt like doing something to improve things,” Tafolla said. “If I felt unsafe, what about the children? It made me want to find a way to help them.”

During her tenure, Tafolla has battled to make changes at the elementary school, lobbying for a host of new services, including a free breakfast program and a school-based clinic that opened last year. She has worked with city and police to fight crime and met with parents to help them take more pride in the neighborhood.

The community paid tribute to Tafolla on Friday by naming the school’s new health clinic in her honor during an emotional ceremony attended by hundreds of students, residents and school leaders.

“She’s different,” said Maria Gonzalez, 27, whose three children attend the school. “She’s more than a principal. She gives more than a principal has to give. . . . I don’t know what would have become of this area if she hadn’t been here.”

Although things are still far from perfect, the school and its adjacent neighborhood, one of the city’s poorest, is no longer the scary place it once was, residents and school employees say. They give a lot of the credit to the 52-year-old principal, who began working for the Anaheim City School District 30 years ago as a bus driver.

Tafolla is reluctantly leaving the school Tuesday to accept a new assignment, in accordance with the district’s rotation policy, and her imminent departure is being deeply felt by the community.

The state-funded clinic, the first of its kind in the district, is one of many programs and improvements Tafolla had fought to bring to the campus. A community center is scheduled to open on campus soon that will house the clinic, offer parenting classes and be a satellite office for police and city code enforcement officers.

The presence of more police and stepped-up code enforcement have helped dramatically reduce drug dealing, prostitution and graffiti in the adjacent area, school officials said. This has enabled Tafolla and her staff to focus more attention on the daunting educational challenges at the school.

Most of the school’s 1,000 students have only limited English skills--a situation that Tafolla said can lead to social difficulties and alienation. The student population is 89% Latino and 5% Vietnamese.

“We have many challenges here at Revere, but boy, do we have rewards,” Tafolla said. “I can remember children who were unhappy and angry at the world. By the time they left here, it was with a big hug, a smile and a thank-you.”

Tafolla, who had never been a principal before, is quick to point out that the progress at the school and in the neighborhood is the product of teamwork among city officials, police, teachers and staff members, and parents.

But it is the trust and rapport between the principal and the parents, many of whom don’t speak English, that have made much of the cooperation possible, said Steven E. Swaim, the city’s community services superintendent.

“Elementary schools often anchor a neighborhood and are a focal point, so the principal turns out to be a major opinion leader,” said Swaim, who has worked with Tafolla on numerous social programs and neighborhood cleanup efforts. “Patsy has been pivotal.”

The partnership between principal and parents began in earnest during Tafolla’s first year at the school, when the owners of a business that featured nude dancers applied for a license to operate on Anaheim Boulevard, only a short distance from the school.

Tafolla went into the neighborhood, alerting parents, and a number of them joined her at an Anaheim Planning Commission meeting to speak out against the plans. They succeeded in persuading commissioners to reject the business.

“Everyone walked out of that meeting feeling like, ‘Hey, we made a difference,’ ” Tafolla recalled. “All they needed was to know how.”

Tafolla said she had a lot to learn as well.

When she noticed hungry and sick kids, Tafolla’s first instinct was to bring snacks to school and have them available at the office. But before long, she had persuaded the district to establish a free breakfast program.

Other projects spearheaded by Tafolla include an alarm system and additional lighting at night to reduce vandalism and graffiti on school grounds. She also worked with parents and the city to add more crosswalks and stop signs in the area.

“This job has taught me how to ask for things and to find resources,” Tafolla said.

District Supt. Meliton Lopez said Tafolla has always “gone the extra mile. She has really rolled up her sleeves and worked with the community. . . . She is a tireless worker.”

Tafolla said her philosophy has been that if she can help the parents, the lives of her students will improve.

“She’s nurturing, and she believes the best in people,” said Zoraida Green, a program specialist at the school. “When she deals with a kid, she tries to make changes in their life. She knows that things aren’t perfect at home and realizes where they are coming from. And when she is dealing with the parents, she doesn’t ask them to do things that are impossible.”

Tafolla had a humble start in the school system three decades ago when she spent two years as a bus driver. She later worked as a school secretary, then became a teacher’s aide.

As she raised her three children with her husband of 33 years, Rick Tafolla, she worked part time for the district and gradually earned her college degree and teaching credential. She become a teacher at 37.

“I kept chopping away and I knew that I would eventually do it,” she said. “I had reached my goal and at that point, that is all I had aspired to.”

District officials saw leadership potential in Tafolla, and after her first teaching job at Lincoln Elementary School, she was promoted to district program specialist and then became a principal.

Despite the progress at Paul Revere, which Tafolla said is “like home,” she said she is departing with the nagging feeling that her work there is incomplete. She begins work Wednesday as principal at Benjamin Franklin Elementary School in Anaheim.

“I’m leaving with sadness,” she said. “There is so much more that needs to be done.”

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Patsy Tafolla in Profile * Age: 52 * Home: Anaheim * Family: Married, three children, five grandchildren * Education: Attended Cypress College; later earned bachelor’s degree, teaching credential and master’s degree at Cal State Fullerton * Career: Bus driver, Anaheim City School District, 1964-66; school secretary, 1970-81; teacher’s aide, 1981-83; student teacher, Orange School District, 1983-84; first-grade teacher, Lincoln Elementary School, Anaheim, 1984-86; district program assistant, 1986-1989; principal, Paul Revere Elementary, Anaheim, 1989 to present * Quote: “We have many challenges here at Revere, but boy, do we have rewards.” Source: Patsy Tafolla