District Reassigns High School Officials

The top two officials at Van Nuys High School have been reassigned after a year of controversy at the campus, including a fracas about year-round schooling and a case of alleged sexual molestation and sexual battery by a former teacher.

Dan Isaacs, the Los Angeles Unified School District’s assistant superintendent for school operations, confirmed that Van Nuys Principal Robert Scharf and Assistant Principal Keiko Hentell were reassigned for the upcoming school year, but he declined to explain why, saying, “that’s a personnel matter and I have no comment on that.”

Typically, Isaacs said, reassignments happen “based on what’s best for the district.”

Scharf will be reassigned to the district business office. His replacement is Russ Thompson, principal at Westchester High School.

Hentell will be assistant principal at Griffith Middle School in Los Angeles. She will be replaced by Daryl Narimatsu, the special projects coordinator at Manual Arts High School.

Neither Scharf nor Hentell returned repeated calls for comment.

It has been a rough year for the 3,000-student campus. A jury deadlocked on charges that film production instructor Kevin Henry sexually molested and battered female students. Prosecutors are hoping that a judge will allow them to retry Henry.

The parents of one of the girls have filed a civil suit against the school and Hentell, alleging that the assistant principal was aware of previous complaints against Henry but kept them to herself.

Earlier this year, Scharf presided over the school-based management committee’s decision to adopt--and later abandon--a controversial plan to hold classes year-round.

A similar situation unfolded at North Hollywood High School when Principal Catherine Lum, at the urging of parents and students, scrapped plans to adopt a year-round schedule. Lum also has been reassigned effective Monday, although students and teachers have launched a petition drive to retain the popular administrator.