Principal Kicks PTSA Chapter off Campus

The principal of Porter Middle School has banned the school’s Parent Teacher Student Assn. from meeting on campus following a yearlong conflict with leaders of the group.

Principal Sherry Breskin, who has authority over the use of campus space for meetings, said in a letter last week to faculty and parents: “We have decided to suspend the PTSA’s presence on the Porter campus for one year and continue negotiation and mediation.”

Officials with the Los Angeles Unified School District and the PTSA say Breskin and PTSA President Chris Taylor have been involved in a clash of personalities during the past year. PTSA members say the problem stems from Breskin’s desire to dictate PTSA actions, even though the organization does not answer to the principal or the school district.

“It was a lot of the principal working against us in everything we wanted to do,” said PTSA member Erica Dodge. “When we voted to do a fund-raiser last year, she told us we couldn’t have it after she was at the meeting when we voted for it. It’s just always been a problem getting things done.”

Breskin, for example, questioned the use of membership dues and other fund-raising money, Taylor said.

Breskin said the conflict stemmed from differences of opinion but would not elaborate.

“If Mrs. Taylor wants to indicate that there are problems, that’s fine. I just don’t feel that I want to say anything negative against the PTA in general,” she said.

“I’ve never had a problem with the PTA. . . . But you work in a school and you want everything to work smoothly,” Breskin added.

Los Angeles school district administrator Gene McCallum said he has been trying to quell the conflict during the past eight months in meetings with Breskin and Lisa Keating, president of the Los Amigos Council, which oversees PTSA groups at 18 schools in the San Fernando Valley.

This month, McCallum met with Breskin, Keating and the PTSA’s 31st District President Cathy Flory to discuss their differences. That is when Breskin suggested the yearlong suspension.

“Each principal is different and each principal has a vision of what they see as their PTA on campus,” Flory said.

“But the bottom line was PTA was no longer wanted on campus, which is her right,” she continued. “But what we told them was that this PTA is not going to roll over and die.”

McCallum said the PTSA was not kicked off campus, but permission to hold meetings at the school has been “postponed.”

Dodge disagrees. “It felt like we were being kicked off campus,” she said. “It was clear that we weren’t welcome there.”

Porter’s PTSA must now hold meetings at the 31st District’s main office in Van Nuys or at parents’ homes. Because the meetings are off campus, Dodge complained that they cannot send fliers home with children and must mail them instead.

“If everyone’s goal is for the betterment of our children, this doesn’t seem like it’s working to that end,” she said.

Breskin said her decision to cease PTSA activities on campus does not mean the PTSA will never return to Porter. “It’s a suspension,” she said.

School district and PTSA officials say the school and the local group may reach a resolution in the near future. Officials of the 31st District--which represents the San Fernando Valley and parts of Tujunga--along with local and state PTSA leaders have agreed to begin mediation discussions Tuesday..

Tonight, McCallum will meet with members of Porter’s PTSA to discuss resolving the impasse.

“This is the first time we’ve ever had to do something like this,” Flory said of the mediation process. “We want everyone to buy into the total picture and reach a decision together in the mediation. That’s the only way this will work.”