2 Principals Hired, School Jobs Shuffled

In the annual shuffling of top campus administrators, the Conejo Valley school board hired two new principals and rearranged a handful of others for the 1997-98 school year.

New to the district are Eleanor Love of the Simi Valley Unified School District and Bill Lamp of the Hope School District in Santa Barbara. They were hired to fill vacancies left by elementary Principal Tim Stephens, who is retiring, and middle school Principal Pat Pelletier, who has been reassigned to the district office.

Now the assistant principal at Valley View Junior High in Simi Valley, Love will take over the helm at Thousand Oaks’ Los Cerritos Middle School. Lamp, principal at Santa Barbara’s Monte Vista Elementary School, will take over at Conejo Valley’s Banyan elementary.

In the game of administrator musical chairs, Lamp will replace Bayan Principal George Coyle. Coyle will become principal of Madrona elementary, where Principal Pat Adams is retiring.

Carol Phillips, now a sixth-grade mentor at Colina Middle School, will become principal at Weathersfield elementary, bumping Deanna Roth to Meadows elementary.

Swapping places will be current Ladera elementary Principal Kristine White and Cypress elementary Principal Neil Snyder. Next year, White will jump to Cypress and Snyder will move to Ladera.

And Walnut elementary Principal Brad Baker, who will remain in the same post next school year, will move from one of the district’s oldest elementary schools to its newest in the 1998-99 school year. Given a plum--and challenging--assignment, Baker has been tapped as principal of the as-yet-unbuilt Lang Ranch elementary.

Shuffling principals after five to seven years in one place is a customary school district practice, said Jody Dunlap, assistant principal for personnel services.