Chula Vista Elementary School District has a problem.
The district's curious personnel procedures, or lack of them, tend to have school sites in an uproar. Excessive turnover in principals means some school sites search for stability with a different person in charge every year.
Remember the Castle Park Five? Five veteran teachers were transferred on the eve of a new school year but were never told why. Principal Ollie Matos – was he the eighth or the ninth at Castle Park in 10 years? – was the source of the friction and now has moved on. The district lost at every turn in arbitration and was ordered to give teachers their jobs back if they wanted them.
Not to play fair, the district allowed teachers just a week to make up their minds and would only permit transfers at mid-year, knowing that dedicated teachers would never disrupt two school calendars.
Superintendent Lowell Billings, in an unnecessary display of machismo, said not only did he have the right to transfer the teachers but that he would do it a second time if he so chose.
The uproar at Castle Park started in August 2004 and did not end until this month. So, exit stage left, Castle Park.
Enter from stage right, Heritage Elementary. It has 876 students, 37 percent of them Hispanic, 20 percent Filipino, 7 percent Asian, 6 percent black. Diverse, yes, but Heritage draws from an affluent neighborhood – only 12 percent of its students receive reduced-price lunches. Heritage is also about to have its fifth leader – three principals and two interims – in five years.
Heritage has – until June 30 – a principal very popular with parents. Heritage has a principal with a sterling nine-year record in another district. Heritage has a principal personally recruited by the district's head of human resources.
Principal Tim Suanico, who lacks tenure in Chula Vista Elementary, pushed hard to implement guided reading. (More than “See Spot run,” guided reading develops analytical thinking by asking questions. “What kind of dog is Spot? Is Spot friendly? Are all dogs friendly?”)
Eleven of 43 teachers at Heritage complained anonymously about the workload. Despite rave oral reviews from the district and a district personnel folder devoid of complaints, Suanico will be history June 30. Of 43 schools in the district, 10 will have new principals in the fall.
The district does have an objective checklist to evaluate principals, explained Tom Cruz, the assistant superintendent who recruited Suanico. But no black marks there either. So what's going on?
“It's a personnel matter,” chanted Billings, who said he is the one to make the tough decisions.
Heritage parents are looking beyond the loss of a popular principal. They see a district that is listing, a cruise ship with a Capt. Ahab at the helm, unresponsive to parents and taxpayers. These parents want to turn the district around.
Chula Vista Elementary has a problem.
One school board member refuses to even talk with Heritage parents or return calls from the media. Another board member met with them, parents said, but spouted only “administrator-speak.”
“Administrator-speak” should come naturally to Chula Vista Elementary's clubby board. One trustee is a superintendent in another district, another a teacher, and a third a former teacher, principal and administrator. Can they be expected to even look cross-eyed at one of their own? In fact, they don't.
One board member is running in June but for another office – Cheryl Cox is campaigning to be mayor of Chula Vista. Three board members – Pamela Smith, Bertha Lopez and Larry Cunningham – occupy seats that are up for election in November.
Chula Vista Elementary has 43 schools. To turn a district around, the parents at Castle Park and Heritage elementary schools could use a little help.
