Local principals swap jobs Local principals swap jobs (December 14, 2005)

** No Child act motivates request for reassignment.

By David Boyce

Almanac Staff Writer

After one year as principal at Menlo-Atherton High School in Atherton, Norman Estrada is switching places with Denise Plante, the principal at Redwood High School in Redwood City.

Ms. Plante will take over at M-A at the start of the new semester on January 9. Mr. Estrada will serve as interim principal at Redwood while preparing for a position at the district office.

Patrick Gemma, the superintendent of the Sequoia Union High School District, announced the moves at the December 7 meeting of the district's Board of Trustees.

Mr. Estrada told the Almanac that he volunteered to leave M-A in anticipation of actions the Sequoia Union High School District may take to meet requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. Of the law's five options for a school that has missed federal academic achievement goals for four consecutive years -- as M-A has -- one option is replacing the principal.

Ms. Plante, 48, will come to M-A with 24 years of experience as an educator, including three years at Woodside High as vice principal. While at Redwood -- a school for district students behind in the credits they need to graduate -- she said she "learned a lot about how to motivate and empower and turn around the lives of students who have sort of given up on education."

The Sequoia district is asking the state Department of Education to review the testing data that led to M-A missing the No Child act standards for a fourth consecutive year. Mr. Gemma said a school's options are more or less the same whether it's been four years of missed goals or three, but that the outcome of the appeal won't "have any bearing on Norman's request, and now my decision to approve his request, to be replaced."
Why the change?

For a school in its fourth year of not meeting No Child act standards, one option a school district has is to "replace all or most staff, including principal," according to a guide to the act published by the state Department of Education.

Mr. Estrada broached his desire for a new position about four weeks ago, said Mr. Gemma, who, in a statement, described Mr. Estrada's request as illustrating "a high level of integrity and selfless motivation."

"I wasn't going to honor it unless I could find a top-notch principal to take his place," he added in an interview.

Mr. Estrada "was very decisive," said Gordon Lewin, president of the Sequoia district's Board of Trustees, in an interview. "I give him a lot of credit."

Mr. Lewin said Mr. Estrada is "highly qualified" and "a good hire for the district," but added that as M-A principal he may not be in the best position, given his skills.

Mr. Estrada has master's degrees in bilingual special education and bilingual education from California state universities in Bakersfield and Los Angeles, and a bachelor's degree in Spanish and a teaching credential from UCLA.

Mr. Estrada has requested appointment as director of English language development -- a position that is currently vacant -- and will be appointed as soon as a new principal can be found for Redwood High, said Mr. Gemma.
Denise Plante

In coming to M-A, Ms. Plante will bring "a vision to create a powerful learning environment where all students are engaged," said Mr. Gemma. "She has a reputation of fostering open and candid communication" and is particularly strong in the use of data and technology, he added.

Mr. Gemma noted the "excellent job" Ms. Plante did at Woodside High in leading a team of staff, parents and students in improving the school's digital assets, including boosting the school's store of computers from 30 to 900.

She has a bachelor's degree from Husson College in Bangor, Maine, and a master's degree in education from California State University, Hayward. She is married and has a son in the eighth grade at Bowditch Middle School, a public school in Foster City.
An imperfect stimulus

Exchanging principals is one step the district is taking to deal with a situation in which some M-A students are not meeting each and every criteria necessary to make "adequate yearly progress" as defined by the No Child act.

The 2004-05 school year is the fourth consecutive year the school has missed the mark. There are many ways to fall short of No Child goals. This time, among the M-A sophomores whose first language was not English, not enough of them earned above-average scores. They fell 4 percentage points short of the mark on English-language tests and 6 points short on math tests.

The thresholds rise year by year until 2014, when 100 percent of students are expected to meet or exceed them.

In 2003-04, M-A was again cited, that time for having just missed the minimum student participation rate in taking statewide tests.

There are problems with the No Child act, but it is accelerating reform and innovation at M-A, said Mr. Lewin. "It's a stimulus, but it's not a perfect stimulus."
More steps

Mr. Gemma said more steps will follow Mr. Estrada's departure, including the establishment of a Site Leadership Council -- a new group composed of people from M-A's school foundation, the PTA, the site council, M-A teachers, and administrative staff at M-A and the district offices.

A professional facilitator will lead the group, which is scheduled to meet January 10 to talk about how to proceed on the options before them, he said.

Since September, M-A students whose English and/or math test scores have been average or lower than average have been assigned to extra classes. There have been "positive gains" in benchmark test scores, said Mr. Gemma, but among teachers, "there still is skepticism ... and there's not quite the sense that the entire school is rowing in the same direction."

In February, the Almanac interviewed teachers at both M-A and Woodside who complained about the No Child act's methods, including fixed one-size-fits-all goals, collegiate expectations for all students, and the lack of federal funding.

At that time, Mr. Gemma said he expected that the law's criteria might change given the large number of California schools affected, but that hasn't happened yet.

M-A's challenge now, he said, is to advance from a good school to a great school without depriving high-achieving students of resources.

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