Controversy scuttles Madison HS principal change

PPS leader Carole Smith’s plan unravels when Deborah Peterson backs out

By Jennifer Anderson

The Portland Tribune, May 7, 2009, Updated Oct 30, 2009 (7 Reader comments)

Tribune File Photo

Portland Public School Superintendent Carole Smith.

Portland Public Schools Superintendent Carole Smith, respected for her penchant for listening and due process, may have just committed her first political blunder.

A principal she had appointed to a high school is backing out, after teachers and staff at the school complained about the lack of a public process before the change.

The snafu started in mid-April, when teachers and staff at Northeast Portland’s Madison High School received word that Smith was moving their principal, Pat Thompson, to the central office and that Smith would appoint Madison’s new principal.

The loss of Thompson was no disappointment to most teachers, who took a vote of no confidence against her last spring. Thompson’s new assignment is as “principal on special assignment” of the district’s talented and gifted program.

Madison teachers did have a problem, however, because they were not immediately told who their new principal would be, either by Smith or by human resources personnel. Aggravated, they complained that there was no process or opportunity for them to weigh in on who their new principal would be.

“Would Lincoln High School ever experience the indignities of a Madison?” wrote Madison counselor David Colton on the watchdog blog, ppsequity.org. “Would Carole Smith drop a principal on the heads of those West Side parents and students, especially one who comes with little experience in bringing schools together, working collaboratively, sharing governance? Never!”

Madison staff later learned that Smith chose Deborah Peterson, campus principal of North Portland’s Roosevelt High School, to lead Madison next fall. Now, however, Peterson has written in an e-mail to her staff that she is backing out because of the controversy surrounding her appointment.

“I have rescinded acceptance of the appointment in the hopes that PPS will be able to conduct a process for appointment of the Madison principal,” Peterson wrote in the e-mail.

1 | 2 Next Page >>

Facebook	Digg	Del.icio.us
Newsvine	Stumbleupon	Reddit