Plan to Remove Principal Plays Up District Dilemma

Roosevelt High School Principal Henry Ronquillo had toyed with the idea of retiring for years. His family life tugged at him--and so did the fairways.

But Roosevelt had its own gravity. A school like Roosevelt--long a port of entry for successive waves of immigrants--needs more than a principal. It needs a face. For 18 years, Ronquillo was that--a spokesman, an advocate, the unofficial “mayor of Boyle Heights,” as some called him.

Recently, as Roosevelt’s test scores plateaued, Los Angeles Unified School District and state officials quietly moved to replace Ronquillo--but not quietly enough. The principal learned about his planned removal just as he finished negotiating with the district to retire on his own terms.

State auditors said Ronquillo’s administration did not observe classroom instruction frequently enough and failed to institute schoolwide plans to improve reading and writing.

The affair has tarnished Ronquillo’s reputation and has complicated district efforts to remove him while allowing him to save face. It is also a reminder of one of the difficulties that awaits the district as it embarks on an ambitious restructuring plan for Roosevelt and nine other under-performing schools: Replacing longtime administrators, many of whom have become darlings of their communities, has considerable pitfalls. The removal of figures like Ronquillo is the kind of drastic staff change that L.A. Unified has been reluctant to make in the past, fearing protests from administrators and teachers unions.

Said district Supt. Roy Romer, who removed principals at four other high schools and middle schools on the list of under-performing campuses: “This is a substantial change in the way we operate, and we need to bring people along with us.”

While Ronquillo told a meeting of students, teachers and parents this week that he was staying on, Romer said--and Ronquillo confirmed--that the principal will leave Roosevelt by June and is helping to find his successor.

The district’s moves at Roosevelt--which, with 5,100 students, is consistently ranked as one of the nation’s most heavily populated--have bred skepticism and defiance among students and teachers. Some signed a petition this week demanding the district keep Ronquillo in his job.

Students Had Planned to Walk Out in Protest

Many students also were planning to walk out of classes in protest of their principal’s removal until Ronquillo announced over the school’s public-address system Thursday morning that the protest was canceled.

Three days earlier, area Supt. Bonnie Rubio met with teachers about state-mandated changes to the curriculum to promote literacy, and was sharply criticized. Some teachers said they were furious with Roosevelt’s inclusion in the list of 10 under-performing schools.

“We chewed that woman out,” said Will Adams, a Japanese-language teacher. “We told her that we were already meeting many of the benchmarks the state set out for us.”

Other teachers said they complained that Rubio had not visited the campus often enough to know what was needed. Rubio did not return several calls made to her office for comment.

Whatever happens to Ronquillo, he will be remembered for his long association with Roosevelt. He graduated from the school in 1954, when Boyle Heights was a mix of Jewish, Japanese and Latino Americans. Ronquillo still emphasizes Roosevelt’s importance to immigration, calling the Boyle Heights campus a “common thread” that has pulled 75 alumni back to Roosevelt to teach.

“What brought them back was the attachment, the pride in their school,” Ronquillo said in an interview last week.

Even Ronquillo’s critics say he has successfully cleaned up the campus. Students say there are hardly any fights and graffiti is wiped away within days. And the school sends more Latinos to college than any other in the district.

Yet even Ronquillo acknowledged that more needs to be done to improve academic achievement. Most students enter Roosevelt reading below a fourth-grade reading level; one-third still are learning to speak English.

“I don’t think we should have been on that list” of 10 schools, he said. “But the state is right, we didn’t make adequate progress on reading scores. We made progress but not enough.” The district has promised the state a variety of initiatives such as revamping curriculum and retraining teachers.

Ronquillo said Roosevelt’s scores are low because students were unprepared before they entered high school. “Why doesn’t the state have a middle school or elementary exam so they have to meet requirements before they come here?” he demanded.

Frustrated teachers say they had implemented some of the remedies outlined by the recent audits--such as breaking Roosevelt up into smaller units. Three years ago, Roosevelt had created several such “houses”--or schools within the school--each with 120 students and four teachers.

“The house teachers met one period every day to discuss kids’ problems,” said Cheryl Smith, a literacy coach at Roosevelt. “They couldn’t slip through the cracks.”

The program faltered, however, when the state imposed new teacher-student ratios. The house program had 30 students to each teacher. The state mandated a 20-to-1 ratio for some English classes, disrupting the house schedule.

“We just didn’t have the teachers or the resources,” said Ronquillo. “If we had been able to keep the houses the state probably wouldn’t be looking at us now.”

Critics Say Ronquillo Should Have Tried More

Ronquillo’s critics on campus said he should have worked harder to maintain the houses that seemed to raise test scores and led to better attendance rates. There still are several smaller programs in place, but some teachers said they were not enough.

“We have a lot of creative teachers,” said teacher Ron Kendrick, “but a leader would be able to pull them all together to form a strategic plan.”

Another teacher who requested anonymity said Ronquillo’s strengths might not be suited to the job at hand.

“In the past, a principal’s been a kind of public relations guy--someone who makes sure there is a warm and family atmosphere,” said the teacher. “Ronquillo has done that--but sometimes that’s not enough.”