Union organizes to expel principal at Dolores Street Elementary in Carson
Tactics used by the United Teachers Los Angeles are getting increasingly aggressive -- the latest, a campus sleepover to protest Anna Barraza's alleged incompetence.
The group outside Dolores Street Elementary School had eight tents, four Costco pizzas, a rented portable toilet and one goal: getting rid of Principal Anna Barraza.
Nearly 75 teachers, parents and teachers union representatives gathered on the front lawn of the Carson campus late last month, vowing to sleep on the grass to draw attention to allegations of Barraza's incompetence. They waved signs and spoke to reporters who flocked to the scene, complaining that the principal was uncaring and arrogant.
Barraza denies those claims, which are nearly impossible to prove. Some teachers who have worked with her in the past say the criticisms are unwarranted, and the union for administrators has called her a courageous educational leader.
The situation at Dolores Street highlights the teachers union's increasingly aggressive tactics against administrators. It was the second time in the last year that United Teachers Los Angeles had organized a campus sleepover, one of a number of protests against principals in Huntington Park and eastern Los Angeles, among other places.
It also shines a rare light on the Los Angeles Unified School District's habit of moving administrators from campus to campus, seemingly to avoid confrontation with the teachers union or to avoid dealing with controversial employees. Barraza has been assigned to a different campus each of the last three years, and the union held protests outside two of those schools.
Senior Deputy Supt. Ramon C. Cortines acknowledged that rather than document administrators' problems so they can be disciplined or supported, the district typically reassigns controversial principals. He pledged to end the practice.
"We take the chicken way out. . . . We horse-trade," he said. "Those days are over."
Union officials and members say Barraza is a "petty despot" who did not take mediation meetings seriously and didn't consider their suggestions about the school's budget. She maintains that she's a conscientious educator.
Cortines says he has "no idea" whether Barraza is a good principal because there's very little paperwork in her file about her performance, something he believes is far too common in the nation's second-largest school district.
Principals, who education experts say are vital to a well-performing school, are supposed to be evaluated every other year.
