Howard Lappin

School principal Howard Lappin believes that perseverance and teamwork can accomplish miracles. He's proved it during his 12 years at South-Central Los Angeles' Foshay Learning Center, a kindergarten through 12th-grade public school for 3,400 students. In 1989, Lappin found himself reassigned to Foshay, one of the lowest-performing, unruliest schools in the district. Its dropout rate was 22%. Nearly 400 students were suspended each year.

It's not pleasant to return to a place where, as a child, you were almost always afraid. So, a few years ago, when I stepped onto the campus of the James A. Foshay Learning Center, its familiar grim, Depression-era facade made my heart pound. I spent some of the unhappiest days of my life at Foshay, back when it was Foshay Junior High. And when I graduated 38 years ago, I hoped I would never return. In the 1970s, the school was at the bottom of the education barrel. At 13, I felt I must have committed crimes I didn't understand to have ended up there, because I was certainly being punished.

Don't tell principal Howard Lappin that poor, urban minority kids can't learn. He's been known to lose his temper. Once, a counselor told a student that Latino girls should be housewives, not go to college. Enraged, Lappin confronted the counselor, declaring such talk nonsense. "He's no angel, but we know where his heart is," said Regina Boutte, assistant principal at Foshay Learning Center in South-Central Los Angeles. "We were blessed that he had a wonderful vision."

When Howard Lappin retired four years ago, many local educators celebrated him with envy. He had been an unconventional leader who turned a failing inner-city high school into one of the most respected in the nation. But even as he gave his last commencement speech at the Foshay Learning Center in South Los Angeles, Lappin was thinking of his next endeavor. This time around, he would focus on charter schools -- a growing movement of publicly funded but independently run campuses.

Re "Principal's Legacy Is the Imprint of Success," July 4: Howard Lappin, the principal at Foshay Learning Center, is an example of true vision and leadership. He is responsible for the turnaround in student achievement, but he could not do it alone. Through his leadership, teachers and staff have not only improved student achievement and lowered the dropout rate but have become a model for others. The media all too often present the negative side of Los Angeles schools. There are in fact many dedicated individuals working in L.A. schools.

Howard Lappin, the Los Angeles school principal who earned accolades for turning his impoverished South Los Angeles students into high achievers, is leaving his job to help run a collection of local charter schools, his new employer announced Monday. For the last 12 years, Lappin has been principal of Foshay Learning Center, a campus of 3,550 students in kindergarten through high school located near USC.

It's not pleasant to return to a place where, as a child, you were almost always afraid. So, a few years ago, when I stepped onto the campus of the James A. Foshay Learning Center, its familiar grim, Depression-era facade made my heart pound. I spent some of the unhappiest days of my life at Foshay, back when it was Foshay Junior High. And when I graduated 38 years ago, I hoped I would never return. In the 1970s, the school was at the bottom of the education barrel. At 13, I felt I must have committed crimes I didn't understand to have ended up there, because I was certainly being punished.

When Howard Lappin retired four years ago, many local educators celebrated him with envy. He had been an unconventional leader who turned a failing inner-city high school into one of the most respected in the nation. But even as he gave his last commencement speech at the Foshay Learning Center in South Los Angeles, Lappin was thinking of his next endeavor. This time around, he would focus on charter schools -- a growing movement of publicly funded but independently run campuses.

In your Oct. 23 article "Rethinking Schools: Scenes From the Front Line of Education Reform in L.A.," you described how Principal Howard Lappin turned the Foshay Middle School in South-Central into a case study on how educators can bring the best of public education to the worst of schools. I personally experienced Lappin's influence 20 years ago when I was a student at Van Nuys High School. Lappin was my history teacher. He asked me, "Have you ever thought about college?" and pushed me to take college preparatory courses.

Howard Lappin, principal of Foshay Learning Center, has been given an American Hero in Education award by the Reader's Digest Foundation for turning a once-struggling middle school into what some have called a model for school reform. Before Lappin arrived in 1989, Foshay was in danger of being taken over by the state because it had the lowest performance ranking among middle schools in the Los Angeles Unified School District. With help from staff, however, Lappin introduced a new curriculum.

Re "Principal's Legacy Is the Imprint of Success," July 4: Howard Lappin, the principal at Foshay Learning Center, is an example of true vision and leadership. He is responsible for the turnaround in student achievement, but he could not do it alone. Through his leadership, teachers and staff have not only improved student achievement and lowered the dropout rate but have become a model for others. The media all too often present the negative side of Los Angeles schools. There are in fact many dedicated individuals working in L.A. schools.

Don't tell principal Howard Lappin that poor, urban minority kids can't learn. He's been known to lose his temper. Once, a counselor told a student that Latino girls should be housewives, not go to college. Enraged, Lappin confronted the counselor, declaring such talk nonsense. "He's no angel, but we know where his heart is," said Regina Boutte, assistant principal at Foshay Learning Center in South-Central Los Angeles. "We were blessed that he had a wonderful vision."

Howard Lappin, the Los Angeles school principal who earned accolades for turning his impoverished South Los Angeles students into high achievers, is leaving his job to help run a collection of local charter schools, his new employer announced Monday. For the last 12 years, Lappin has been principal of Foshay Learning Center, a campus of 3,550 students in kindergarten through high school located near USC.

School principal Howard Lappin believes that perseverance and teamwork can accomplish miracles. He's proved it during his 12 years at South-Central Los Angeles' Foshay Learning Center, a kindergarten through 12th-grade public school for 3,400 students. In 1989, Lappin found himself reassigned to Foshay, one of the lowest-performing, unruliest schools in the district. Its dropout rate was 22%. Nearly 400 students were suspended each year.

In your Oct. 23 article "Rethinking Schools: Scenes From the Front Line of Education Reform in L.A.," you described how Principal Howard Lappin turned the Foshay Middle School in South-Central into a case study on how educators can bring the best of public education to the worst of schools. I personally experienced Lappin's influence 20 years ago when I was a student at Van Nuys High School. Lappin was my history teacher. He asked me, "Have you ever thought about college?" and pushed me to take college preparatory courses.

Parents and students interested in learning more about Foshay Middle School's plan to expand to become kindergarten through 12th grade are invited to an orientation meeting Saturday. The number of students at the school is expected to increase from 2,100 to about 2,400 as the school adds kindergarten through the sixth grade and the 10th grade on Aug. 29. Over the next two years the 11th and 12th grades will be added, said Debra Laidley, a teacher at the school. The meeting begins at 9 a.m.

Howard Lappin, credited with turning around one of the worst-performing schools in Los Angeles, has been named California Principal of the Year and is a nominee for an award acknowledging the top principal in the country. Lappin, a resident of Northridge for 28 years, is principal of the Foshay Learning Center in South-Central Los Angeles.