SHERMAN OAKS : Millikan School Lobbies for Principal

Frustrated by frequent administrative changes over the last four years that they believe are damaging morale, teachers, parents and staff at Robert A. Millikan Middle School are lobbying district officials to promote one of the school’s assistant principals to replace outgoing Principal David Almada.

Jill McNulty, co-president of the school’s Parent-Teacher Assn., began a petition drive Friday in support of promoting Assistant Principal Norman Isaacs after Almada, Millikan’s second principal in four years, announced plans to transfer to another school. Also, Maribeth Kelly, a 31-year veteran teacher at the school, sent a letter to the district on behalf of the teachers and staff.

Parents and teachers say the effort is aimed at re-establishing a sense of administrative continuity that they believe the school has lost.

But such a move--an administrative promotion within a school--runs counter to traditional district practices, according to John Liechty, director of the district’s middle schools unit.

“It happens, but it’s not the norm,” he said.

Liechty said he considers many variables when making decisions about recommending candidates for principal, including diversity of experience and familiarity with a school.

Isaacs has worked at Millikan for more than 10 years, lives in the community and knows the students well, McNulty said.

“Nobody cares about those kids as much as Dr. Isaacs,” she said. “I think that these kids have enough problems without having all of these administrative changes. They want someone they can count on.”

Kelly agreed.

“We have had changes in every single administrative position in the last four years,” she said. “It’s been very demoralizing. A new person comes in and we have to start all over again.”

Such decisions are difficult, Liechty said, because keeping an administrator in one school for an extended period is often not the best thing for an administrator or a school. He said he will consider parent and teacher support for Isaacs when making his decision, which he hopes to do before Jan. 3.