District’s Transfer of Administrator Raises Questions

Describing herself, Oxnard High School Principal Daisy Tatum says, “What you see is what you get.”

What you see is a 5-foot-6 woman who frequently rides to school on a red 1200 Harley-Davidson Spinster and tracks Oxnard High’s 3,000-plus, diverse student body by being as ubiquitous on campus as spring fever.

What you get depends on who’s talking.

Fans say Tatum gives her all to education, makes every student feel important and is a go-getter in the school and the community.

Critics say she plays favorites among teachers, too often micromanages, and makes decisions without enough input from staff.

At the end of the school year, Tatum--an Oxnard High class of ’62 alumna--will leave her alma mater to head up the district’s new four-campus community day school, which has been designed for low performers, students who have been expelled, and those on independent study. Channel Islands High School Principal Jim Nielsen will replace her at Oxnard High.

Tatum didn’t ask for the transfer, and she doesn’t want to go.

“Who’s going to take care of these kids?” she said. “They’ll just be a number now.”

Oxnard Union High School District Supt. Bill Studt calls the transfer a lateral move; Tatum will maintain her principal’s title and salary. Trustee Steve Stocks said Tatum’s experience with at-risk students--with whom she worked at the alternative Frontier High School--made her a logical candidate for the new job.

“Outstanding principals are really hard to come by,” Stocks said. “And for those kids, she will be good for them.”

Some frustrated and angry parents, however, are convinced that the board is moving Tatum for other reasons.

Dozens attended two recent board meetings to voice support for Tatum and get an explanation for her transfer. Earlier this month, they formed a community group to fight the transfer, to mount a recall campaign against four board members and to attempt to remove Studt from office. Parent leader Terry Merricks said she believes Tatum is being transferred because she is a woman and is not part of the “good ol’ boys” network.

Janis Johnson, another parent, said, “You know there is something else going on because what the trustees are doing makes no sense.”

Something else that parents and students point to happened earlier this year. Tatum investigated an incident involving two Oxnard High wrestling coaches, one of whom is trustee Bob Valles’ son. Both Rocky Valles and Chuck Cordes were placed on administrative leave amid allegations by parents that they were drinking alcohol while the team competed in a tournament. The status of the investigation into those allegations could not be determined, but both Valles and Cordes are back at Oxnard High in teaching and coaching roles.

This came 1 1/2 years after Tatum fired popular swim coach Larry Raffaelli, creating a furor among parent and community supporters.

Needed Elsewhere

Trustee Valles said the transfer had nothing to do with his son or any other personnel issues. Every principal has supporters and critics, he added, but the board made its decision independent of outside pressures. And Tatum is neither the first principal nor the last whom the district will transfer, he said, insisting that she is simply needed elsewhere.

Board President Nancy Koch echoed those sentiments, adding that the success of the community day school depends on a strong leader who parents know and trust. Because Tatum has lived in Oxnard for most of her life and is very involved in the community, Koch said, “she knows what’s out there to help these kids. She can influence parents, which we’ll need to get these kids motivated again.”

Some members of the staff are less confident of Tatum’s leadership abilities, maintaining that she is inflexible and frequently over-manages. Though several of those unimpressed with her were reluctant to share their specific complaints, some offered mild criticisms.

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One teacher, who refused to give his name, said that she is too authoritarian and controlling. And English teacher Lynn Murray said Tatum gives students and teachers the impression that she keeps tabs on everything they do and holds them responsible for their actions. Murray also said some teachers don’t like how rigid Tatum is on rules and policies. But Tatum maintains that she is just doing her job.

In 1995, when Oxnard High’s new campus opened on Gonzalez Road, Tatum instituted security measures that kept teachers locked out of their classrooms after school. Though the policy was designed to protect new computers, televisions and VCRs, teachers were angry at Tatum for restricting their access.

And in 1996, she canceled several senior class activities after the campus was spray-painted. Students said her punishment was too harsh, holding the entire class responsible for the actions of a few.

Last month, in the aftermath of the Littleton, Colo., school shooting, Tatum summoned 18 students after a few of their classmates reported overhearing a conversation that included talk of shooting or bombing. Security guards questioned and photographed them, angering both parents and students.

“I didn’t think that was right,” said Claudia Nevarrete, 16, who talked to a few of the targeted students. “It’s sort of discrimination in a way, even if it was done for the safety of the school.”

During lunch on a recent day, Tatum enforced some of her more traditional rules. She told several students to pick up their trash and to hurry on to class. When one student started to walk across the grass, she calmly looked him in the eye and said, “Young man,” and the boy jumped to the paved path. And when another walked by wearing a skimpy tank top, Tatum said, “Where’s the rest of your shirt? Meet me in my office to get another one.”

Accountability Stressed

Tatum says she firmly believes in holding everyone accountable for their actions, but not at the expense of their dignity or self-esteem. She’ll yell and scream at students, she said, but then hug them.

Tatum was born in Arkansas in 1944 to a mechanic and a homemaker, and grew up with little money. She graduated from Oxnard High School in 1962, where she was on the drill team and the honor roll. Her high school years, she said, were some of the best in her life. Now, Tatum’s conference room wall is decorated with high school memorabilia.

After earning bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Arkansas, she took her first teaching job at a high school in Little Rock.

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In 1969, she accepted a job at Channel Islands High School as a physical-education teacher. Five years later she became assistant principal, and in 1982 she was moved to Hueneme High School as assistant principal. After 11 years at Hueneme, she was appointed interim principal at Frontier High, the alternative school.

She became the first African American principal in Ventura County in 1994 when she was assigned to Oxnard High. And since she has been there, attendance and test scores have increased, and the number of fights has decreased, according to Tatum and several parents.

Tatum is also credited with alleviating racial tensions at the school. Campus supervisor Pat Martinez said he remembers walking through the middle of campus, with blacks on one side and Latinos on the other, and feeling the tension. But now, he said, people of different races interact with little conflict.

Though Tatum has been married twice, she spent too much time at school to make either marriage last, she said. She has no children of her own, but cared for a foster child for more than eight years and has invited at least 30 foreign exchange students into her home. During summers, she visits her “children” all over the world.

One of her former exchange students, 38-year-old Belinda Poore of Colombia, said Tatum changed her life. “Through her, I saw that you can come from a poor family and succeed, and you can be a woman and still have some sort of power,” said Poore, who calls Tatum “Mom.” Poore said she decided to pursue a career in education because of Tatum.

Arrives Early, Stays Late

Supporters say Tatum goes the extra mile for students and their parents. And, according to Assistant Principal Denise Barnett, she wants teachers, counselors and administrators to do the same. Tatum arrives at school at 5 a.m. and sometimes doesn’t leave until 9 or 10 p.m. She rarely takes a lunch break, instead eating her yogurt and carrots on the go. Every year, she learns the new students’ names. And every day, she makes it a point to say hello to a student she doesn’t know.

“The first thing on Ms. Tatum’s mind is the students’ and parents’ concerns,” said David DeCaires, 16, the assistant editor of the school paper.

Nicole Morgan, 14, said Tatum helped her raise her grades when they dropped, enabling her to play sports again. Senior Claudia Nevarrete said Tatum helped her get a job when she needed money to help out her family. And Chris Luna said when his grandfather died, Tatum prayed with him. “Ms. Tatum has touched all our lives in some way,” he said.

When faced with a challenge, Tatum said, she tries not to worry; she just deals with it. And that’s exactly what she is doing in regards to her new position at the community day school, which will start with about 300 students and could have as many as 800 within a few years.

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It’s going to be tough to motivate the students, many of whom have been expelled from other schools, she said. It’s also going to be difficult to get them to come to school six hours a day, when many are used to being on independent study at home and attending school one hour per week. And Tatum said she doesn’t know how she is going to train and manage staff at the four separate locations: two in Oxnard and one each in El Rio and Camarillo.

Though she is gearing up for her new position, Tatum still expresses a desire to stay at Oxnard High. “There are so many different kinds of kids here,” she said “There are my special-education kids, my regular kids, my little gangstas. There is so much to give here, and I’m sad to be leaving.”