It’s the principal of the matter

Danette Goulet

COSTA MESA -- Since the school year began, 11-year-old Scott Buchert has

had his share of trips to the principal’s office.

On Friday, he was back in the office -- this time disciplining other

students during his reign as “Principal for a Day.”

“It’s wonderful to treat him as a peer for a while,” said Daryle Palmer,

who is the principal at Kaiser Elementary School every other day of the

year. “He has just made tremendous social growth. This is just the icing

on the cake -- and a good reinforcer.”

Scott won the honor of performing the top job at Kaiser when his father

bid $150 for the position during a silent auction at the school carnival

earlier this month.

Because he was busy going on the amusement rides, Scott said he had no

idea what his father was up to. But he was very glad he won.

“I’ve given people discipline and went to the district office and I wrote

a note to all the teachers about flag deck and I went to the student

council meeting,” he said. “And now I’m going to do a flag deck.”

With that, Scott reached up to ring the bell notifying students that it

was time for flag deck, an assembly during which the principal addresses

all the students.

So, in his dress pants and button-down shirt, the

fifth-grader-turned-principal stood behind the microphone and shared the

news of a new reading contest with hundreds of students.

As he finished his announcements, Scott was suddenly surrounded by

students firing questions at him. They couldn’t have been more excited to

have a classmate as their principal.

There were certainly benefits to being in an administrative position.

Scott visited the district office, where he was able to see where the bus

goes after it drops him off each weekday.

Scott was eager, however, to get back to his favorite part of his job --

he had another student to discipline.

During his reign as principal, he scolded one student for skateboarding

on campus and another for putting a friend in a headlock. Both were

assigned to help the custodian pick up trash for two weeks.