District makes two more principal moves

Danette Goulet

NEWPORT BEACH - The game of musical principals continues in

Newport-Mesa.

When the music stopped this week, Pam Coughlin, former principal of

Wilson Elementary School, landed in the principal’s chair at Mariners

Elementary School in Newport Beach.

Brooke Booth, formerly the principal of Newport Heights Elementary

School, took the vacant seat as the assistant principal at Corona del Mar

High School.

After 11 years as an elementary school principal, Booth was looking

for a career change and advancement by making the leap to secondary

education, said Jaime Castellanos, assistant superintendent of secondary

education.

“First of all, this is a really career enhancing move for me,” Booth

said. “I’m really looking forward to it. I’m always interested in making

changes, as I’ve been in this district for 30 years.”

These personnel moves mean nine schools in the Newport-Mesa Unified

School District will have had a change in the top leadership positions

this year.

Principals from Adams, Killybrooke, Lincoln and Mariners elementary,

Ensign Intermediate and Costa Mesa and Newport Harbor high schools each

resigned from their respective positions this year.

The news of Coughlin’s appointment to Mariners comes as a great relief

to parents who have seen five principals come and go in the span of 10

years.

“I think everyone is very much in favor of her taking leadership at

Mariners,” said Ann Ramser, one of many parents who met with Coughlin

since last week. “I think people asked some very fair questions, but they

were very direct. They asked all the questions that needed to be asked

and she came across as a good and solid person.”

But while the Mariners community rejoices at Coughlin’s decision to

change schools, it leaves Wilson in the lurch with less then a week

before school is scheduled to begin.

“We are really sad -- my kids are sad,” said Reina Martinez, PTA

president at Wilson. “We’re very worried and we don’t really have any

information about [Coughlin’s leaving]. We’re very surprised and we

didn’t know when or why she left.”

Coughlin however, said she believes Mariners will be a better fit for

her.

“I do not speak Spanish and I was finding it difficult to communicate

with parents at Wilson,” she said. “That was a piece of the principalship

that I really missed. I think one of my strengths lies in working with

parents.”

Another area of expertise Coughlin said she would be able to better

use at Mariners was her extensive background in the Gifted and Talented

Education program.

Although she does worry how her departure will affect the Wilson

community, Coughlin said Cathi Peirson, the former principal of Pomona

Elementary School, will be an excellent acting principal until a

permanent one can be found.

“I’m concerned because they don’t have a principal, but they do have

an interim principal, so I feel like they have been left in very good

hands,” she said.

The search for principals for both Wilson and Newport Heights is well

underway by Newport-Mesa Supt. Robert Barbot.

Of the 25 applications received for the elementary school principal

positions, Barbot said nine of those applicants are contenders.

What has become an alarming trend here in Newport-Mesa, however, may

be a larger problem. An increasing number of school districts across the

country have reported a shortage of principals this year.

“There’s no question that statewide there is a problem with a shortage

of administrators,” Barbot said. “Not the number of principals, but the

percentage of principals to the proportion of schools.”

In Los Angeles Unified School District, 38 of 660 principal positions

remain vacant this year.

“Currently we have 38 schools where temporary principals are filling

in while a permanent principal can be found,” said Shel Erlich, spokesman

for the district.