District has the wrong priority on school principal

In response to the March 22 Thousand Oaks Acorn editorial ("Like it or not, personnel matters a private matter, even in public agencies"), Conejo Valley Unified School District and the board of education have again systematically pushed forward their agenda with no regard of our students' welfare or education.

The district has good reason? There's no good reason for removing Principal Darlene Hale from her job. She's exceptional in every way. The students love her, the parents love her and most of the teachers love her (you can't please everyone). She works hard and is dedicated.

Our API scores are up 27 points over the previous year and over the infamous 900 mark. Wildwood is in the top 10 percent of the schools in California, and our similar schools ranking has increased.

Students at Wildwood are flourishing all because of the efforts of Darlene Hale pushing, motivating and focusing staff and parents on students needs all the time. The real power is in the district office? Absolutely. There's no doubt about it. It's too bad that Darlene Hale didn't know that part of her job description included being in the hip pocket of Linda Peralta, director of elementary education. Principals all over the district come, go, are fired, moved or kept, depending on Ms. Peralta's chess game. They are "at will" employees and don't have to be given a reason.

Darlene Hale hasn't been given one. She has asked over and over. She asked to meet with the school board; they denied her. I personally met with and gave the superintendent and school board 10 years of background information on the leadership and programs at Wildwood so they could better judge Ms. Hale's performance; they didn't listen.

She's never even had a grievance filed against her in nine years as an administrator, which is another example of her leadership and collaboration. Many parents spoke on behalf of Ms. Hale's accomplishments to the school board. Still they denied her. Still, as of March 30, she hasn't even been given the approval to formally notify parents that she won't be returning in the fall.

What game is the district playing? How miserable do we as a community have to become before someone listens to the needs of the families and students? Wildwood is consumed with gossip. Students have no idea what's happening around them. The staff has been notified, (but was) directed to stay quiet. Ms. Hale has been directed to stay quiet, which at this stage of the game I find laughable.

The game of power politics is alive and well at CVUSD, or to phrase it like a teacher, "We knew Ms. Hale would be gone back in September, we (the union and district) had a deal."

What's really happening at your school? If you look close enough, it's pretty scary. Patty Shaw Thousand Oaks