"I believe that the board in their wisdom will do the right thing."

When will educators learn how to talk about problems openly and honestly, and solve problems like professionals who care about kids, instead of continually fighting for power? This school sounds just like every school I ever taught at.

The departure of Patricia Ladd from Keileer Leadership Academy has left a void atop the celebrated school.
Voice of San Diego
By EMILY ALPERT
Nov. 26, 2008

Years after Keiller Leadership Academy transformed into a charter school, the sea of change at the school was visible even from its front gates, where its director greeted students by name and waited for eye contact before letting them pass.

Executive Director Patricia Ladd, a self-described "white lady from Point Loma," shepherded the struggling southeast San Diego school to higher test scores and a calmer, scholastic culture marked by uniforms and a public list of grade point averages.

But this year Ladd was absent at the front gates after a dispute over budget cuts led to her departure...

That turbulence has recently overshadowed the successes at Keiller, one of the few middle schools in California to pull itself out of penalties under No Child Left Behind, a school that credits its achievements to the autonomy and freedom it gained by going charter...

Teachers say the trouble began with money, or the lack of it. Budget cuts this spring forced Ladd to freeze salaries and to cut one of its two assistant principals, Dominic Camacho, who fired off messages to the board and staff complaining about his removal, according to several staffers. Eighth graders protested the elimination of Camacho with a sit-in at the campus theater, some complaining that the only Latino administrator at the school had been laid off. Camacho could not be reached for comment.

Deborah Ryles, a former Keiller teacher who left the school along with Ladd, said Camacho accused Ladd of favoritism and referred to her as a "white lady" that couldn't understand the largely Latino and black families whose children go to Keiller.

"It became a big brouhaha," Ryles said, adding, "And the board started investigating Patty."

The Keiller board of directors spent much of June locked in closed meetings about personnel issues, meeting an unprecedented four times in a single month.

Board secretary Paula Cordeiro, dean of the University of San Diego School of Leadership and Education Sciences, said she is not allowed to discuss whether Ladd was being investigated or why.

Ladd referred questions to her attorney, who could not be reached this week for comment. Ryles and other employees said the board ultimately offered Ladd a shorter-than-usual contract that only extended through the summer instead of the whole school year, leaving her at risk of dismissal in the fall when principals' jobs elsewhere had already been filled.

Instead, Ladd took an offer in July to return to San Diego Unified and lead Correia Middle School in Point Loma. The remaining assistant director, Joel Christman, took her place as interim executive director of Keiller. In August the board began searching for a new school director and eventually narrowed its selection to two candidates including Christman.

But the board was dissatisfied with its choices. It threw the search open again, demoted Christman back to assistant principal, and chose a retired San Diego Unified principal, Linda Rees, as the new interim director of the school.

...Its test scores ranked in the top 10 percent among demographically similar schools in California in 2007, though its scores dropped notably last year...

But uncertainty over who will lead the school and why the search was prolonged has bred distrust of the board among staffers, who do not feel they have influence over the school and its direction.

Keiller board members include

Cordeiro, an educational heavyweight who also serves on the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing and the James Irvine Foundation board,

two University of San Diego professors,
the Chief Executive Officer of an educational technology company,
a school police officer,
an Urban League employment director,
two parents,
a teacher,
and an outside consultant.

Though there are only three Keiller board members directly affiliated with the University of San Diego, some teachers now link their aggravation with the board to the partnership between Keiller and the Linda Vista university, which is supposed to provide student teachers, counseling interns and student tutors to Keiller under an agreement first struck in 2004.

...Christman said the university has been instrumental in providing teacher training, bringing the resources of a respected educational school to Keiller to help staffers hone their skills, and Heredia praised the University of San Diego student who helped in his class last year.

Research, however, has become a bone of contention...One study surveys middle schoolers over a three-year period to track how Keiller has impacted their progress in school, a study Cordeiro said was requested by the school...

"The staff, to a certain extent, feels like they are guinea pigs," Christman said. "They are unclear as to how the research will help them, specifically, with their instruction in the classroom on a day-to-day basis."

...Cordeiro was surprised to hear that research had raised concerns. The researchers "are fabulous and welcomed by the school," she said. "They are not going to go into any classrooms and work with teachers if they don't want to work with them."

The rift between school staffers and the Keiller board echoes the rancor this spring at Memorial Academy of Learning and Technology, where the board and staffers split over whether to end the charter. Much like at Keiller, Memorial staffers complained that the board was dominated by representatives of an outside group that did not share their interests...

Unlike Memorial, however, the Keiller dispute has thus far remained within the schoolhouse gates, and the existence of the charter is not at stake. Few parents are aware of the controversy, teachers said. Nor has it consumed the entire school. Special education teacher Rush Glick said he just wants to focus on his teaching and leave the politics aside.

"I believe that the board in their wisdom will do the right thing," he said.


UPDATE FEB. 3, 2009

Keiller Teachers Change Mind on University Split
Voice of San Diego
February 3, 2009

Teachers at Keiller Leadership Academy have pulled their petition to cut the school's partnership with the University of San Diego.

The act marks a shift at the school, which enjoyed a remarkable and rare academic turnaround in its early years but underwent turmoil after the departure of its first director, Patricia Ladd. Staffers who were frustrated with the board actions that preceded Ladd leaving had complained that the university had too much sway on the board. University of San Diego provides academic guidance and resources to Keiller and has several members on its governing board.

Not all staffers agreed with the petition. Parent Involvement and Recruitment Director Eva Contreras was alarmed that the petition caused the university to stop sending teachers-in-training to assist at Keiller.

Several changes led the teachers to reconsider the petition, said Robert Ryles, a teacher and newly appointed board member. Ryles and another teacher, Jonathan Saenz, joined the governing board and board President Maurice Wilson met with teachers to discuss their concerns and explain why the board couldn't share more information about the circumstances of Ladd's departure, a personnel matter that was aired in closed session.

"Nobody liked the outcome but there was due process," Wilson said Monday night. He added, "They wanted to hear detailed facts that we really can't release."

-- EMILY ALPERT