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A new principal and tough safety measures, including security cameras, could be in place at Berkeley High School as early as Aug. 30 the Daily Planet has learned. 

The high school principal post has been vacant since the reassignment of BHS Principal Theresa Saunders at the end of a rocky year that included a student walkout, a grade-tampering scandal, and an arson fire that caused $2 million in damage. 

The high school has gone through three principals in nine years. 

At a Tuesday evening meeting at the school attended by some 70 parents and staff, members of an advisory principal selection panel, talked about their process. 

The panel of parents, teachers, staff, and students, interviewed five applicants for the principal's post last week, committee member Bob Laird, parent of a 10th-grader, told the gathering. Superintendent Jack McLaughlin and school board president Joaquin Rivera observed the interviews without participating.  

Following what Laird called an “intense but very collegial discussion,” the panel agreed to recommend two of the applicants. They will be interviewed by the school board. A third candidate may also be interviewed. 

Laird’s announcement drew applause from the parents, teachers, and staff present at the meeting. The search process has moved swiftly. The call for applicants went out in mid-June and the advisory committee was chosen July 18. 

“We’ve been under extreme time pressure,” Laird said.  

McLaughlin added that he didn’t think it was the length of time for the search “but the quality of the candidates, that’s important.” 

Moreover, he added, “I have to say that in the short time I’ve been here, this is one of the strongest list of candidates I’ve seen.” McLaughlin said he had participated personally in the recruiting efforts. 

The candidates will be interviewed by the school board at a meeting Monday. It was not known when any candidate might receive a job offer, but McLaughlin said in an interview Wednesday, that “it's very possible” a new principal will be named by Aug. 30, the first day of school. 

A “transition team” appointed to manage the high school during the search for a new principal also addressed a host of other concerns at Tuesday’s meeting. They handed out a 25-page report detailing plans for facilities improvement, campus security, discipline, and the class schedule for the coming school year. 

Saying that a culture of “soft anarchy” reigns among staff and students alike at Berkeley High School, transition team leader Darrel Taylor suggested that faculty and students need to be held accountable for their actions. Creativity can still flourish within a more organized infrastructure, he said.  

The process of change will be gradual: “You can’t swallow the whole elephant at once.” He asked that parents, teachers, and staff commit themselves to cooperate with one another. 

The goals discussed ranged from philosophical to practical. Taylor promised the audience that a new temporary administrative offices will be in place before the start of classes, replacing the two trailers which have been in use since the fire. 

The audience also received assurances that the campus will be thoroughly clean “inside and outside” before school resumes. Plant operations manager Dorothy Dorsey drew applause when she told the gathering that the Conservation Corps and city are working together to remove graffiti and trash and eliminate rodents from the campus.  

Improved communications are also promised by the time school starts. Taylor said that working telephones, clocks, and a bell system will be in every classroom, including the portable units. 

Executive vice-principal Larry Lee announced that school safety officers will be on duty at all school entrances, with the entrances at Allston, Kittredge, and Channing closing at 9 a.m. on school days. Also, security cameras will be installed in school buildings as a deterrent to vandalism and other crimes, Lee said. 

In an interview Wednesday, however, School Board Member Terry Doran said that the board would have to first address the issue of cameras. 

Parents at the meeting had many questions about how to get their children scheduled for the classes they wanted. One woman, who said she had given up four days of work to try to navigate the process last year, described herself as “shell-shocked” by the experience.  

In response, McLaughlin pointed out that the school had moved the registration period up by a week this year to try to accommodate students and parents. Many in the audience still seemed dissatisfied, pointing out that they didn’t have enough notice of registration week and that there was no clear policy on how to make schedule changes, if they were away on vacation during that week.  

Darrel Taylor emphasized, “One of the things we’re saying in this report, and I say it from my heart, is Berkeley High School is a heck of a good high school ... we’re got a lot here to build on and be proud of.” But, he added, “four administrators (alone) cannot make this high school work. Every parent has to get involved.”