Palisades Charter High School is actively looking to find replacements for the principal, administrators, teachers and clerical staff who have left or retired this June. This week, the school hired Richard Thomas, assistant principal for the last four years at Bear Creek High School in Stockton, as the director of instruction. Thomas, who will begin in August, will replace Grace LaTegola, who is leaving to pursue her doctoral studies after one year on the job. '[Thomas] specializes in differentiated instruction, having taught multiple grade levels and subjects in 10 years in alternative educational settings,’ Executive Director Amy Dresser-Held said on Monday. PaliHi is still in the process of hiring a principal after losing Martin Griffin, who lasted only a year. This spring, an interview committee narrowed the field to one prime candidate, La Costa Canyon High School Principal Craig Lewis, whom the community had the opportunity to meet on June 11. Lewis, however, decided to take a position elsewhere, so PaliHi’s board has been meeting to explore other options. ’To date, we have discussed leaving the position vacant, appointing an acting principal or seeking an interim principal and launching another large-scale search to fill the position for 2010-2011,’ Dresser-Held said. In June, the high school also lost six teachers, two other administrators and six clerical staff who decided to retire or return to the Los Angeles Unified School District after taking a six-year leave of absence to work at the school, when it became a fiscally independent charter school. Sixty-seven certified and 18 classified staff members had the choice of staying at PaliHi, returning to LAUSD or retiring. A major factor influencing their decision was health and retirement benefits, Dresser-Held said. Since becoming fiscally independent, PaliHi has continued to purchase health and retirement benefits from the district. However, LAUSD announced this spring that the district will not allow the school to continue to purchase its health-benefits package after December and its retirement benefits after this June. Employees who chose to retire or return to an LAUSD school will receive their health and lifetime retirement benefits from the district. PaliHi board set aside $1.5 million in a trust fund to offer its own lifetime retirement benefits to encourage employees to stay. Teachers Odell Mack (technology education) and Esteban Cacicedo (Spanish and psychology) have retired, while Michael Cohen (life skills and independent study), Leo Castro, Joi Tanita and Austin Carter (all physical education) plan to return to an open position in LAUSD. Classified staff Carol Walters, Elaine Levitt, Susan Samama and Hortencia Hernandez (all clerical) and Sandy Durate and Cathy Catapano (both special-education aides) have retired. Athletic Director Rich McKeon has decided to return to an LAUSD school, while Assistant Principal Ann Davenport has retired. The board agreed to restructure McKeon’s position, so that the new administrator will oversee a part-time athletic director, the physical education department, the discipline deans, the security supervisor, school police officers and the student leadership advisor, Dresser-Held said. PaliHi’s Dean of Discipline Russ Howard will assume the new role this fall. He graduated from PaliHi and worked as a physical education and science teacher at the school before taking on his current position. He is the former head baseball coach, serving for 18 years and taking his team to the playoffs 15 times.
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