Ousted School Chief’s Problem--She Was Guilty of Excellence

Let the punishment fit the crime, we always say! At the Huntington Beach City School District board meeting, there was another “victory for mediocrity” as the school board announced the resignation of the superintendent, Diana Peters (“Beleaguered Schools Chief Diana Peters Resigns Post,” July 26).

And she was guilty all right--guilty of excellence, guilty of leadership and guilty of commitment to kids.

According to spokesmen for the teachers’ union, “she spent too much time on public relations.” Well, from the business community’s perspective, what she did was to convince us that we shared responsibility for the quality of education in our local schools, that we couldn’t just send our kids to school and expect the teachers and staff and the board (she always called them a team) to do it alone, especially with the perpetual shortage of funds.

She implored, extolled and convinced us to care enough to contribute thousands of dollars in much-needed sophisticated equipment, supplies and special educational programs and thousands of hours of volunteer time--of that, she was definitely guilty.

If all this wasn’t bad enough, Peters’ “crimes” attracted so much public attention! Her leadership, coupled with the efforts of the principals and teachers in the district, resulted in the development of an innovative “Teaching for Thinking” program that was featured on the “Today” show; its Gifted Program was named an “exemplary program” in the state Report of School Readiness.

Meanwhile, Peters has been honored by the California Assn. for the Gifted with an award for Distinctive Service, was appointed by State Schools Supt. Bill Honig to two major state-level education task forces, and was honored by the California Legislature as the 58th Assembly District’s “1990 Woman of the Year.”

For those “crimes,” the Huntington Beach City School District board was willing to spend more than $150,000 to buy out the remainder of Peters’ four-year contract, which they had just renewed last September amid great fanfare and with an outstanding performance review. Kind of makes you wonder, doesn’t it?

But as we said, she was guilty of excellence, and we just can’t have that in Huntington Beach.

JAN SHOMAKER

SHIRLEY C. LONG

Huntington Beach