Allen High principal resigns for Bucks job

FROM THE MORNING CALL

Allen High Principal Michael Rodriguez has resigned less than a year after he was uprooted from an elementary school and put in charge of the Allentown School District's largest, most challenging school as part of a controversial federal grant program.

Rodriguez's resignation comes after the Neshaminy School Board voted 8-0 Wednesday night to name him principal of Herbert Hoover Elementary in lower Bucks County.

In a news release, Allentown Acting Superintendent Russ Mayo praised Rodriguez, who has been recruited by other districts for several years.

Hellertown "We have not wanted to lose Michael, because he makes a valuable contribution to our school district and has been an asset to the Allentown administrative team from Day 1," Mayo said


Mayo is scheduled to meet with Allen staff Thursday morning to go over a succession plan for the 153-year-old school, where six assistant principals and 186 teachers oversee 3,200 students in six buildings sprawled across 11/2 city blocks in west Allentown.

According to the news release, the succession plan includes naming Stan Landis, a retired principal who worked in Bethlehem and Reading, as interim principal after Rodriguez's tenure ends in 60 days. During the transition, Rodriguez will continue to be assisted by Dave Wildonger, executive director of secondary education, and other administrators who have bolstered Allen's administrative ranks since a wave of student violence rose and then crested in recent weeks.

The succession plan does not include putting former Allen Principal Keith Falko back in charge, the release states. Falko will remain at central administration. The district will advertise for a new principal.

"We are determined to find a leader who appreciates this esteemed tradition, who respects the efforts of our faculty and staff, and who will challenge all of us to reach even richer traditions of excellence," Mayo said in the news release.

Rodriguez, 41, of Hellertown could not be reached.

Rodriguez, a 1989 Freedom High School graduate, served in the Army and earned a criminal justice degree from Kutztown University. He then went into education.

Rodriguez's teaching career was in elementary and special education before his 2004 elevation to principal of Allentown's Central Elementary, which serves more than 600 students. He took over Central following a rape scandal that is part of an ongoing federal lawsuit alleging that school officials' negligence led to a youth sexually assaulting four younger boys.

Rodriguez and his staff tried to overcome past perceptions. His first year, Central started a parent-teacher organization. Test scores improved most years but never high enough to pass federal testing benchmarks.

Then in 2010, first-year Superintendent Gerald Zahorchak unleashed a torrent of reforms, staff changes and budget cuts that led to protests before he resigned in August.

One of Zahorchak's controversial decisions came in October 2010, when he removed Rodriguez, Falko, and principals of Dieruff High and Harrison-Morton Middle School in exchange for federal School Improvement Grants. The grants mandate leadership, staff or governance changes at schools with low test scores as conditions for receiving money.

But Zahorchak did not have a succession plan at some of the schools, especially Allen, where Falko had been principal since 1999. A nationwide search failed to find Falko's replacement. So Zahorchak in December 2010 used a loophole in the grant to install Rodriguez as "academic principal" to the dismay of three of the nine school directors who voted against the move.

As Allen's academic principal, Rodriguez was supposed to handle curriculum, teacher evaluations and other aspects of student learning and teaching. Discipline and other administrative duties were supposed to be handled by an "operations principal."

But the operations job was never filled, leaving Rodriguez to cover all duties. Zahorchak then replaced all of Allen's experienced administrators with less experienced staff.

Meanwhile, Central went on to achieve federal testing benchmarks under programs Mayo attributed to Rodriguez and his successor, Jeffrey Fries.

School Director Robert E. Smith Jr. said moving Rodriguez to Allen was not fair to him or the school. Rodriguez lacked high school experience and Zahorchak never gave him the resources to succeed, he said.

"It wasn't fair at all to set him up for failure," Smith said.

Rodriguez's tenure was rocky. He did not make friends with Allen teachers after he criticized staff during an assembly last school year. Then this school year, Allen was hit with a string of fights and other disruptive student issues, leading Mayo to send in extra security and administrators to help Rodriguez's staff.

But Rodriguez won over parents.

Rodriguez supported the creation of Allen's first parent-led group in two decades, said Ed White, the father of an Allen junior. White said Rodriguez regularly attended meetings of the PTSO, an organization made up of parents, teachers and students. Rodriguez also did a good job overseeing education and discipline, he said.

"He faced many different challenges head-on," White said. "Personally, I'm sorry to see him go."

Rodriguez's departure means the district has lost three of the four principals Zahorchak had removed. Like Rodriguez, they resigned for positions in more affluent districts.

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