PETITION: For the Reinstatement of Amy Petry as Principal of Academy for Enriched Sciences

 

07 July 2022

Superintendent Alberto Carvalho

Superintendent Joseph Nacorda

Dr. Margaret Kim - Administrator of Instruction

Scott Schmerelson - LAUSD Board Member, Board 3

Dr. Eric Maxey - Community of Schools Administrator 

 

Dear Mr. Carvalho, Mr. Nacorda, Dr. Kim, Mr. Schmerelson and Dr. Maxey:

Thank you for your time and attention to this urgent and critical matter concerning the Academy of Enriched Sciences. We, the greater community of AES parents and faculty, petition for the reinstatement of Amy Petry as our principal, effective immediately.

 

On 06 July 2022, we learned, quite by happenstance, that Ms. Petry is being reassigned to become principal of Emelita Elementary. One of our AES parents noticed it written on their school sign. Apart from the insensitive and inappropriate way in which we found out about it, this news comes as a severe shock to our community.

 

Our school, parents, teachers and staff alike, are hurt and angry. We feel we have been marginalized, disregarded and disrespected. To fully comprehend why this change is traumatic and unacceptable, it’s essential to understand the turmoil our school has experienced over the past 6 years.

 

In the fall of 2016, our school’s first principal Renee Cofield had to go on leave due to health conditions. This began more than half a decade of difficulty for us. We endured a long period of uncertainty under the temporary leadership of interim principals while we awaited Ms. Cofield’s return. When Ms. Cofield finally came back after an extended leave, we thought our turmoil was over. Unfortunately, it was just beginning. 

 

Ms. Cofield’s health took a turn for the worse and we were thrown back into the tumult of interim principals, who handled matters day to day to the best they could with the support from our coordinator and staff, but weren’t in a position to truly lead our school and make critical decision to move our school forward.

 

For a period of less than two years, Ms. Judy Carrillo was our principal. Although we were very excited to have her join our community at first, her leadership style brought many grievances from families and teachers that were taken to district level. We even lost some longstanding teachers as a result. That was all before COVID.

 

Just before the 2020-21 school year ended, with an abrupt notice, Ms. Carrillo left AES and we once again went through the process of searching for a permanent principal. A search committee was immediately formed that included parents, teachers and staff. Together with the guidance of Dr. Eric Maxey and Mrs. Marla Mondheim, the committee went through a stringent screening process to hire Ms. Amy Petry as principal of AES.

 

Ms. Petry was one of the founders of AES and was our former magnet coordinator. She is beloved by our community and we have hoped for the day she might return. To those of us who’ve been at AES since the early years, having Ms. Petry as our principal was not only seen as the end of our years of turbulence, but as the realization of a dream so many of us have had since Ms. Cofield left. 

 

Unfortunately, shortly after the beginning of the 2021-22 school year, Ms. Petry was stricken with a life-threatening illness that required her to take a medical leave of absence. So once again, we had to endure the limbo of having interim principals see us through yet another school year, with some of them having little to no elementary school experience.

 

Ms. Petry fought her way back to good health and enthusiastically returned to AES at the end of the 2021-22 school year, effectively concluding our community’s long absence of real, dedicated leadership.

 

At least that’s what we thought. 

 

Given yesterday’s news, we are now faced with a renewed nightmare scenario - losing the leader we’ve waited years for and who would certainly guide us for years to come, and instead getting more replacements who will likely not see AES as the destination we know Ms. Petry regards us as, but rather another short stop along their career paths.

 

Lastly, because being principal at AES comes with no option for tenure, our school is likely to remain a revolving door - principals will spend a year or so and leave us. Our staff, students and parents have endured enough of this. We are losing students and teachers as a result and fear it will only get worse if our situation persists. Retaining Ms. Petry as our principal will solve this. She wants to stay and has no intention of leaving us. She was - and is - our only choice to restore AES to the school it can be.

 

So please accept our petition to reinstate Ms. Petry as our principal. We intend to make our voices heard in any and every medium and forum for as long as required to effect this change.

Sincerely,

The dedicated parents and faculty of AES.