By Brian Anderson
Valley Times

Feb. 11, 2000

LIVERMORE — Jackson Avenue school principal David Cooper isn't expecting a nostalgic homecoming when he walks back into Sunset Elementary this summer -- 35 years after he started there as a kindergarten teacher.

After all, none of the teachers who helped him open the school in 1970 is still there. And certainly the students he helped walk through the alphabet are long since out of school.

Rather than reminisce about the past, Cooper wants to focus on the future and a new era at Sunset he hopes will continue a decades-old tradition of elevated education.

"It's always important to know where you're coming from, and I certainly have a view of the history of Sunset," Cooper said. "But I certainly expect things to have evolved a great deal since then. So I'm not expecting to go home again."

Cooper is one of seven principals in Livermore who will be uprooted at the end of this school year to lead other schools in the district.

To district officials, the long-standing practice of reassigning principals aids professional growth and leads to a better educational process for students. But to some parents who have developed close ties with the leader of their children's schools, the transfers are unfair separations they plan to fight.

"What we're interested in doing is broadening the experience of our folks so that they get as much experience at different levels as possible," said district Associate Superintendent Bob Bronzan. "They are better, stronger administrators when they have that experience."

Every so often, Livermore school district officials nose through personnel records in search of elementary, middle and high school principals who have been in their positions for about five years or more. Such searches usually come when an administrator retires or otherwise leaves a post.

The last major shake-up was about seven years ago, but Bronzan said rarely a year goes by without at least one administrator moving to a different school.

The latest transfers, announced last week, were initiated in part to accommodate the opening of Altamont Creek Elementary School this fall. That's also when the administrators will assume the principal duties of their new schools.

"Hopefully you'll develop more areas as strengths as a result of doing it," Bronzan said. "Generally speaking, it's been pretty successful."

While successful in the eyes of district officials, the planned reassignments have been heartbreaking for some parents.

Jean Haines, whose two kids attend Rancho Las Positas elementary, said she cried after learning that Principal Bill Radulovich would be moving to Arroyo Seco next year.

"We're upset because we love Mr. Rad," Haines said. "We have heard that this is the district's protocol. We don't want to accept that."

Haines said a group of parents already has printed and distributed about 650 fliers calling on other parents to help stop the transfer. She also said she called county, district and school board officials in hopes of persuading someone to halt Radulovich's move.

About 100 parents were expected at a PTA meeting Wednesday nightat Rancho Las Positas to brainstorm on how to keep the popular principal at the school, Haines said. She also plans to approach the school board about it later this month.

"Things can be changed," Haines said. "If there is one sliver of hope that we can change this thing, we're going to go for it."

While the attention and effort is appreciated, Radulovich said he has a role to fill at Arroyo Seco.

"This is a great community," said Radulovich, who has been at Rancho for five years. "It's hard to let go of that, but the future bodes some exciting new challenges, and I look forward to that professionally."