Sealth principal is latest administrator to leave

Charlie Walker III, the beleaguered principal of Chief Sealth High School in West Seattle, has taken a medical leave and will not return to the position.

With Walker's departure, Sealth becomes the sixth of Seattle's 10 comprehensive high schools to lose its principal this year.

Searches will be conducted during the coming school year for permanent replacements for Walker and Garfield High School Principal Al Jones, who resigned after the district accused him of improper conduct with a student.

Permanent principals have been appointed at four other high schools: Ballard, Franklin, Rainier Beach and West Seattle.

Five elementary schools and one K-8 school began the school year with interim principals yesterday. The principals are David Elliott, Coe; Cothron Dickey, High Point; Ben Ostrom, Loyal Heights; DeWanda Cook-Weaver, T.T. Minor; Jeanne Smart, Wedgwood; and Jeff Clark, Coho.

The Seattle School District has appointed permanent principals at 21 of 97 schools in a year marked by numerous retirements and several resignations. A significant number of vacancies is expected again next year because many principals are approaching retirement age.

Permanent appointments over the summer include Cheryl Grinager, Green Lake Elementary; Niki Hayes, North Beach Elementary; and Kathy Bledsoe, McClure Middle School.

Grinager has been a principal at two elementary schools in Fremont, Calif.; Hayes has been a principal on the Spokane Indian Reservation; and Bledsoe was principal at Catherine Blaine Elementary, now Blaine K-8, in Seattle since 1993.

Sealth High students were greeted on the first day of school yesterday by acting Principal Don Barnhart, who was principal of Interlake High School in Bellevue before his retirement. Barnhart will serve as acting principal until the end of this month, when an interim principal will be named for the remainder of the school year.

Walker, who was transferred from Garfield to Sealth two years ago, had been under fire by parents and teachers unhappy with his management style and a perceived failure to maintain discipline.

Faculty members had protested Walker's transfer to Sealth without a major say in the decision.

"They've felt left out of a process initiated by the school district," said Barnhart, the acting principal who worked as a consultant to the Sealth administration last year.

Seattle School District Superintendent Joseph Olchefske said he will meet with staff members soon to discuss what kind of interim principal should be appointed for the remainder of the year.

If Walker returns to the district after his medical leave, he will not resume his role as principal of Sealth but will be offered another job in the district, Olchefske said. The superintendent declined to discuss Walker's medical condition.

Several principal positions in elementary schools have been filled by head teachers, as part of a "grow our own" effort to overcome the shortage of administrators, Olchefske said.

The district also has recruited principals from outside Seattle. Smart, the interim principal at Wedgwood, is a veteran principal who introduced a year-round school calendar at Cedar Way Elementary in the Edmonds School District.

Betty Hoagland, president of the Seattle Council Parent-Teacher-Student Association, said she was encouraged by the district's success in recruiting principals.

"Word is getting out that Seattle is a place to come. We're innovative, we've got people who want to work on change, we've got money coming in for innovation of teaching and the transformation of schools."