Photo by Rich Schmitt, Staff Photographer
Merle Price, former principal at Palisades High and a 1993 Citizen of the Year, received the second annual Lori Petrick Excellence in Education Award from the Palisades Charter Schools Foundation last Sunday. ”Presented at an invitational tea at the home of Daniel and Rachel Lerner in Mandeville Canyon, the award honors academic professionals who instill in students the love of learning, or who generate excitement for public education in the lives of students as well as parents. ”The first award was given posthumously in 2003 to Palisadian Lori Petrick, an inspiring teacher at Marquez Elementary and Palisades Elementary for more than 25 years. ”Price, who retired in July as LAUSD’S deputy superintendent for instructional services (K-12) was honored for his role as ‘a visionary leader’ and his ‘extraordinary contributions and dedication to the public schools in our community’ the past 12 years. ”Pam Bruns, an activist in Palisades schools since 1979, gave a brief history of events that led local parents, teachers and administrators to establish the Palisades Education Complex in 1988 (an organization which later became the Palisades Charter Schools Foundation). ”’We knew we were facing common problems and we felt that we could strengthen our voice in dealing with LAUSD and the state if we joined together in working on these issues and possible solutions,’ Bruns said. ‘We also knew we needed more local control and independence in our ability to make on-site decisions.’ ”When the state legislature passed charter school legislation in 1992, this coincided with Price’s arrival at PaliHi, and his leadership proved pivotal as Palisades schools acquired charter status in 1993. ”’After my first meeting with Merle,’ Bruns said, ‘I felt like all our years of hard work and pursuing seemingly insurmountable goals suddenly seemed possible. Suddenly we had somebody with extraordinary intellect and vision, a leader with the skills to bring a diverse community together for a common cause’the independence offered by charter schools. ”’We knew that for any meaningful reform to happen in the Palisades Complex, the leader of our flagship school’PaliHi’had to be a strong leader, had to be someone who was courageous, had to be somebody who was visionary, and had to be somebody willing to be out in front of everything. Merle was that person.’ ”Bruns concluded, ‘If we could figure out some way to clone Merle Price, that’s the best thing we could do for public education.’ ”Paula Leonhauser, a member of the Foundation Board, continued her praise of the honoree, noting that she had met with Price periodically over the years in her various educational capacities. ”’Once Merle became local superintendent for District D, after supervising the Hamilton/ Palisades Cluster, he was quickly snatched up by [LAUSD Superintendent] Roy Romer. Why?’ asked Leonhauser. ‘Because, in addition to being a great leader that you love to work for’even if it’s for free!’he is insightful, informed, intelligent, fair, extremely hard working and humble. You know just by talking to him that he is deeply dedicated to every single child in the city.’ ” A glass plaque was presented to Price, who commented that ‘receiving an award named after a teacher is probably the most significant kind of award for me.’ He was a teacher for 18 years early in his career and enjoyed going back to those roots as a principal, occasionally filling in as a substitute science teacher at Pali. ”’My favorite moment as a principal was actually a classroom experience,’ Price said. ‘I remember I went in one particular day and I found out from the kids that they had been working on photosynthesis, so I got involved; I asked them some questions, I cleared up some of their misconceptions and we worked through a whole lesson on the details of photosynthesis. Just as the class was about to close, I asked the students if they had any more questions. One young man in the back of the class raised his hand and said, ‘I don’t have a question. I just want to say something. You must have been a teacher. I thought you were just a principal’I didn’t know you really knew something.’ ” At Sunday’s tea, Price went on speak about the remarkable growth of charter schools in California. ‘In 1992, there were 68 charter schools serving 24,000 students in California. Currently there are 537 schools with over 180,000 students.’ ”He continued, ‘Charter schools are generally smaller, more user-friendly, less bureaucratic, and lend themselves to more innovation. They tend to encourage more participation at local levels and encourage different styles of learning. The major challenge for start-up charters [as opposed to the Palisades conversion charters] is to find facilities, as the Renaissance Academy has found in the Palisades. ”’The Rand Corporation has done a study to determine the impact of charter schools on student achievement. That picture is not clear due to the homogeneous nature of the schools surveyed. In the Palisades, though, our charter schools continue to have high results and high student achievement. Some of that can be attributed to attracting strong leadership and having success in using limited resources.’
