Reggie Brunson’s Ouster at El Rincon

Re: “In Brunson, El Rincon Seems to Have Found a Principal Who Is a Keeper” 

Impressive Reggie Brunson, who resolved a full range of towering, nagging problems at El Rincon Elementary for four years to resounding community-wide applause, was ousted weeks ago as principal, it has been learned.

Declining to elaborate, a School District spokesperson merely said the reason “was a personnel matter.”

News of Mr. Brunson’s dismissal, which has met with shock and disappointment, has been dribbling out since June.

In early July, the popular administrator, tall, notably muscular, effectively soft-spoken – winner of emotional, heartfelt praise from parents, students and faculty – confided that he was gone.

Only last week were El Rincon teachers summoned to a meeting to be told of Mr. Brunson’s departure.

Before the Chicago native who made a favorable mark in Compton schools and was hired away from LAUSD, shaky El Rincon had ripped through five principals in four years.

At an emergency meeting of the School Board at 8 this morning, with four members participating, Dr. Shannon Hampton Garcia was approved as El Rincon’s next principal. For the past year and a half, Dr. Garcia – reported to be strongly STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) oriented – has been principal of Bobier Elementary, Vista, north of San Diego.

Except for creating order out of chaos administratively, academically and disciplinarily, for elevating El Rincon’s STEM reputation to lofty heights, for fostering a collegial environment socially, for introducing an imaginative, strongly competitive atmosphere scholastically throughout the campus of 450 students and inspiring stability where there previously had been a giant hole in the ground, Mr. Brunson hardly accomplished anything at the school.

(To be continued)