Second in a series
Re “After Less Than Three Weeks, Cooper’s New Post Is Comfortable Fit”
[img]2850|right|Lisa Cooper||no_popup[/img]New Culver City High School Principal Lisa Cooper, in her fourth week, was asked if she has been actively pursuing a leap from her assistant principal position or was she patiently waiting to see if-where-when a door would open and beckon her.
Her answer was thoughtfully diplomatic, desirable qualities in an administrator, especially a freshly promoted one.
“I was at a point of looking,” Ms. Cooper said.
But.
The hedge was, “I wanted to make sure. You always are trying to find out if it is a right fit and what the right place is.”
Two decades into her career as an educator, did Ms. Cooper practice a vision of the kind of principal she would be? Was there a model she would emulate?
“Everybody you encounter at some point gives you a little bit of the leadership styles you want to follow,” she said.
“For me, I have been fortunate enough to see it from coaching. That would be my father (Bo Corona, former Westchester High coach and current Leuzinger High coach) and John Wooden, whom I admire. I keep Coach Wooden’s Blue Book handy so I can use quotes and stories.”
What did Ms. Cooper learn from her father’s lifetime of coaching?
With a large, proud smile, she says “He was my high school coach (at Westchester). I must say that since he was my coach, I probably didn’t see right away a lot of things he had to offer me – until I got older and started coaching myself.”
Father-and-daughter on the same team. Was that comfortable for Ms. Cooper?
She sighs.
“A little bit of discomfort,” she said. “You always feel as if your parent is going to come down harder on you,” she said. “You think you are going to get the worst end of the stick because he was and he is strict. Then there was the fact I was a teenager. So, yes, there was a little bit of discomfort.”
(To be continued)
