Re “This Is Closing Week – Ms. Jaffe Will Be Gone in a Jiffy”
[img]1451|left|Supt. Patti Jaffe||no_popup[/img] An epoch in Culver City education is nearly over.
Supt. Patti Jaffe promises, and no one doubts, she will be at her desk until 5 o’clock on Friday afternoon before dropping the curtain on her 42-year career in Culver City.
She is retiring from Culver City, but hardly from anything else.
It isn’t as if, at a still-youthful 64 years old, she will be retreating to an Older Folks Home.
After a summer respite, she will return to the classroom, first at Loyola Marymount University, and perhaps also at Pepperdine, which has been inquiring about her interest in becoming an adjunct professor.
The definite part is that Ms. Jaffe is taking off the next two months, starting Sunday morning when she awakens because that is when her – shall we say conditional? – retirement begins.
Not certain what she is going to do for those 60 days, until Labor Day passes. She can flail her arms, kick her legs, modulate her voice, flip over-ripe Easter eggs against the kitchen wall, or gargle castor oil, privately or publicly.
Ms. Jaffe is free to do anything she wants.
The most examined, most public, part of her 42 years has been the last 24 months, since becoming the Super of the School District.
With increased visibility, her popularity widened, and she is going out at the crest of her appeal.
Question: What changed for Ms. Jaffe when she became Superintendent?
“The amount of responsibility and making sure you know what is going on everywhere in the District. My life changed because now you are in charge. The buck stops with me. I knew in my previous job, as Assistant Superintendent, Human Resources, what was going on, but not to the extent I did when I became Superintendent.”
What happens after 5 o’clockon Friday?
“I am not going to retire. I have a lot of things I want to do. When I go over to LMU, it isn’t that much, but enough that I am going to be busy. I also have had calls from other people who are interested in talking to me about doing a few things.
“At Loyola Marymount, I am going to be doing what they call University Supervisor, which means I will be mentoring students – they could be principals, they could be teachers – who are interested in becoming administrators. I also will be teaching a course on Organizational Management.”
At Loyola, Ms. Jaffe will be surrounded by old friends from the School District, including Franca Dell-Olio, principal of Culver City High School until 2005, Vidda Brough and Sara Fields, among others.
(To be concluded tomorrow)
