Someone else in charge

Christine Carrillo

Some of Lindsay Ricker’s classmates looked to her for special favors

and a little leniency here and there, but this 11-year-old wasn’t

about to misuse her principal powers.

On Thursday, the Kaiser Elementary fifth-grader served as

principal for the day, a job she won at a school auction.

While her duties didn’t include handling the disciplinary issues

Kaiser’s full-time principal Stacy Holmes has to deal with, they did

include some of the perks, the foremost her being referred to as

“principal.”

“I thought it would be fun getting to be a principal and getting

to be in charge,” Lindsay said. “It was fun. I got to help the

teachers and the people in the office ... and I got business cards

with my name on them.”

Lindsay’s principal duties began with a morning ceremony in front

of the entire Costa Mesa school, where she was inducted as

principal-for-a-day. She then traveled to the Newport-Mesa Unified

School District offices to meet Supt. Robert Barbot and other

district officials.

She toured the school’s Measure A construction, handed out awards

to various teachers and assisted with memos and e-mails, all the

while learning things not often learned in class.

“It’s been a lot of fun,” Holmes said. “I hope, and not just for

Lindsay, that it stimulates [the students] to think a little bit more

about a life in public education.”

Although Lindsay claims to be an aspiring pediatrician and doesn’t

see herself pursuing a career in education, administration or

otherwise, she did end the day with a gained appreciation for the

work educators and administrators do.

For Holmes, that was one of the goals for the day.

“I think any opportunity that a student has to get a sense of real

life ... and some insight into any profession is special,” Holmes

said. “This is that kind of experience.”

The short day of shadowing, which has gone on at the school for

years, also gives students a better understanding of what their

principal actually does all day.

“I think it’s a very good viewpoint that they get,” said Berta San

Miguel, who has worked in the Kaiser office for the past nine years.

“A lot of [the students] think [the principal] just sits in his

office all day. With this, they get to see that he has to go to the

classrooms and the district and has to deal with all the issues

coming in with the kids. It’s a lot more than they think.”

And, in Lindsay’s opinion, a lot more than they’d want to handle.

* CHRISTINE CARRILLO covers education and may be reached at (949)

574-4268 or by e-mail at [email protected].