Parents take action to keep school principal

Parents and school board members are collecting signatures to try and keep a loved principal from leaving McKinley Elementary School in El Centro.

News 11’s Nico Payne spoke to organizers on why this means so much to the school and students.

“She has done a lot, our school is much much better,” expressed Sandra Mendez, PTO President.

She is referring to Mrs. Weeks, the school principal who has helped the school a great deal these past years.

Weeks is now in danger of being transferred to another school.

“A lot of parents, like myself are really really upset about the news, because we are thinking about the future of our kids,” added Mendez.

Students are not aware of the news yet, but will be informed soon that their principal may be leaving them.

Both parents and students have expressed a lot of love for Mrs. Weeks.

“She was my principal and I really loved her,” said Gabiella Preciada, Third grade.

“The points have gone higher; the attendance has gone up three percent since last year. The school percentage knowledge of math, social studies have gone up, and the committee has been attending more, has been coming more, has being joining us in the events that we have been doing at this school,” explained Dario Ortega, Vice President, School Board Committee.

The committee is hoping to convince the school district to stop the transfer by gaining parents input and signatures before their next meeting on June 13th.

We were told that Mrs. Weeks seemed emotional over the news, but we have not been able to speak to her.

“Right now I think we have around like 10 or 14 pages already signed with the people. So basically most of the parents are helping us out to keep Mrs. Weeks here at school,” added Ortega.

The school has around 480 students and committee members are hoping to get most of the parents’ signatures.

For more information on how to sign the petition, you can head to https://www.change.org/p/community-help-mrs-weeks?recruiter=730310726&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=facebook&utm_campaign=autopublish&utm_term=mob-xs-share_petition-reason_msg&utm_content=nafta_share_post_title_en_1%3Areal_control