City Manager Turns Principal for Day

It was an enlightening day for students at Bay Laurel Elementary School as well as for Calabasas City Manager Donald Duckworth, who toured the campus Thursday in his duties as “Principal for a Day.”

Each year, Las Virgenes Unified School District principals choose someone from business, government or law enforcement to follow them around to learn firsthand the challenges faced by public school principals.

Thursday afternoon was Duckworth’s chance to turn his attention away from city business to issues on the minds of the city’s youngest residents. As Principal Sheila Grady took him through several classrooms, Duckworth fielded questions from curious, and savvy, students.

“I think we should have a Chuck E. Cheese.” (“That would be nice.”)

“Are you, like, the mayor?” (“I work for the mayor.”)

“How did you make up the Calabasas name?” (“I didn’t make it up, it comes from Miguel Leonis, who was coming through this area when some pumpkins dropped off his buckboard. He named it Calabasas because that means pumpkin in Spanish.”)

“Are you planning to make a permanent skate park in town?” (“There’s a temporary one at Gates Canyon Park, and we’re trying to see how we might move it around to different parks rather than have one permanent skate park.”)

“Is your job hard?” (“Sometimes it’s hard, but it’s a lot of fun.”)

Grady likened Duckworth’s post to being the “principal of Calabasas” and told one class that while the two have different jobs, they share similar concerns.

“Actually, we have a lot in common,” Grady said. “We worry about rain and traffic and mud.”

After the tour, Duckworth stood next to the long line of cars waiting to pick up students and pondered the benefits of his afternoon stint as “principal.”

“This is a community all working together,” said Duckworth, whose son attends kindergarten at a private school in Pasadena. “We need to be striking on all cylinders to make it work. You can’t escape it on a day like this.”