Overseeing the school during that entire time was principal Annette Grasty. But after a sudden resignation within another school in the Sunnyvale School District, Grasty is being re-assigned, and the staff and students that grew to love her are having a tough time coming to terms with their loss. That loss is especially hard to bear with what some parents are calling unfair district tactics.

At a hastily called meeting on Nov. 17, parents and students filled Fairwood's multipurpose room to express their shock to district superintendent Joe Rudnicki, who maintained that Grasty would be moving despite their often-raucous outcry.

"The staff was shocked, saddened and full of disbelief when we heard this announcement," said Wendi Smith, a first grade teacher at Fairwood who helped organize the last-minute meeting. "We have high satisfaction here at Fairwood, and Mrs. Grasty has a vital role in this community."

Smith then explained that Grasty would be heading to Lakewood Elementary School, which is less than a mile from Fairwood across Lawrence Expressway. Lakewood's principal, Sheri Holbrook, has resigned, and Grasty will be taking her place. Coming in to replace Grasty is Eric Panosian, who is currently assistant principal at Bishop Elementary School. Lakewood is the second largest elementary school in the district, second only to Bishop, prompting some to wonder why Panosian wasn't assigned to Lakewood.

"Instead of disrupting three schools, you're disrupting one, which was already going to happen, and causing a minor disruption at the other," Smith said, prompting much applause from the audience.

Rudnicki explained that this situation was not ideal for anyone, but that he chose the solution that made the most sense for the district as a whole. Lakewood will be undergoing a state evaluation in the spring, and Rudnicki said that with more at-risk students than Fairwood, Lakewood needs an experienced principal.

"It is not common to make this change in the middle of the year," he said. "Lakewood is significantly larger than Fairwood, and it has much more to attend to. It is not achieving goals that the state would like it to achieve. We do not have the money to go out and hire someone, and Annette is an excellent principal."

Many in the Fairwood community attribute their achievement of being named a Distinguished School to Grasty. Finalists are initially chosen based on test scores—Fairwood's API score for 2004 was 813, while Lakewood's was 752 and Bishop's was 734. But winners are selected for advancement in innovation and community, and those who attended the meeting expressed their concerns that Fairwood's unique qualities—especially in their diverse, lower-income area—will evaporate under new leadership.

"We are really, really upset. She knows every kid and parent by their first names," said Sharon Godinez, a Fairwood parent who spoke up during the meeting several times. "What if [Panosian] has his own ideas? Their grades came straight down from her leadership. This is like a death in the family."

The mood in the meeting reflected that sentiment, as many parents and several students cried when discussing Grasty's legacy and asking that she be kept at Fairwood. "All the kids like her. They all look up to her," said fifth grader Brandon Parent.

When it became apparent that Rudnicki's decision was final, many angrily asked why the Fairwood community wasn't consulted. "The school just got notice yesterday," Godinez said. "I was going through my cookie dough orders, looking for people to call and tell them about this meeting."

But the district says they themselves had no say in the timing. Shelly James, head of human resources, said that Halbrook's letter of resignation came as a bit of a surprise. "We knew this was eventually going to happen because Sheri's going through a career change, but it was a shock that it happened mid-year," James said. "We're only in session two days during the week of Thanksgiving, and her last day is Nov. 30. We had to work quickly."

Halbrook said that the timing of her departure is simply due to the fact that her house in Scotts Valley was sold to a family that wanted to settle in before Christmas. She is moving to Palm Springs for semi-retirement, and will also be working in real estate. "This is another administrative salary that they do not have to pay," she added. Panosian's open position at Bishop will not be filled.

When reached for comment, Grasty deferred questions on her departure to James, but was highly complimentary of the school that she's presided over for nearly eight years. "This is a wonderful, wonderful school," she said. "I've loved working with these kids."

James said that Rudnicki called Grasty when the Lakewood position opened up and asked her whether she would take the job. Grasty lives in the Lakewood attendance area, and her children attended Lakewood while James was the principal there. "She went home and gave it some thought. It took her two to three days to make a decision, but she's a team player and she agreed," James said.

Because of the holiday, a quick overlap period was established, with Grasty spending part of her work days prior to Nov. 30 at Lakewood with Halbrook, and the rest at Fairwood helping Panosian get his footing. While many Fairwood parents are skeptical that Panosian has the qualifications to keep Fairwood at its current level of achievement, the district expressed confidence in his abilities.

Panosian is in his fifth year at Bishop, where he came after teaching in the Glendale Unified School District in Southern California. "At Bishop, he's trained with Frances Dampier, who is a 34-year teaching veteran," James said. "He's such a wonderful person and he's so good with kids. He's very prepared, and it's only a matter of time. They will just love him."

But the group of about three dozen parents, teachers and students that attended the Sunnyvale school board meeting on Nov. 18 didn't seem to agree. During the section of the meeting set aside for public comments, they pleaded with the school board not to allow the reassignment. One parent even suggested that Grasty might have been strong-armed into accepting the position.

Rudnicki had told the parents at the previous night's meeting at Fairwood that due to the restrictions of the Brown Act, the board could not act upon the reassignment because it wasn't on the meeting's agenda. After the meeting, Godinez said she learned from board member Linda Kilian that the reassignment was in fact on the meeting's agenda, and it was approved.

James and Kilian both said that Grasty and Panosian's reassignments were part of an addendum added to the agenda the day before and that such addendums regularly occur just before board meetings. "When [Rudnicki] told them it wasn't on the agenda, he hadn't seen the addendum. [The board] doesn't see addendums until 7 p.m. on the night of the meeting," Kilian said. Because the reassignment was an agenda item, the public could have commented on it, but Godinez said she and her fellow parents were unaware of that fact.

Kilian said that even if the board had heard further comments, they would have approved the reassignment anyway. Dec. 1 will mark the first day of Panosian's tenure at Fairwood as interim principal, and his performance will be evaluated at the end of the school year for a possible permanent position there.