Re: “In Previous Career, Cooper Became Integral Part of Students’ Lives” 

Six months virtually to the day after she was named interim Principal of Culver City High School, Dr. Lisa Cooper today has won official confirmation as the permanent principal.

Tall, popular, easygoing and outgoing, the news was happily received on campus, a gold ray of sun on an overcast day.

Inside the school community, she was the powerhouse pick to breeze through the obligatory search process and dominate the competition.

“She is truly committed to the students and staff of Culver City High School,” Asst. Supt. Leslie Lockhart said this morning. “That means all aspects of the school.”

Dr. Cooper, 42, became interim principal under unusual circumstances. Late last summer, Dr. Cooper, then known as Ms. Cooper, assistant principal, innocently began her ninth year at Culver High. She did not have any idea she was about to be thrust into a much wider limelight.

In early October, Dr. Dylan Thomas, in his third year as principal, found just the type of administrative position he had been looking for, in the El Segundo Unified School District. He resigned the following week.

Ms. Cooper seemed the obvious choice to insiders. Supt. Dave LaRose concurred. He wasted no time appointing her.

In December, eight weeks after her promotion to a temporary desk, Dr. Cooper earned her latest degree, an omen of much more to come.

She was regarded as a just-right fit in the principal’s chair. Logic and popularity dictated she should be the long-term choice without interruption or the folderol of a formal hunt.

Before the LaRose-led, complexly organized search party was developed, Dr. Cooper told the newspaper she had considerations to make. She was not prepared – yet – to say she would be a candidate to succeed herself.

Mr. LaRose had warned during the winter that choosing a principal would be a grueling endurance test for the nearly two dozen applicants. Some seekers, however, were eliminated before second breaths were drawn.

Her bid for the fulltime job was secured after her fifth and final interview last Monday with Mr. LaRose and School Board President Nancy Goldberg.

“I am very excited,” Dr. Cooper said this afternoon.Of the record five interviews, she declined saying they were easy. But “I felt comfortable and confident,” two-thirds of the attitude that won the derby for her.

“I have been serving as the interim since October. I know what the vision and mission are, and what I believe in, and where I would like to see the school go.”

Proving that she is normal, Dr. Cooper conceded that “it was a little intimidating to be in front of large panels at times. But I really was comfortable and confident.”

Has she been nervous during the last several months?

“I had a little case of nerves, but when you are trying to run a school every day,” she said with a slight laugh, “there isn’t time to let the nerves in.”

Does Dr. Cooper anticipate pursuing changes?

“I know the culture and where we want to go,” she said with her renewed sense of assurance shining through.

“I want to make sure we are supporting all of our students, that we have resources and systems in place for them. That is something we already have been focusing on as a school. I am just hoping my leadership will guide us to the next level.”