By Cherrie Anne E. Villahermosa
Variety News Staff

THE former vice principal of Hopwood Jr. High School yesterday told the court that she gave former teacher Lisa Black a rating which she described as a little above average.
Elizabeth Nepaial was the fourth witness for the defense during the continuation of the jury trial in Black’s lawsuit against PSS and former Hopwood Jr. High School principal Jim Brewer.
Nepaial said she evaluated Black’s performance and gave her a rating of 2 in a scale of 6 in areas of collaboration with colleagues, parents and others, and a satisfactory rating of 3 in the areas of engaging in professional development and content knowledge.
Nepaial said Black needed to improve in the areas where she got poor ratings.
“We had some concerns about her behavior in the classroom and her communications with her colleagues,” Nepaial said.
She said the overall rating of Black’s performance was 3.75 – a little above average.
Nepaial said she told Black “to grow professionally in the areas of student discipline and collegiality.”
She said Black was also warned about “pushing the heads” and “pinching” the ears of her students.
But the former vice principal said that she did not believe Black had anything to do with the letter of concern about her that was circulated in school.
Nepaial said she did not hear Brewer saying that Black was aiding teachers in drafting or circulating the letter against Nepaial.
Nepaial cried when asked about her son whom she said was “bothered” by Black.
“If someone doesn’t like me, they should come to me — they don’t have to bother my son,” Nepaial said.
She said she enrolled her son at Hopwood because she thought it was a good school.
“I thought I was doing the best I could as a mother and part of my plan was to have my son visit the classes that he would be attending so he could familiarize himself with the other students. Black was never his teacher,” Nepaial said.
The former vice principal said when her son was in the class of another teacher, Black approached him and asked the boy why he did not come to her class.
Nepaial said Black came to her office and was very angry.
The vice principal said she asked Black to leave her office because she was being too aggressive.
Dolores Taman, former principal of Koblerville Elementary School, also testified and said she asked Black to resign when she was a teacher at Koblerville because she went on leave for a week without her approval.
Taman said Black went to New Caledonia without her permission to participate in a sports activity.
Taman she gave Black, during the teacher’s tenure with Koblerville, two letters of reprimand.
The plaintiff’s counsels, Michael Dotts and George Hasselback, presented Marianas High School principal Karen Borja as their last witness and rested their case yesterday morning.
The defense presented two other witnesses yesterday.