LAKE ELSINORE -- The fate of an underperforming magnet school and its principal has become a controversial topic in the Lake Elsinore district, with parents, teachers, administrators and trustees all weighing in on the emotional debate.

At issue is Ronald Reagan Elementary School, a 2-year-old magnet school that uses a multi-age program in which students are placed in classrooms according to their learning styles, interests and abilities rather than their grade.

The school also uses a model of teaching called "constructivism," where the curriculum is presented with an emphasis on big concepts, students' questions are highly valued and pupils are viewed as thinkers with emerging theories about the world. Under the model, students also primarily work in groups.

In a traditional classroom, concepts are presented with an emphasis on basic skills, there's a strict adherence to the curriculum, students are viewed as "blank slates," and they mostly work individually.

Ronald Reagan Elementary's principal, Craig Richter, used a constructivist model with a portion of students at Donald Graham Elementary School with much success when he was principal there for many years.

When Ronald Reagan opened, he was given permission to use that approach with the entire school, which is open to students districtwide.

The school's results so far show that while parents, teachers and students said they have fallen in love with the school, its principal, and its method of teaching kids, its test scores aren't up to par.

For example, the school recently received an academic state ranking of 1 on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the highest, when it was compared to 99 other schools with similar demographics from across the state, according to California Department of Education data.

With a state and federal education accountability system in which test scores make or break a school, Reagan's results did not go unnoticed by Lake Elsinore Unified School District's leaders.

Last month, trustees agreed to transfer Richter to Railroad Canyon Elementary and have Tuscany Hills Elementary Principal Gail Forseth take his place for the coming school year. Trustees and administrators have refused to comment on that decision, saying it's a personnel matter.

The transfer caused a firestorm among parents and teachers at Reagan Elementary, who said they believe it's the first step in removing constructivism from the school. They have conducted several protests outside the school over the last few weeks.

On Thursday, parents and teachers pleaded with district leaders for about two hours to allow Richter to stay at his post and give the school more time to come around, saying two years is not enough time.

They made their comments during the public comment portion of Thursday's board meeting.

Some pointed out that teachers have recently undergone training, enhanced their instructional methods and, in the last year, have focused in on key areas needed for improvement.

They asked the board to at least wait and see how students fared on the latest round of standardized testing before drastic decisions are made. The results are expected in July or August.

Parents and teachers also said that when the school opened, students had to share textbooks, the library wasn't ready, and other issues out of their control got the school off to a slow start.

Responding to trustees' comments over the last few weeks that constructivism will remain a part of the school despite the transfer plans, educators and parents said Forseth knows nothing about the teaching method and would not be able to successfully maintain the program, in their opinion.

They said they view the transfer of Richter, who has studied constructivist methods for more than a decade, as the equivalent of killing the magnet school's program.

"People are passionate about what is going on at the school," said parent Steve Tannenbaum in an interview. "We are preparing our kids for life. It is a very special place."

Parent Laurie Reynolds said her children can't wait to get to school every morning.

"The bottom line is my kids love to go to school," she said in an interview.

Most parents and teachers who attended the meeting wore a T-shirt prepared for the protest stating "we must have the courage to do what is morally right," a quote from President Reagan. Some also held signs and an overflow crowd was seated outside, watching the meeting on monitors.

Richter could not be reached for comment Friday. He was not at Thursday's board meeting.

Before the parents' and teachers' comments, a consultant gave a nearly one-hour presentation illustrating poor math and English test showings by many students at Ronald Reagan Elementary.

District leaders also referenced the situation during earlier parts of the meeting, saying they felt the school needed more of an emphasis on the state academic standards that students are tested on.

Teachers insisted the standards are being taught, but just by different methods.

Board President Tom Thomas also spoke out about the situation, at one point lambasting a Web site created over the brouhaha -- www.leusdparents.com -- as inaccurate, unfair and misleading.

"The results we saw tell us we have some serious issues with math and English that we can't dismiss," he told the crowd, which filled the district's small board room. "This is no picnic. We have some serious concerns about the instruction going on at Ronald Reagan. … If everything is just peachy keen with constructivism, why aren't more schools doing it?"

Thomas did nearly all of the talking on behalf of the board on the subject throughout the meeting.

He said trustees would think things over but could not make any promises.

"These are not voodoo statistics," he said. "These came from the state of California. Ronald Reagan was in the bottom of the heap. We can't ignore this."

Contact staff writer Jennifer Kabbany at (951) 676-4315, Ext. 2625, or jkabbany@californian.com.