Los Angeles Unified School District

Mayor, L.A. Unified back in court to renew battle over school control

Judge who blocked the law authorizing shared power is asked to put her ruling on hold

By Duke Helfand and Joel Rubin, Los Angeles Times, January 4, 2007

Attorneys for Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and the Los Angeles Unified School District were back in court Wednesday fighting over whether Villaraigosa should be allowed to proceed with plans to take partial control of the school district despite a legal ruling last month that gutted his effort.

Lawyers for the district — frustrated by what they view as an attempt by Villaraigosa to skirt the legal ruling — urged Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Dzintra I. Janavs to reaffirm her Dec. 21 decision.

Janavs had ruled that a new state law that gave Villaraigosa significant control over the district violated the state Constitution and the Los Angeles City Charter. She ordered public officials "to refrain from enforcing or implementing" any part of the measure, Assembly Bill 1381, which was scheduled to take effect Jan. 1.

Attorneys representing Villaraigosa and other parties have appealed Janavs' ruling. Citing case law, they argued that her decision automatically would be put on hold until the higher court rules.

Villaraigosa's legal counsel, Thomas Saenz, downplayed the effect of the legal maneuvering.

"It's a skirmish about what goes on until the appeal is decided," Saenz said.

But the district's attorneys assailed the legal strategy. In strongly worded papers, they argued that the filing of an appeal by the mayor did not automatically trigger a stay of Janavs' ruling. Villaraigosa's lawyers were "severely mistaken in their interpretation of the governing legal principles," they wrote in papers filed with the court Wednesday.

"It's a pretty brazen decision for them to take," said Fredric D. Woocher, a private attorney who is representing the district.

The wrangling turns on arcane legal interpretations of Janavs' ruling.

In a motion seeking an expedited appeal last week, the mayor's lawyers asserted that Janavs' "directive is stayed pending appeal."

District lawyers are challenging that view. They argue that halting a decision can be undertaken only if a specific standard is met. That standard comes into play, the lawyers say, only when an order requires the losing party to take specific action.

By contrast, Janavs' ruling simply prohibits AB 1381 from taking effect, the district's lawyers said.

One legal scholar who specializes in appeals said the issue at stake was a perplexing one that also was hard for courts to decipher.

"It's a very confusing distinction," said Daniel Koes, a Pasadena lawyer who teaches at Southwestern Law School in Los Angeles. "It's hard to distinguish between whether the court is requiring something to be done or prohibiting something."

Even if Janavs doesn't buy their reasoning, district lawyers still argued that she should reaffirm her decision. Putting it on hold, they argued, would impair the district's ability to conduct its business, including hiring and budgeting.

Given the complexity of the issues, the judge put off a decision until next Thursday.

As the two sides squared off in Superior Court, Villaraigosa's legal team was seeking to expedite its appeal. Saenz said that attorneys would ask the California Supreme Court, perhaps as early as today, to take the appeal directly, rather than going first to an appeals court. A typical appeal can take 18 months or more.

But even a rapid appeal might not leave Villaraigosa's education advisors adequate time to gear up for the reform that is at the heart of his agenda: taking over three high schools and the elementary and middle schools that feed into them.

Under AB 1381, Villaraigosa and L.A. Unified's superintendent are supposed to select the first of those "clusters" by Feb. 1 and the second by March 1. Though Villaraigosa and Supt. David L. Brewer have met regularly to discuss mutual goals for the district, they have not talked specifically about identifying clusters, Deputy Mayor Ramon C. Cortines said. Brewer believes that Janavs' decision stands until an appeals court weighs in, said Don Davis, his chief of staff.

Cortines said that the continuing delays caused by the lawsuit could make it impossible for officials to meet looming deadlines to have the clusters ready for launch in July, the beginning of the 2007-08 school year.

Even if Villaraigosa wins on appeal next month, Cortines said, "We would be hard-pressed to get one cluster up and running. We don't have the proper time … to make sure what we begin with is the best thinking based on best practices. There's no quick fix."

Union calls for action by its teachers

Members urged to boycott meetings, activities

By Naush Boghossian, Los Angeles Daily News, January 5, 2007

In its first major job action amid ongoing contract negotiations, Los Angeles Unified's teachers union on Friday called for its 48,000 members to boycott faculty meetings and unpaid after-school activities.

The boycotts are scheduled to begin at Tuesday's faculty meeting, roughly one month before United Teachers Los Angeles has scheduled a strike-authorization vote.

Union officials said the moves will not affect educational programs or children but are designed to step up pressure on the district to lower class size; give teachers, parents and others more control; and give teachers and health and human service professionals a raise.

UTLA President A.J. Duffy said that while contract talks are continuing, the union is still proceeding with strike preparations.

"There is some movement at the table - some good, some not good. I'm cautiously optimistic that we might be able to reach a settlement that would be good for teachers and health and human service professionals," Duffy said. "But at the same time, I'm still gearing up for a strike; I'm still gearing up for actions."

Duffy hired former UTLA and CTA President Wayne Johnson as a consultant for negotiations. Johnson orchestrated a nine-day LAUSD strike in 1989 that garnered teachers a 24 percent pay raise over three years. But teachers took a 10 percent pay cut in 1992 when the district ran into financial trouble.

In current talks, the district offered a 3 percent raise but the union countered with 7 percent retroactive to July 1 and 2 percent starting in February, Duffy said. The average annual salary for an LAUSD teacher is $56,652.

School board President Marlene Canter called union plans for boycotts "inappropriate" and "distracting" and said it sends the wrong message when talks are progressing.

Both sides had agreed to meet four days next week to try to reach a resolution.

"I think it's so inappropriate for them to have job actions while we're making progress at the negotiating table," she said. "I feel it's misleading to the public and particularly teachers who are not at the negotiating table and makes them feel like there is no progress when there is."

But Duffy said the boycotts will continue every Tuesday until further notice from union leadership.

"We're going to take actions to send a clear message to the district that they need to pay attention to the professionals that do the job for them," Duffy said. "They can't nickel-and-dime us anymore. It's time the financial priorities of this district are turned around so most of the money goes to the school sites and the classrooms."

Mayor posts his strategy for schools

Villaraigosa presents 52 recommendations for fixing L.A. Unified. Officials say the district has tried some ideas but lacks money to expand

By Duke Helfand and Joel Rubin, Los Angeles Times, January 18, 2007

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa unveiled a sweeping reform strategy for Los Angeles public schools Wednesday, calling for top-to-bottom changes that would include ending the practice of promoting failing students, requiring school uniforms and bringing in outsiders to help transform schools.

The education blueprint — drawing heavily from reform ideas already underway in Los Angeles and elsewhere — amounts to Villaraigosa's fall-back position if the courts rule against his efforts to gain a measure of control over the Los Angeles Unified School District.

In releasing the "Schoolhouse" policy framework at a town hall meeting Wednesday evening, and supporting candidates in the March 6 school board elections, Villaraigosa is hedging his bets: He is seeking a prominent role in the school district through a friendly board majority that could promote his vision of more decentralized schools.

But the mayor — who called for greater collaboration among the city, the district, civic groups, labor organizations and others — did not formally consult the school district's top leadership in assembling his 52 policy recommendations, which are long on promise but short on details.

Only one school board member, Villaraigosa ally Monica Garcia, attended the gathering along with schools Supt. David L. Brewer. Board President Marlene Canter was out of town.

Villaraigosa's top education aides drew up the proposal by researching practices in L.A. Unified and other major urban school districts, including New York, Chicago and Philadelphia, and by culling ideas from local charter school operators that have shown success with poor and immigrant student populations.

The mayor's approach would require a massive infusion of money and expertise, both of which are in limited supply. And many of his proposals — including a call for smaller schools and a return from multitrack calendars to a traditional schedule — are being employed by L.A. Unified schools or campuses elsewhere, sometimes with mixed results.

Still, Villaraigosa characterized his Schoolhouse strategy as the best chance for improving a district facing myriad challenges, including crowded classrooms and large numbers of students living in poverty or learning English.

Addressing about 200 parents, teachers and others at the National Center for the Preservation of Democracy, Villaraigosa said his effort would produce results that are crucial to educational success.

"After over a year of debate, I think most of us agree that the issue is no longer whether we need fundamental change in our public schools. The question is how," Villaraigosa told the invited audience.

"These ideas didn't come from the mountaintop and they are not etched in stone," he added. "But I believe our Schoolhouse provides a framework for reform that the entire Los Angeles Unified School District should follow."

With several young students seated behind him, Villaraigosa spoke for about 15 minutes from a teleprompter, then took mostly polite questions. He drew applause several times but demurred when pressed for details.

Some school board members, who were briefed on the plan just hours before the meeting, cautiously greeted the initiative even as they questioned Villaraigosa's sincerity.

The school district is locked in a legal battle with Villaraigosa over a law that would give him substantial authority over the district — allowing him to pursue the very reforms outlined in his plan. That law was struck down by a Superior Court judge last month, and Villaraigosa has appealed directly to the California Supreme Court.

Canter, who was in New York on district business, reiterated her position that the mayor is not seeking to join with the district leaders for the good of the school system.

"I think it's misleading to the public when you have a mayor who talks about the urgency of partnership…. It would be nice if we could put this conversation aside and have a real partnership," she said.

Canter and Brewer said the district is not at a loss for new ideas — only the resources and strategies to expand reforms through a system that serves more than 700,000 students.

"Many of the initiatives are basically already being implemented," Brewer said in an interview. "The mayor needs to help me find more money for these initiatives."

Villaraigosa departed from the harsh language he has often used to characterize the district as a bloated bureaucracy that fails students. Instead, he struck an even tone in his remarks and in his blueprint, highlighting practices that have shown promise around the nation and acknowledging that L.A. Unified has already embraced many of these approaches, if on a limited basis.

Deputy Mayor Ramon C. Cortines, a former interim L.A. Unified superintendent and a chief architect of the mayor's proposals, said new guidance and energy would help spread promising practices that he found while visiting schools in the district and elsewhere.

"I have said that some of the best practices are in L.A. Unified. What I am suggesting is that we need to be consistent. There is not the accountability, the responsibility or the authority at the local level to carry out these kinds of things. If we are ever going to bring back the middle class in LAUSD, we are going to have to address these issues."

The 25-page policy paper breaks down the challenge of improving schools into six areas that need attention: high expectations, safe schools, empowered leadership, rigorous curriculum, family and community involvement, and more money to schools.

It says that teachers, principals and other school staff should be paid more and class sizes should be reduced — two goals that Villaraigosa believes could be met by streamlining central support operations and increasing daily student attendance, the basis for state education funding.

These ideas, and the framework in general, were greeted enthusiastically by union leaders from United Teachers Los Angeles.

The blueprint also calls for moving more money and resources away from the central administration to schools, and giving campuses greater authority over their resources — ideas that are drawn from the charter school movement and that have become increasingly popular in mainstream education circles in recent years.

Villaraigosa calls for changes that have shown mixed results in Los Angeles and other places, including an end to social promotion — moving failing students to the next grade level. Such an approach was tried in L.A. Unified eight years ago with second-graders and eighth-graders but was ended partly for lack of space. And taking a page from state and federal accountability programs, the mayor's plan could lead to the removal of employees at chronically underperforming schools.

The mayor's plan suggests that the school day be extended so struggling students can receive more help; that foreign languages, such as Spanish and Arabic, be taught as early as first grade; and that student mentor programs and preschool be expanded.

Villaraigosa intends to rally a broad swath of Los Angeles around the schools, inviting the involvement of organized labor, universities, cultural institutions and faith-based organizations. And he would lead an aggressive campaign to raise $200 million for the schools over five years from foundations, corporations and philanthropists.

The multi-pronged effort would start in several clusters of low-performing schools and then expand to every campus, the mayor's aides said.

That mirrors the approach advocated in the education law now winding through the courts. It would give Villaraigosa control over three high schools and the middle schools and elementary schools that feed them — amounting to as many as 80,000 students.

High court denies quick ruling on L.A. Unified takeover

By Maura Dolan, Los Angeles Times, February 8, 2007

The California Supreme Court refused Wednesday to immediately review a ruling that has prevented Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa from taking partial control of the Los Angeles school district.

The state high court's decision means the school district's challenge of mayoral control will remain before the 2nd District Court of Appeal in Los Angeles. That court will hear arguments in early April and probably decide the case 30 to 60 days later.

Villaraigosa had sought to bypass the appeals court in hopes of expediting the case and winning a ruling that would uphold a state law giving him significant authority over schools. Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Dzintra Janavs struck down the law in December.

The state high court rarely takes cases until they have been argued before an intermediate appeals court.

Fred Woocher, a lawyer for the Los Angeles Unified School District, said the district did not oppose state high court review but was "definitely not upset" about the delay. The eventual ruling by the appeals court is expected to be challenged, and the Supreme Court will have to decide once again whether to review the case.

Mayor's cash aids favorites

New LAUSD board may work in his favor

By Naush Boghossian, Los Angeles Daily News, February 10, 2007

Seeing the LAUSD board as either the instrument or the obstacle to his education-reform plan, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is funding a multimillion-dollar campaign to replace two union-backed incumbents with his allies in next month's election.

Four of the board's seven seats are up for election March 6, offering the mayor - or the powerful teachers union - a chance to secure the majority needed to push forward their individual agendas.

The mayor's Community Partnership for Better Schools is prepared to spend upward of $1 million in an effort to replace incumbent Jon Lauritzen with Tamar Galatzan, a lawyer and parent whom Villaraigosa has endorsed for the San Fernando Valley seat. Lauritzen already has gotten more than $300,000 from teachers unions and is likely to get a lot more.

The mayor's group is also expected to spend an equal amount to get Johnathan Williams elected over board member Marguerite LaMotte to represent South Los Angeles, although the mayor has not endorsed either candidate in that race.

While his group is providing the funding, the mayor himself is keeping a low profile in the races to represent communities where his popularity is relatively low.

"The Valley and south side of L.A. are where Mayor Villaraigosa has historically run weakest with the voting population. Because he's still trying to gain their trust, he's not willing to wage a pitched, high-level battle which may cost him politically in the future," said Jaime Regalado, director of the Edmund G. "Pat" Brown Institute of Public Affairs at California State University, Los Angeles. "There's a reality beyond school district politics at play here. It's uphill."

Villaraigosa is looking for allies in his efforts to reform the nation's second-largest school district, a plan that includes increasing the number of charter campuses and giving him direct control over three low-performing high schools.

The 48,000-strong United Teachers Los Angeles wants to improve student achievement by working within the existing system.

Mayoral allies

Among the three board members not up for re-election, Villaraigosa can count only District 2 member Monica Garcia as a political ally. District 6 representative Julie Korenstein, a Valley board long tied to LAUSD unions, and District 4 member Marlene Canter, the board president, oppose the mayor's efforts.

Experts predict that mayoral allies Yolie Flores Aguilar and Richard Vladovic will win election in Districts 5 and 7, respectively, filling seats in which the incumbents aren't running.

That leaves the District 1 and 3 seats up for grabs, with the power of the majority at stake.

Galatzan also has won the support of former Mayor Richard Riordan, who wrested control of the school board from the UTLA with his slate of candidates in 1999 and remains very popular among Valley voters.

Four years ago, two of the Riordan-backed members - Genethia Hayes and board President Caprice Young - were unseated by Lauritzen and LaMotte after a well-funded blitz by the UTLA in the weeks before the election.

Duffy has said the union will provide the resources needed to get Lauritzen and LaMotte re-elected.

The mayor's Community Partnership committee is also prepared to pour resources into the campaign, paying for mail and TV advertising to get Galatzan elected.

"As far as resources go, Tamar Galatzan is going to have everything she needs to run an effective campaign to communicate to Valley voters why a change agent needs to be on the school board," said her campaign manager, Mike Trujillo, whose salary is being paid by the mayor's group.

Ed Burke, Lauritzen's campaign manager and chief of staff, promised an aggressive campaign, with support not only from the UTLA but from unions representing the LAUSD police, bus drivers and cafeteria workers.

"That's what it'll take to win," Burke said. "Those people are mobilized."

Another key challenge for Galatzan is to use Villaraigosa's endorsement while persuading voters that she's not simply his puppet, Regalado said - a problem the Riordan-backed candidates experienced in 2003.

"People started to get tired by what they perceived as meddling by Riordan and his billionaire buddies, with the union targeting those candidates as puppets of the mayor and really out of step with the teachers," Regalado said. "I can see people seeing that as a danger, especially in the Valley, of having the mayor's backing."

Both Lauritzen and Galatzan are trying to capitalize on their ties to the Valley rather than any connection they have to downtown interests.

Lauritzen was raised and educated in the Valley, taught math and computer courses at local schools and helped organize the Chatsworth Neighborhood Council. His wife and daughter are both teachers.

Galatzan was also raised and schooled in the Valley, works for the City Attorney's Office as a neighborhood prosecutor in Van Nuys and is married to the head of the Valley Industry and Commerce Association.

Union influence

Even though the union helped craft the mayor's legislation Assembly Bill 1381 to assume partial control of the LAUSD and agrees philosophically on proposed reform efforts, including smaller classes and streamlining the bureaucracy, they are backing candidates different from the mayor's in the two key races.

That disconnect is primarily due to a massive push by the union's members to endorse the incumbents.

But most believe the relationship between the union and the mayor will not devolve into nasty politics and they will always work to compromise with one another.

Whether he elects his entire slate of candidates or not, Regalado believes, the mayor will come out a winner, getting the cluster of schools he covets.

"It's not a winner-take-all and loser-surrenders-everything situation any longer. The mayor will gain something out of this," Regalado said.

District, UTLA in accord

Tentative agreement calls for a 6% pay raise for L.A. teachers retroactive to last July

By Howard Blume and Mitchell Landsberg, Los Angeles Times, February 13, 2007

After months of heated rhetoric, the Los Angeles Unified School District and its teachers union have reached a tentative agreement calling for gradual class size reduction and a 6% raise retroactive to last July, sources on both sides of the negotiations said Monday.

The settlement is part of a three-year contract, but the salary increase applies only to the current school year — which means negotiations on next year's pay package are already just around the corner.

"I'm very happy that we have reached a tentative agreement, and we're able to provide teachers with a salary increase, as well as student-centered class-size reduction programs," said school board President Marlene Canter.

That sentiment was echoed by A.J. Duffy, president of United Teachers Los Angeles: "It's an excellent tentative agreement overall. It's good for teachers, it's good for the district, but more importantly, it's good for the children of Los Angeles."

News of the settlement filtered out Monday evening, although there was talk all weekend that the two sides were close. Sunday's marathon negotiations stretched well past midnight into Monday morning. Perhaps the first confirmation came in an automated phone message from Duffy, which went out Monday night — even as Duffy was telling reporters that talks were ongoing.

Both sides agreed to withhold details of the settlement until a joint news conference today, but details trickled out from both sides.

If ratified, the settlement would increase the top salary of L.A. Unified teachers to more than $80,000. The average salary would rise from roughly $60,000 to about $63,700.

Salary wasn't the only major issue in dispute. For months, teachers also had been talking about reducing class size, and under the agreement, sources said, the school district has agreed to lower class sizes gradually over the next three years.

The school system already takes part in the state-funded 20-to-1 student-teacher ratio in kindergarten through third grades and limited reductions in other grades. The proposed deal, which must still be ratified by teachers, will focus on the remaining grades, said a source.

For their part, negotiators for the school district were never entirely persuaded about the union's commitment to lowering class size — because every gain in that arena took money off the table for a salary increase.

One UTLA negotiator, who asked not to be named, said that the union team chose to accept 6% so it could achieve smaller classes. The union had recently insisted it would go no lower than 9%. On the other hand, the amount of the increase is larger than what teachers have gained in numerous other districts this year.

To some degree, the improved funding picture for education statewide bailed out both sides. Substantial new state money already is targeted for class-size reduction.

"The bottom line is approximately a $90-million commitment per year toward class-size reduction, targeted at our highest-poverty schools, but with some class-size reduction going districtwide," said one of the negotiators.

Some of this strategy will have to be brought forward to established oversight groups that include parents, because the district and union hope to rely partly on special federal and state accounts outside of the general fund.

The contract also contains new language governing the involuntary transfer of teachers from one school to another. "We negotiated a more rational process for dealing with teachers who have been transferred and claimed they were transferred because of their union activities," said a source involved in the talks.

This issue exploded last fall after the transfer of teacher Alex Caputo-Pearl from Crenshaw High. The union and the school district eventually reached an agreement that allowed Caputo-Pearl to return to Crenshaw.

The proposed settlement came on the eve of a strike authorization vote — although teachers would have had to vote again before union leaders could call a strike.

The resolution ends months of increasing union pressure on the school system and school board members. Two demonstrations drew an estimated 10,000 at district headquarters downtown and a district office in the San Fernando Valley.

The settlement also clears the calendar for union leaders to concentrate on helping two school board allies win reelection. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has targeted both incumbents for defeat. Both had opposed the mayor's plan to win substantial authority over the school system.

Before the settlement, union leaders had authorized $250,000 for a media campaign to promote their negotiation position. That was more than was initially given to each of their endorsed incumbents, Jon Lauritzen and Marguerite Poindexter LaMotte.

Bill would boost L.A. school board pay 650%

Legislation would put members among highest-paid officials

By Jim Sanders, Sacramento Bee, February 18, 2007

For generations, California has paid its school board members as vital elected officials serving their communities part time.

Pending legislation could shatter that tradition in the state's largest school district.

A Southern California assemblyman has proposed giving the Los Angeles Unified School District's governing board authority to declare itself full time and raise its salary by more than 650 percent -- from $25,092 to $171,648.

The measure would allow school board salaries to be tied to those of Los Angeles City Council members, whose pay rises automatically with that of Superior Court judges.

Assemblyman Mervyn Dymally, D-Compton, said his proposal simply recognizes the obvious in a district with more than 700,000 students, a multibillion-dollar budget, and problems ranging from gangs to absenteeism to low student achievement.

"It's actually a full-time job now," he said.

But Lew Uhler, president of the National Tax Limitation Committee, said a sixfold pay increase is ludicrous.

"I think it's a travesty to the taxpayers, to the schoolchildren and to their parents," Uhler said of the measure.

Passage of Assembly Bill 68 would allow Los Angeles school board members to receive a salary higher than California's lieutenant governor, treasurer, controller or secretary of state -- and roughly $58,550 more than legislators' base salary, not counting per diem.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger currently qualifies for the highest pay of any California elected official, $206,500, but he does not accept a state paycheck.

Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell receives $175,525. Through spokeswoman Hilary McLean, O'Connell declined comment on Dymally's bill, saying that his office does not set school board pay.

California's education code currently limits school board pay in the state's largest districts to $2,000 per month, adjusted for inflation.

Dymally's bill proposes to amend the salary cap solely for districts serving more than 500,000 students, which means only Los Angeles.

No date has been set for a legislative hearing on AB 68. The California School Boards Association has taken no position.

Dymally said he is willing to consider lowering his bill's permissible salary, but he wants to retain the notion of full-time status and full-time pay.

By comparison, Sacramento County's three largest unified school districts -- Elk Grove, San Juan and Sacramento -- pay $9,000 per year.

AB 68 also would set a staffing level for school districts statewide in the hiring of counselors, librarians, paraprofessionals and nurses.

Dymally's legislation is not the first attempt to hike Los Angeles board pay.

Measure L, on the March 6 ballot, would limit Los Angeles school board members to three terms and create a review committee to set salaries every five years, among other changes.

Measure L conceivably could result in raising school board salaries above the state limit. Because Los Angeles is a charter city, voters can set a local pay standard, if they desire.

Former Assemblywoman Jackie Goldberg, a Los Angeles Democrat who was termed out last year, proposed unsuccessful legislation last year that would have permitted LAUSD trustees to declare their intent to serve either as part-timers or full-timers -- and to be paid accordingly, with salaries set by the county Board of Supervisors.

Goldberg, who served on the L.A. school board from 1983-91, said pay was so low that she mortgaged her home three times to make ends meet.

"The truth of the matter is, you need to work full time when you start talking about multibillion-dollar budgets," she said. "You get what you pay for."

Assemblyman Gene Mullin, a South San Francisco Democrat who chairs the Assembly Education Committee, said a pay hike of some amount could allow more people of modest means to seek office.

But Assemblyman Bob Huff, R-Diamond Bar, called a sixfold increase "gargantuan."

"They've got a lot of problems and that's the least of their concerns right now, trying to up the ante on what they're getting paid," Huff said of the seven-member Los Angeles school board.

Members of the Los Angeles board have mixed feelings.

"(School board) is a position that deserves to have at least equal status to trimming trees and filling potholes," said Julie Korenstein, who holds no other job.

Jon Lauritzen, a retired teacher now serving on the board, said full-time pay would allow working colleagues to dedicate their days to studying district issues and meeting with constituents, rather than having to squeeze such activities into nights and weekends.

But David Tokofsky, a teacher before joining the board, said he would not like to see pay become a magnet for professional politicians.

Rather than increase pay substantially, Tokofsky would like to see school trustees become eligible for state pensions, which he said would encourage longtime service. Members currently receive medical, dental and vision benefits.

AB 68 could result in the highest pay going to one of the state's lowest-performing major districts, serving a population that is largely minority and low income.

Test scores showed that 38 percent of LAUSD students were proficient in mathematics and 32 percent in language arts in 2005-06.

Mayor's team has limited success in school elections

By Howard Blume and Joel Rubin, Los Angeles Times, March 7, 2007

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa fell short of winning a decisive majority in Tuesday's school board elections, although the mayor made incremental gains in electing crucial political allies to the Los Angeles Board of Education.

In nearly complete returns announced today, the mayor's favored candidates finished ahead in three races and trailed in the fourth. But two of those leads were not sizable enough to avoid a May runoff, meaning that, once again, Villaraigosa's school intervention plans could be put on hold.

Villaraigosa has one close ally on the seven-member board; he needed three wins in the four races to secure a majority that backs his plan to run as many as three low-performing high schools and the elementary and middle schools that feed into them. A law that gave him substantial authority over local schools is tied up in litigation.

Also on the ballot was Charter Amendment L, which would limit school board members to three terms totaling 12 years and place a $1,000 cap on individual campaign contributions. It won easily.

Villaraigosa had planned to oust at the ballot box any board members who resisted his schools agenda, but amid Tuesday night's uncertain outcome, he adopted a conciliatory tone. Earlier, he had called board President Marlene Canter, with whom he had refused to meet for months.

"I want to work with the school board," he said in an interview. "I'm reaching out…. I'm looking for a partnership that's focused on change and innovation. That's what it's been about from the beginning."

He added: "I'm not looking for the board to agree with me on every issue, but to have a sense of urgency."

The two big-money contests pitted an incumbent against a challenger favored by the mayor. In those races, Villaraigosa faced one loss and one runoff. The union-backed Marguerite Poindexter LaMotte won handily in her South Los Angeles race and Villaraigosa-favored Tamar Galatzan and incumbent Jon M. Lauritzen headed to a May showdown in the San Fernando Valley.

The mayor officially sat out the battle in District 1, which pitted incumbent LaMotte against charter school operator Johnathan Williams.

In early returns, LaMotte took a double-digit percentage lead that she never relinquished.

"In my gut I feel very confident," she said at a Leimert Park banquet hall packed with more than 200 supporters. "It says that this community decides who represents it, not big money outsiders who have no vested interest."

LaMotte too got a call from Villaraigosa, which she did not immediately return. The two have a sizable rift to mend: LaMotte has likened the mayor's intervention plans to the Tuskegee experiments in which black men with syphilis were observed, not treated.

Villaraigosa had shied away from openly supporting Williams for fear of roiling his already delicate relationship with the city's black leaders — most of whom support LaMotte. Nonetheless, Villaraigosa dispatched his campaign manager to run Williams' race.

Williams, 40, raised nearly $1 million, far outpacing LaMotte, who relied almost entirely on the $450,000 the union gave her. Much of Williams' money came from deep-pocketed supporters of charter schools and such allies of Villaraigosa as former Mayor Richard Riordan. And Williams looked beyond the traditional black establishment.

One recent weekend, he went door to door in mostly white Hancock Park and in Larchmont Village — where many parents don't send their children to L.A. Unified schools.

In contrast, LaMotte, 73, has effectively played off residual anger some African American leaders feel toward Villaraigosa for not fully including them in his reform plans.

LaMotte and her supporters tried to portray Williams as an outsider to "the community."

At a late February news conference in which several black elected officials joined LaMotte in a show of support, Rep. Diane Watson (D-Los Angeles) said: "When we look at a school district that is under grave threat … of being taken over, LaMotte stands strong."

On Tuesday, James Ethel Veal-Gower, 79, said she voted for LaMotte because of campaign mailings that touted the union's backing.

"As far as knowing what she's been doing [in office], I'm not sure," the former teacher's aide said. "I just have to trust what I read."

The direct confrontation between the mayor and the teachers union played out in District 3, which covers the south and west San Fernando Valley. One-term incumbent Lauritzen was well outspent by challenger Galatzan, who benefited from more than $1.15 million from the mayor's Partnership for Better Schools. This match-up headed for a runoff because of a spirited $7,000 campaign by a third candidate, teacher Louis Pugliese.

Lauritzen's funding comes almost entirely from UTLA, which reported $475,000 in contributions. His campaign compensated by going negative early, citing Galatzan's lack of experience in education.

The 37-year-old Galatzan is a neighborhood prosecutor in Van Nuys for the city attorney's office. In her campaign, Galatzan frequently said that she wants to improve the school district for her own two preschool boys as well as for other children. Her negative ads cast Lauritzen as a prime molder of an unresponsive, expensive L.A. Unified bureaucracy.

In the field, Lauritzen, 68, a retired teacher, relied on a small army of current and retired district employees.

"Jon sees the world through the eyes of a teacher in a classroom," said Brent Smiley, who teaches at Lawrence Middle School in Chatsworth. "We don't always agree with him, but we trust that he understands how his vote will affect the classroom."

Smiley was among a dozen current and retired teachers who were staffing a phone bank Monday night at the Carpenters Union building in Sylmar.

It was an earnest group prepared to launch into copious detail on their political beliefs with any caller who would test them.

The picture over at Galatzan headquarters was youthfully energetic. Instead of teachers, Galatzan's team relied mostly on teenagers recruited from local high schools. The students were earning academic credit for participating in a political campaign.

So what were the talking points of 17-year-old Ilsy Melendez?

"There was a shootout near our school a couple of months ago. It wasn't any of our friends, but it could have been," said Melendez, a senior in the law and government magnet at Monroe High in North Hills. "Tamar has been very productive fighting crime without being on the school board, and if she were on the board she could do more."

The teachers union sat out two other races, leaving the mayor's picks as favorites.

In the harbor-area District 7, Villaraigosa endorsed former senior district administrator Richard Vladovic who is headed for a runoff against retired principal Neal B. Kleiner. In the Eastside District 5, the mayor backed Yolie Flores Aguilar, chief executive of the L.A. County Children's Planning Council. She won outright over middle school teacher Bennett Kayser, giving her the seat vacated by longtime board member David Tokofsky.

Despite the high stakes and high spending, Tuesday's election was marked by low turnout. Poll workers sat waiting futilely in school auditoriums, offices and churches across the sprawling, 700-square mile district that serves Los Angeles and more than two dozen other cities.

"This is the lowest turnout I've ever seen," said Leslie Spikes, who has worked at a polling station in an education center on West 48th Street for the last three years. "It's kind of sad when you think it's about the kids."

L.A. Unified rejects charter expansion

Despite lawyer's warning, board turns down Green Dot's plans for eight schools

By Joel Rubin and Adrian G. Uribarri, Los Angeles Times, March 30, 2007

A split Los Angeles Board of Education on Thursday rejected the expansion plans of one of the city's leading charter school operators — a move that almost certainly violates state law and firmly sets back future collaboration between the charter group and the school district.

The unexpected 3-3 vote by the Los Angeles Unified School District board defeated Green Dot Public Schools' application for eight new charters. The group had planned to use several of the charter licenses to open new schools this fall in the Watts neighborhood around Locke High School — one of the city's worst. The board's seventh member, David Tokofsky, recused himself because he works for Green Dot.

Board members and teachers union allies Marguerite Poindexter LaMotte, Jon Lauritzen and Julie Korenstein voted against the charters, saying that despite the promising results Green Dot has produced at its other charters, they remain skeptical of the group's reform model.

Their vote enraged Green Dot founder Steve Barr, who said it essentially ended months of talks between him, Supt. David L. Brewer and board President Marlene Canter aimed at a joint reform plan for Locke.

"There is nothing to collaborate on … now we're outsiders," Barr said. "We've spent hours and days and nights trying to collaborate…. I really have a hard time finding any reason to continue talking with this district."

Charters are publicly financed, independently run schools that are freed from many of the restrictions imposed on traditional schools in exchange for improving student performance.

Barr is the largest charter operator in Los Angeles and has won strong support from such wealthy philanthropists as Eli Broad. He has clashed in the past with district officials over his aggressive push to expand.

The rejection also infuriated board member Mike Lansing, who represents Watts voters and has pushed unsuccessfully for dramatic reforms there. Lansing accused his colleagues of bending to the wishes of the influential United Teachers Los Angeles, which largely opposes the charter movement.

"It's really disappointing that we keep talking about wanting to do what's best for children first, when without a doubt that vote was about a teachers union and three board members not having the backbone to stand up and do the right thing for kids over their ties to the union," Lansing said after the vote.

Korenstein and an aide to Lauritzen said the votes were based largely on concerns about Green Dot's academic record and more generally about the financial toll if students — and the state funding that follows them — leave the district for charters. Poindexter LaMotte could not be reached for comment.

UTLA President A.J. Duffy denied that he or other union leaders pressured board members to vote against Green Dot. In the past, Duffy has been sharply critical of Green Dot, making unsubstantiated claims that they handpick students to enroll and overwork teachers.

Before the vote, a senior district lawyer and the director of L.A. Unified's charter office, Gregory McNair, repeatedly counseled the board to approve the charters. State law is clear, they said, that a school board can reject charters only if they fail to meet one of several criteria. Green Dot, the officials said, met all the criteria.

Barr said he would appeal the board's decision to county education officials who could approve his charter plan. He pledged to open two charters that were previously approved near Locke and said he would continue to push to open others.

Parents and students from the impoverished, gang-ridden community also implored the board to approve the charters, saying they were desperate for an alternative to the low-performing, often unsafe district middle and high schools in the area. One middle school student tearfully recounted how she often is beaten up at school by gang members but refuses to fight back out of fear that she will be punished.

The board dealt with another potential controversy Thursday when it voted to renew an El Sereno school's charter less than three weeks after district staff advised against doing so.

In a March 13 report on Academia Semillas del Pueblo, the staff cited low test scores, unconventional instruction and potentially conflicting school governance. About two weeks later, facing growing political pressure from former City Councilman Richard Alatorre, former Assemblywoman Jackie Goldberg and others, the staff changed course.

McNair said his staff reversed its recommendation on Semillas in light of new details that reflected more favorably on the school's progress since it opened five years ago. He said the school's multilingual curriculum, which includes Spanish, English, Mandarin and Nahuatl-Mexicano, can't be judged against existing research and needs more than the board's initial five-year certification to show results.

"This is a seven- or eight-year program," McNair said. "I think we've reached an agreement that allows them to carry out their program to fruition. Now, we want to see some improvements."

Under the five-year renewal conditions, Semillas must meet benchmarks that for three years would place it at least at the median of comparable schools in terms of state and national standards. Data show Semillas ranks lowest among similar schools.

Lansing, who voted not to renew the Semillas charter, said he was puzzled by how the staff switched its recommendation despite evidence of poor performance.

The 5-2 decision came after more than several hundred school supporters marched downtown from the Olvera Street plaza to the district headquarters.

Heath St. John, a Semillas teacher and parent, said opposition to the school was based on selective standards.

"Some people don't understand our model," he said. "This is the third charter school that I've worked for in California, and it's the tightest-run ship."

The school has come under criticism for its unorthodox style of instruction and low standardized test scores.

Justices scrutinize mayor's school plan

A state appellate panel asks Villaraigosa's legal team tough questions about a takeover of L.A. Unified

By Joel Rubin and Howard Blume, Los Angeles Times, April 3, 2007

A law that would give Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa substantial authority over L.A.'s schools came under stiff scrutiny Monday from justices who will rule on whether it is constitutional.

The two-hour morning hearing, before a three-judge panel of the 2nd District Court of Appeal in Los Angeles, was a near replay of arguments before a trial court late last year. In that round, Superior Court Judge Dzintra Janavs tossed out the statute just days before it was to take effect.

The law would give Villaraigosa direct control of three high schools and the middle and elementary schools that feed into them. It also would give him power, through a council of area mayors, to ratify or veto the hiring and firing of the district superintendent, the school system's top administrator. Currently, the Los Angeles Unified School District, the nation's second-largest, is overseen by an elected seven-member board.

The trial court threw out the law, citing the state's Constitution, which Janavs said specifically forbids transferring authority over schools to entities outside the public school system.

As it has throughout the long-running battle, the mayor's legal team argued that the Legislature has broad authority over education, including the right to invest Villaraigosa with the power to run L.A. Unified schools.

At Monday's hearing, the justices asked pointed questions about that reasoning.

"So that is the premise of the your argument?" asked Justice Joan Dempsey Klein. "That because the Legislature says the mayor is part of the public school system, he is part of it?"

Justice Patti S. Kitching took up that point: "Is there any limit? If the mayor is part of the school system, can the Department of Transportation be made part of it?"

Daniel P. Collins, a private attorney who represented the mayor's team in defending Assembly Bill 1381, responded that he expected the Legislature to act reasonably. He also noted that mayors in other states have gained authority over local schools without legal problems.

"I understand that," said Kitching, "but they don't have the constitutional provisions that we do."

Frequently during the hearing, Collins argued strenuously that the law, which would strip significant authority from the school board, is legal because neither the state's Constitution nor the Los Angeles City Charter prohibits the Legislature from redefining duties granted to elected school boards.

Besides, said co-counsel Susan Leach, "The school board will still be elected, and they will still have important and essential duties." Leach defended the law on behalf of state government agencies.

But the justices did not concede the point. "Governing boards control school districts, according to the Constitution," said Justice H. Walter Croskey. "It seems to me that is a limitation I have trouble understanding how you get by."

Justice Klein asked that the issue of voter rights be addressed: "The [city's] charter provides that the people of Los Angeles elect a school board," she said. "Speak to me about the elimination of the right of the people to have a voice in this new structure."

The justices had far fewer questions for attorneys representing L.A. Unified and its legal allies, including the California School Boards Assn. and the League of Women Voters.

At several points, justices cited constitutional provisions that buttressed the school district's arguments before its own attorneys could do so.

Afterward, L.A. Unified general counsel Kevin Reed, who took part in the oral arguments, said he was "cautiously optimistic."

"The judges did their homework," Reed said, "and in that sense I feel good about our chances."

School board member David Tokofsky was more blunt. "They've tried five different dresses," he said referring to the mayor's legal arguments, "but it still looks like a pig underneath."

The mayor's top legal advisor said he had hoped for a different focus.

"There was no discussion about the rights of kids," said Thomas Saenz. "There was no discussion about the rights of parents. There was more focus in the courtroom on the rights of school boards."

Despite the aggressive questioning, the court gave no direct indication about its upcoming decision. It could uphold all, part or none of the law.

A ruling is widely anticipated within a few weeks. The losing side is then expected to appeal to the California Supreme Court. The state's highest court, however, would be under no obligation to hear the case.

Even if the mayor's legal team prevails, Villaraigosa probably wouldn't be able to assert authority over his group of schools until next year because of the lengthy litigation, Saenz said.

For the moment, Villaraigosa has turned his attention to achieving influence through electing allies to the school board. In last month's election, in which four board seats were contested, the mayor and his allies funneled well over $2 million to favored candidates. One won her race, and two others face May runoffs.

"This is all about making changes in a district that needs to change," Saenz said, "both the legislation and efforts to elect a school board that's committed to the mayor's plan."

LAUSD claims reopening schools is too costly

By Naush Boghossian, Los Angeles Daily News, April 16, 2007

Los Angeles Unified has five shuttered campuses — four of them in the San Fernando Valley — but says it would cost too much to reopen the schools despite the pleas for classroom space from the booming charter movement. And charter operators also say they can't afford — and shouldn't have to pay — the multimillion-dollar cost of renovating the decrepit campuses and preparing them for students.

Still, with state money available for charter development and charters a key issue in the upcoming school board race, officials on both sides now say there may be a way to work together to help the independent campuses evolve.

"These seats cost money," said Greg McNair, the district's chief administrator for charter schools.

"If they want to partner with us in identifying the cost there in order to make an intelligent decision about whether they want to pay the cost, I'd be happy to do that, but that just hasn't happened yet.

"I think this should be a joint venture between the district and charter schools, not just this constant complaining and haranguing about nothing's happening," he said.

Caprice Young, who heads the California Charter Schools Association, said she's prepared to discuss reopening the schools as charters, but was skeptical of the district's commitment.

"What our experience has been is we have meetings and meetings and meetings in rooms full of 30 district staff, none of whom have the power to make a decision," Young said. "We're ready to meet on it and we'd like to get schools in those campuses, but so far that hasn't been our experience.

"They're all talk and no action, but we're ready to get it done."

The dilemma is exemplified by Highlander Road Elementary in West Hills, which was closed 18 years ago because of declining enrollment in the area. Currently used for storage, the campus was offered by Los Angeles Unified to a charter, but operators refused because of the $11 million cost to get it ready for students.

Charter officials note that voter-approved Proposition 39 makes the district responsible for providing them with classroom space and say LAUSD should foot the bill.

District officials say that money — about $85 million remains — is earmarked to relieve classroom overcrowding and cannot be used to build outdated buildings up to code.

Still, Tamar Galatzan, who is challenging school board member Jon Lauritzen in the May 15 runoff, said she would make it a priority to get the shuttered campuses reopened if she's elected on May 15.

"One of the first issues I intend to pursue is how to turn Highlander Road and other closed school sites into thriving schools once again," she said during a news conference last Thursday in front of the campus.

"We cannot continue to deprive the West Valley and any other neighborhoods in the district of quality schools."

Lauritzen noted that the school board is spending $12 million to reopen Enadia Way Elementary in Canoga Park, and that it may be time to take other campuses out of mothballs, as well.

"We have taken on that bureaucracy when we fought to have one of those schools reopen," Ed Burke, Lauritzen's chief of staff, said of the Enadia Way project. "And now we will fight to open others as we create the need."

The creation of charter schools is an issue that has sharply divided Lauritzen and Galatzan in their high-profile race to represent the West San Fernando Valley on the LAUSD board.

Like the teachers' union that supports him, Lauritzen is a critic of charters, maintaining that students can best be served by working through the district.

Galatzan, who is backed by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and his education-reform movement, maintains that the independent schools offer alternatives that help spur student achievement.

The fact that there are five shuttered campuses in LA — Highlander, Collins Street, Oso Avenue and Platt Ranch in the Valley and 98th Street in South LA — while scores of charters are clamoring for space demonstrates the need for new leadership on the school board, Galatzan said.

"The condition of Highlander School — weeds growing out of the pavement, boarded-up classrooms — is symbolic of the LAUSD's failure to serve the parents, teachers and students of our community," she said.

But LAUSD officials said just a handful of charters have expressed interest in the shuttered schools. Most of the 103 charters are located over the hill, so the Valley campuses don't meet their needs.

Still, the facility shortage has surfaced as the No. 1 impediment to the growth of the charter movement, with many operating out of churches and warehouses with concrete parking lots serving as the playground.

The district is using the empty campuses for adult education, professional development centers, staff offices, and in some cases leasing them out. Highlander was leased for years to a private school until 2004 and is now being used for storage.

LAUSD officials maintain they don't have enough surplus classroom space in their 850 schools to meet the demand voiced by charters. The district is in the midst of a $19 billion construction program, but only after years of not building schools.

"The reality is that the district has what it has and offered what it has to the charter schools under Prop. 39," McNair said. "The district doesn't want to hold anything back.

We've been busing students for over a decade to spaces in the Valley and the Westside because we didn't have space for kids in their neighborhoods."

Two dozen Valley schools were closed between 1970 and 1987, and all but five have since reopened, most for instructional uses, said Guy Mehula, LAUSD's chief facilities executive. The Enadia Way project will bring that number down to four.

"The reason they're not being used as a school right now is they don't have the enrollment in that area to substantiate opening them as a school," Mehula said.

McNair said he's open to conversations with charter operators about reopening shuttered campuses, but noted there's just $85 million to be shared among more than 100 charter schools.

"We should go jointly and make a reasonable evaluation of cost and reasonable decisions on how much we each want to contribute in terms of resources," McNair said. "Saying to one school we'll spend $10 million of the charter bond money to give 300 seats is probably going to make a whole bunch of people upset.

"Charter bond money could be utilized in better ways."

Judges defeat Villaraigosa's LAUSD bid

By Joel Rubin and Howard Blume, Los Angeles Times, April 17, 2007

A state appeals court today soundly renounced a law designed to give Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa substantial authority over the Los Angeles Unified School District. The ruling is the second -- and perhaps final -- blow to what was once the centerpiece of Villaraigosa's education-reform plan.

Today's unanimous decision, by a three-judge panel of the 2nd District Court of Appeal, found the law, Assembly Bill 1381, unconstitutional -- and it was not a close call, in the view of the justices. In its one-paragraph conclusion, the justices gave particular importance to the revised Los Angeles City Charter that was approved during the term of then-Mayor Richard Riordan. That charter revision reaffirmed the election of school-board members with authority to govern the school district, in the view of the court.

"The citizens of Los Angeles have the constitutional right to decide whether their school board is to be appointed or elected," the justices wrote. "If the citizens of Los Angeles choose to amend their charter to allow the mayor to appoint the members of the board, such amendment would indisputably be proper. What is not permissible is for the Legislature to ignore that constitutional right and to bypass the will of the citizens of Los Angeles and effectively transfer many of powers of the board to the mayor, based on its belief, hope, or assumption that he could do a better job."

The ruling was released this morning and the mayor's office declined immediate comment.

An attorney for the school district, however, characterized the ruling as "strong and deserving."

"The court focused on the two issues that we have been focused on all along: that this takes away control over the Board of Education from the voters … and gives that control to the mayor," said Fredric Woocher, an outside counsel representing L.A. Unified and other allied parties in the suit.

If the mayor's side decides to appeal, as expected, the state Supreme Court has the option of accepting or declining to hear the case. Woocher said he expects the strong wording of the appeals court's ruling to make Supreme Court intervention less likely.

"This opinion is now strong enough," Woocher said. Including the trial court judge, "we've now had four judges look at this and all of them agree. I would certainly hope that the mayor can now move in a new direction toward a true partnership."

In fact, in the wake of the litigation, Villaraigosa has pursued an alternate strategy. He has concentrated in recent months on raising money to elect a friendlier school-board majority. The fruits of that effort will become clear in a runoff election in May.

L.A. mayor's picks lead in schools race

Victories by Galatzan and Vladovic would give Villaraigosa a majority of allies on the board, garnering him the influence he seeks

By Duke Helfand and Howard Blume, Los Angeles Times, May 16, 2007

Partial returns from Tuesday's low-turnout, but free-spending, election appeared nearly certain to give Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa a majority of allies on the school board. If they hold, the mayor will enjoy increased influence over the Los Angeles Unified School District.

Both of the mayor's endorsed candidates had been favored to win, but faced spirited challenges.

The most-watched contest was in District 3 in the San Fernando Valley, where the mayor's pick, Deputy City Atty. Tamar Galatzan, a 37-year-old mother of two preschool-age boys, surged comfortably ahead of one-term incumbent Jon M. Lauritzen, a 68-year-old retired teacher whose campaign was funded largely by the school district's teachers union, United Teachers Los Angeles.

In District 7, the Watts-to-Harbor area, retired senior school-district administrator Richard A. Vladovic led recently retired L.A. middle school principal Neal B. Kleiner. They were running to replace retiring incumbent Mike Lansing.

Galatzan and Vladovic would join two other Villaraigosa allies on the seven-member board: Yolie Flores Aguilar, who was elected in March, and Monica Garcia, elected last year.

Villaraigosa addressed a cast of city officials and well-wishers at the Galatzan victory party in Studio City. "This message is reverberating from San Pedro to the San Fernando Valley: It's time to come together to say we want safer schools, smaller schools. Parents deserve a greater voice in their schools."

In an earlier interview, he'd vowed to be personally assertive. "I didn't get involved in this issue to play around the fringes," he said. "I'm absolutely committed to this effort to turn around our schools."

Villaraigosa's support came with a flood of funding from a campaign committee he controlled. Vladovic outspent Kleiner by more than 13 to 1, pulling in $757,404.

The biggest spending occurred in the San Fernando Valley, where the teachers union defended Lauritzen, its closest ally on the school board. Villaraigosa's break with Lauritzen was sealed when he joined five of six fellow board members to oppose Assembly Bill 1381, which sought to give Villaraigosa substantial authority over the school district. The school board's subsequent lawsuit, which is working its way through the courts, has so far nullified the law on constitutional grounds.

A key provision of that law would have given Villaraigosa direct authority over three low-performing high schools and the elementary and middle schools that feed into them. With a new board majority, he could belatedly revive that plan. His endorsed candidates have spoken favorably of it. But it's not a done deal, especially because teachers union leaders, who once gave the concept their blessing, now appear to be opposed.

"There are enough problems in the district to go around," Galatzan said Tuesday night. "This vote means that the way we'll be able to tackle problems is to work with our partners — and that includes the mayor, other electeds, the Police Department, the business community, and anyone else who wants to reform the district."

At his West Valley gathering, Lauritzen said he'd like to see the mayor succeed in helping students graduate and find good jobs. His standing, as an incumbent, he said, suffered from repeated criticisms of L.A. Unified. And it also was hard to overcome his opponent's money advantage.

As of Tuesday morning, the Lauritzen war chest totaled $1.3 million, while the Galatzan campaign had raised $2.83 million. Late contributions included more than $170,000 from a moderate Republican political action committee and $70,000 from the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce.

"A lot of money, including from the business PAC sponsored by the chamber, was invested in this election to make the point that our community is dissatisfied with the status quo," chamber president and chief executive Gary Toebben wrote in an e-mailed newsletter.

In some parts of the city, campaign messages were simply unavoidable. And say, for example, you belonged to a demographically diverse household — with a Republican and a Democrat, and perhaps more than one ethnicity — you probably received 48 pieces of campaign mail and 10 rounds of calling from the Galatzan camp. And Galatzan spent some $800,000 on cable TV buys.

At Galatzan headquarters in Studio City on Monday, Van Nuys High School student volunteer caller Alex Morales encountered fatigue from a voter: "He said he was supporting Tamar, but don't call him anymore."

Galatzan had an edge in direct voter contact. Citing scheduling conflicts, Lauritzen appeared at only a handful of voter forums, relying instead on loyal deputies to stand in. Galatzan scheduled 16 neighborhood meet-and-greets, and showed up at such events as Sunday's farmers market in Studio City, where she spent five hours. She stayed six hours in intermittent rain at a Sherman Oaks street fair.

Lauritzen, despite ongoing treatment for brain cancer, has shown strong stamina for all-day school board meetings, but scheduled few campaign-specific appearances. He relied instead on more than 400 teachers who spent time campaigning on his behalf.

In the end, the District 3 election came down to competing scenarios. Galatzan's plan was to reach the population of likely voters, a bloc dominated by older residents and by those whose negative perception of the school district translated to anti-incumbent feelings.

But the union had a legitimate counter-strategy: Get teachers and other school district and union employees to the polls.

School-district employees — their unions all endorsed Lauritzen — live in households with at least 40,000 voters in District 3, out of about 316,000 registered voters. Only 41,000 registered voters cast ballots in March. Lauritzen had an estimated edge in this population of at least 20 percentage points.

The heart of the union campaign was about 60 visits to school sites, where union leaders reminded teachers that negotiations would soon begin on salaries and benefits. The plan was to have teachers walk precincts near their schools and to make sure they themselves voted.

Lauritzen already had pledged to maintain current benefits despite increased costs. Higher benefit costs would require budget cuts in other areas.

But as in the primary, where Galatzan finished first, it appears as though it was the older-than-55 crowd who performed.

"If the same voters turn out as last time, we will not win," teachers union vice president Joshua Pechthalt had predicted.

Turnout figures were not available Tuesday evening, but in the March primary, about 13% of registered voters cast a ballot in District 3. Less than 10% voted in District 7, where precinct switches caused widespread problems. City officials expected similar figures Tuesday, with a large percentage having voted in advance by mail.

Tuesday's one citywide election was a runoff for a seat on the board of the community college district. Early returns gave a slim lead to Georgia L. Mercer over challenger Roy Burns.

Villaraigosa still isn't at head of the class

Voters hand him allies, but much work remains as the mayor moves to transform L.A.'s schools

By Howard Blume and Joel Rubin, Los Angeles Times, May 16, 2007

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa accomplished a key goal in this week's election — winning a majority of allies on the Los Angeles Board of Education. It's not the outright control of local schools he once sought, but it's the kick that could open the door to his grand ambitions.

Villaraigosa intends to raise student achievement sharply, even more than mayors elsewhere who've had full authority over their schools. The formula? Move power to schools, giving them more latitude in how and what they teach.

It would qualify as both revolution and revelation — if he can pull it off.

Tuesday's elections were a setback for the teachers union, United Teachers Los Angeles, which lost its own closest ally, incumbent Jon M. Lauritzen. Union leaders immediately spoke of cementing relations with the winners, who have insisted they are not anti-teacher.

Now begins the hard work.

In other cities where mayors have intervened, "if you're looking at it in terms of big, big rises in achievement scores, it isn't there," said Stanford University education professor Michael Kirst. But if the goal is taking a really bad status quo and making things noticeably, incrementally better, mayors have "improved the situation."

By a really bad status quo, Kirst means school systems beset by utter collapse, organizational chaos or corruption as well as by low academic achievement.

"In Oakland," said Kirst, "the first demand of students? They wanted water in the schools."

It's not obvious how well L.A. Unified fits this paradigm. The district manages the nation's largest school construction program, for example, and has seen test scores rise faster than the state average, even though they're still low.

It's this ongoing incremental improvement — with a persisting high dropout rate — that has frustrated Villaraigosa, who's said that every student needs to be academically proficient. That means performing at grade level at the very least, and this improvement needs to happen nearly right away, he has said.

The new board majority took part Wednesday in a tour, arranged by Garcia, of 9th Street Elementary School, south of downtown. They all echoed the mayor's desired sense of urgency, and like Villaraigosa, declined to offer details on an immediate agenda.

"We've got a fire raging," said Vladovic. "A four-alarm fire, with half our kids dropping out, failures, the gang problem and everybody is so worried about who's holding the hose to put out the fire. Let's just put out the doggone fire!"

He added, "We've got some ideas: smaller schools, safety issues, more local control. We've got to support the teachers."

Such goals meet with broad general agreement in the business community, the teachers union and even among Villaraigosa's critics.

But local control, in particular, is not the direction of mayors in other cities. Before Mayor Richard M. Daley took charge in Chicago, "the power had been pushed down to school-site councils, which was the reform of the '80s," said Stanford's Kirst. "And Mayor Daley came in and he brought more power … back up to the center. What we have seen in the research, the more divided the power is … the riskier it gets."

At the same time, he added, every city is different and Villaraigosa doesn't have the option of dominant authority, like mayors in New York City, Cleveland, Chicago, Boston and Washington, D.C. Instead, he'll travel the path of former Mayor Richard Riordan, who also elected a school-board majority, and late Sacramento Mayor Joe Serna.

Serna was largely content to, in his view, upgrade the quality of the school board and then get out of the way. To some degree, that paradigm also applied to Riordan.

Villaraigosa has a more ambitious agenda.

The mayor is "going to have to build some consensus," said David Fleming, chair of the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce, which spent, he said, 10 times more on these elections than on past ones. The business community allied with Villaraigosa, Fleming said, to limit the domination of employee unions, who've been the major players in past elections.

"He doesn't have four votes in his pocket, but he has four votes who are going to listen to him rather than only to the administrators union or the teachers union," Fleming said.

But the union can't be left out either, said Marshall Tuck, one of the mayor's top education advisors. "Any plan to improve the school district has got to bring the teachers along," he said. "It has to include labor. You can't just jam the unions. And it doesn't make sense to."

Another major player will be L.A. Unified Supt. David L. Brewer, who was hired late last year by the board. So far, he's maintained good relations with the mayor and his allies.

For Villaraigosa, Tuesday's election was a back-up plan. He originally sought full authority over the school system, then settled for a power-sharing arrangement set out in legislation. The courts have so far nullified that law as unconstitutional.

The mayor could now attempt to revive a key element of that law, the part that would have given him primary authority over three low-performing high schools and all their feeder elementary and middle schools through a vaguely defined "community partnership." Such a group of schools, though a small percentage of the district, would still qualify as one of California's larger school systems.

All of the mayor's endorsed candidates said, during the campaign, that they favored giving the mayor at least one high school and its feeder schools.

"I have no problem with partnering with the mayor," said Flores Aguilar when asked about it Wednesday.

By the timetable of the original legislation, that scenario is already a year behind schedule. And the community partnership has somewhat unraveled: Originally, the teachers union was on board; not anymore.

"The situation has changed," said union vice president Joshua Pechthalt. The idea of handing over schools to the mayor "is pretty much dead in the water."

Inevitable factionalism and the independence of the school board will limit what Villaraigosa can accomplish, said billionaire philanthropist Eli Broad, who has been active in education reform efforts across the country. He said the best hope for change is through the charter-school movement.

Charters are independent public schools given freedom from union contracts and many education code provisions in exchange for improving student achievement. L.A. Unified has 103, more than anywhere else in the country, and the number is growing.

The new board's direction on charter schools is uncertain. Galatzan, for example, enthusiastically backs them. Flores Aguilar expressed concern about schools converting to charter status; this process was set in motion by teachers at Locke High last week. "I don't see that as a sustainable solution," she said. "What charters have done, which I appreciate tremendously, is that they have helped us see that innovation is possible and that if we don't change, there is another solution."

Villaraigosa's view on charter schools has evolved. He's spoken well of them, but left them out of his legislative reform plan. On election day, he touted them again.

Whatever his preferences, Villaraigosa shouldn't push too hard, said former school board member Caprice Young, who was part of the Riordan majority and now heads the California Charter Schools Assn. For the mayor to consider the board "a rubber stamp would be a huge mistake," Young said. "The mayor needs to … back them up. I hope he sees himself as a partner as opposed to their boss."

The political rumor mill posits that two members of the mayor's majority — Galatzan and Garcia — have further possible political ambitions, which could make them especially amenable to Villaraigosa's ongoing overtures, given that he's become the city's primary political kingmaker.

For the 62-year-old Vladovic, by contrast, joining the school board is more a crowning achievement to a career in education. Vladovic values his alliance with the mayor, but also has nurtured good labor relations. If he intends to serve more than one term, his links to the teachers union may prove of longer-term importance than ties to Villaraigosa, who is widely expected to run for governor in four years.

Albuquerque Mayor Martin J. Chavez recalls a rude awakening after helping to elect two school board members. "It's actually a pretty funny story," he said. At the swearing-in of one board member, "his first comment was 'Notwithstanding the mayor's rhetoric, this school's in good shape.' So much for that. So Antonio needs to watch out."

Villaraigosa ends legal fight over LAUSD control

CSBA Website, May 19, 2007

Declaring that “It's time to get out of the courtroom and into the classroom," Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has ended his quest for a court decision that would give him partial control of the state’s largest school district.

Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Education President Marlene Canter, other board members and district Superintendent David Brewer joined Villaraigosa at a May 18 press conference, where they urged the community to work together to deliver the best possible educational opportunities to the 708,000 students served by LAUSD.

The event signaled an end to a debate that began with the 2005 campaign for mayor and grew to encompass the state Legislature and the courts. Villaraigosa, a former state Assembly leader who won the mayoral contest, initially sought outright control of the district, which extends beyond the city line to take in some two dozen other municipalities. Villaraigosa turned to the Legislature last summer and eventually won passage of Assembly Bill 1381, a diminished version of his plan that was scaled back by intensive lobbying efforts led by Los Angeles parents, the school district, CSBA and other allies.

The law still would have given the mayor direct control over a cluster of K-12 schools, a role in selection of the district superintendent and other authority, so opponents sued to challenge the measure’s constitutionality. They prevailed in Los Angeles County Superior Court late last year and again in the state’s Second District Court of Appeal last month. Today’s announcement by Villaraigosa ends any concern that the case would be appealed to the state Supreme Court.

“CSBA congratulates Mayor Villaraigosa for his decision to drop any further appeal of the court’s decision that AB 1381 is unconstitutional. We also applaud the mayor’s decision to work with the LAUSD board, superintendent, teachers and parents to further the district’s success in closing the achievement gap and meeting the educational needs and desires of all LAUSD students,” said CSBA President Kathy Kinley.

“During the debate on AB 1381, CSBA continually stressed that mayors and school boards can work together in many different ways to meet the needs of school children. We thank the mayor for recognizing that the best way to accomplish our mutual goals is to work with, rather than against, the governance team of LAUSD,” said CSBA Executive Director Scott P. Plotkin.

Charters 'the enemy'?

Politics, not policy, govern LAUSD decisions on schools

By Naush Boghossian, Los Angeles Daily News, June 23, 2007

After more than two hours of debate, the Los Angeles Unified School District board voted to renew the charter for Discovery Prep in Pacoima for a year.

Then, a short time later, frustrated, tired and confused, the board negated its vote and postponed a new decision until later.

Charter renewal for Woodland Hills' Ivy Academia was next on the agenda and got a one-year extension after 20 minutes of discussion.

The trouble is Ivy - LAUSD's highest-performing independent charter school - lost out on a $1.2 million state grant that required a longer extension.

Those are just examples of issues facing LAUSD as it deals with the booming charter school movement.

The school board lacks a coherent policy toward charters so its actions are often arbitrary even as the debate on education reform becomes increasingly politicized.

"Right now, it's all about interpersonal politics and straight-out politics and not student achievement," said Caprice Young, head of the state's Charter Schools Association.

"It's not about kids and achievement. It's a public embarrassment."

Superintendent David Brewer III believes a key step would be to work with Sacramento to get state achievement test scores - which influence the board's decisions - in March rather than in August.

The current tight timeline doesn't give officials the most up-to-date information and fails to give schools enough time to appeal decisions. It also doesn't give parents time to take part in lotteries for spots in other charter schools or magnet schools.

"This is broken," Brewer said. "We're trying to make a life-changing decision for a charter school and all of their students and family members, based on a system that, frankly speaking, cannot support the decision.

"We've got to get a different process so we can be fair to the board and, more importantly, to the schools. This is not right."

Greg McNair, the district's chief administrator for charter schools, said each of the district's recommendations consistently follow state standards, but the board needs to be more consistent in acting on the recommendations.

Taking politics out

If the school board begins taking a more predictable stance on charters based on the standards, it would send the message that political pressure will not sway decisions.

"My division doesn't have a problem coming up with a recommendation," McNair said. "I do think, however, that with all of the input, it's sometimes difficult for board members to focus in on the issues that are being presented because there's so much noise around closing schools - even bad schools."

The district's charter policy is still under development and is expected to be adopted by the fall.

But rumblings reached a roar in March when - against the charter staff's recommendation and to the surprise of charter leaders - the school board renewed Academia Semillas Del Pueblo's charter petition for five years.

The El Sereno school is in the lowest 10 percent in the state on achievement test scores and has an API of 585. The target score is 800.

Semillas organized more than 1,000 parents, students and community members to walk from Plaza Olvera to LAUSD headquarters to attend the board meeting.

But Brewer said such displays should not influence the board.

"When you start to get into how people feel, that's when you start to get the little bit of confusion in terms of making your decisions," Brewer said. "When you stick with the facts, some of these schools should not be renewed. You have public money, and there are certain state standards that have to be met."

McNair hopes to eliminate ambiguity with a comprehensive charter school policy and streamline the process by providing a clear roadmap of what information his office will use to determine renewals and denials.

With only 10 staff members in his office working on charter cases, he believes the policy will help as they grapple with a growing workload.

These days, that workload is extending to the board: For the first time since approving its first charter school in 1993, the board spends the bulk of its biweekly meetings considering charter renewals.

LAUSD, with 103 charter schools - expected to surpass 150 in two years - went from three requests for renewal last year to 19 this year. About 35 are expected next year.

Twenty of 22 renewals considered so far have been granted.

Informed charters

McNair said LAUSD is just starting to learn how to impose a rigorous oversight and renewal process, even though it's been 14 years since it approved its first charter.

But he said it's also incumbent on charter schools to assume responsibility for knowing the law, whether they're eligible for renewal and how to draft adequate charter petitions.

Charter leaders also need to speak up to increase accountability of charters and voice their opposition to a renewal if they believe the school should be closed.

In Semillas' case, the Charter Schools Association remained silent.

Still, charter leaders believe the board's recent challenges to renewals stem from a pervasive fear that charters are increasingly drawing students - and funds - away from traditional public schools.

"The district's response to competition is to try to kill the enemy, not to compete with the schools," Young said. "Instead of thinking of charters as partners, they think about charters as the enemy, which is not fair and accurate."

Before the Ivy vote, the last "egregious" action by the board happened in March, minutes before the school board renewed Academia Semillas' charter, Young said.

In that case, the board refused to grant eight charters in Watts to highly successful Green Dot Public Schools - despite warnings by LAUSD attorneys that their decision would violate state law.

Young said the board must reconsider both the Green Dot and Ivy votes.

Ivy's founder and president Tatyana Berkovich said that after receiving outstanding reviews from the charter division, the school was informed by e-mail the night before the board meeting that the division would be reversing its approval recommendation.

Berkovich said that left officials with little time to respond. Facing a tired group of seven board members holding the school's fate in their hands, Ivy officials said they didn't have time to state their case.

"The renewal process seems to lack credibility because renewal decisions were not based on the process spelled out in the LAUSD charter school division policy manual," she said.

Meanwhile, Pacoima's Discovery Prep is facing a decision Tuesday and hoping for at least a one-year renewal.

Even though most of Discovery's graduates are going to two- and four-year colleges, they still scored poorly on recent state tests.

Discovery executive director Matthew Macarah said the board's philosophy is that charter schools need to be just like the traditional district schools - defeating the concept of each charter having its own stated mission.

"Who is a charter school accountable to? It's getting further away from parents and students," he said. "The district wants them to be accountable to L.A. Unified."

L.A. Unified OKs reform package

The new L.A. Unified school board, now led by Villaraigosa allies, pushes through measures that bear a distinct mayoral stamp

By Howard Blume, Los Angeles Times, July 11, 2007

The city's new school board majority Tuesday pushed through its first wave of reform measures — and fast.

As a result, the Los Angeles Unified School District has new initiatives aimed at measuring student performance, paying employees on time, decreasing the dropout rate, helping English learners, building smaller schools, recruiting new employees, training principals and increasing parent involvement.

For new board President Monica Garcia and her three allies — who are backed by L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa — the meeting was nothing less than change on the march.

For some holdover board members, the proceedings were more like a forced drill, which combined welcome initiatives with redundant, repackaged ones. And they worried that parts of the agenda could tie the hands of top administrators or entail uncertain financial and legal ramifications.

"I'm feeling the pressure," holdover board member Marguerite Poindexter LaMotte said during the meeting. "Someone used the word 'jamming.' It's not a very comfortable feeling."

She voted against the "District Accountability" motion. LaMotte had no issue with its intent but found the language and deadlines too restrictive on Supt. David L. Brewer. That resolution alone listed more than 30 performance measures, including graduation rates, employee satisfaction surveys, student and teacher attendance and the number and rate of student suspensions. Under the motion, such data must be studied and addressed in short order.

Brewer has said he intends to use data to drive decisions; it remains to be seen how well the imposed requirements coincide with his own priorities.

LaMotte voted "no" just once, and that was the only nay. In essence, the entire board sanctioned the lofty goals of motions with such titles as "Diplomas for All," "Hope on the Horizon" and "Leaders of Leaders."

Two of the most extended discussions pertained to matters not yet up for a vote: the future of Locke High School and, separately, proposed health benefits for part-time cafeteria workers.

The Locke faculty is divided over a proposal to become an independent charter school. Newly elected board member Richard Vladovic introduced a motion requiring an up-or-down vote in August on the charter petition.

On new benefits for cafeteria workers, Brewer said, "I am not prepared to take a $43-million cut this year," referring to the cost.

One motion that passed had been pushed behind the scenes by organized labor, board and union sources said. It requires the district to fix its new, malfunctioning payroll system; officials insist they already are trying to do so.

The school district scored a victory related to the payroll debacle this week. A Los Angeles County Superior Court judge on Monday threw out a lawsuit by the teachers union over the payroll system. But the system itself still confuses, overpays and underpays employees — spurring a Tuesday rally outside district headquarters organized by United Teachers Los Angeles.

That was the day's most contentious note. In fact, at 3:25 p.m., Garcia ran out of things to do, so the board adjourned until it was time for an item scheduled for 4 p.m. It was a striking departure from meetings that frequently have kept parents, employees and community members waiting hours.

"We need a little discipline," Garcia said during a break. "We need a little focus. We need expectations. I liked the conversation and sharing and exchange — and that we started on time."

Garcia drove not only the meeting but also the blitzkrieg of reform motions. In that endeavor she had assistance from the mayor's office — help that became obvious when mid-level district officials discovered that Villaraigosa's office was listed as the author on the computerized draft files of her motions.

The mayor's staff offered input and "help in terms of research and support and feedback," Garcia said.

A spokesman for Villaraigosa characterized the effort similarly. "These documents are a result of a collaborative effort led by school board President Garcia," Matt Szabo said. "At her request, the office provided the board president with drafts she used as a launching point."

The mayor had sought substantial control over L.A. Unified through legislation that was thrown out by the courts. He succeeded, however, in efforts to raise millions that helped elect board members allied to him.

Mayor spent millions on school board races

Villaraigosa's efforts to gain school allies breaks record. He won't have to cover LAUSD legal fees

By David Zahniser and Joel Rubin, Los Angeles Times, August 1, 2007

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa spent $3.5 million on behalf of three candidates who recently won seats on the Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Education, breaking the record set eight years ago by then-Mayor Richard Riordan, another politician who installed a board majority, according to reports filed Tuesday.

Villaraigosa turned in spending reports for his school board campaign committee, Partnership for Better Schools, on the same day his newly installed board allies abandoned a plan to ask a court to force the mayor to reimburse the school district for up to $300,000 in attorneys' fees incurred during a legal battle over mayoral control.

L.A. Unified prevailed twice in court, securing two rulings that found the state education bill that Villaraigosa won in the Legislature last year was unconstitutional. Nevertheless, the board on Tuesday voted 5 to 2 behind closed doors not to seek some of its attorneys' fees in court, deciding instead to ask Villaraigosa to contribute $250,000 to the district voluntarily.

School board President Monica Garcia, a close Villaraigosa ally, said she wanted to move past the acrimony that had marked the bitter battle between the mayor and the school board.

"This is absolutely about us being focused on our work and moving forward," she said. "This is not about not wanting to challenge the mayor."

The board backed down on its legal bills even though the Committee for Government Excellence and Accountability, the fundraising committee set up by Villaraigosa to defend his education bill in court, has $347,000 left in its account. Since April 28, the committee has spent at least $17,000 on polling.

Even before the new board members took their seats, the district had missed the chance to seek an estimated $700,000 reimbursement from Villaraigosa for legal fees it paid earlier this year during the court battle.

"It is inconceivable that L.A. Unified … would stick taxpayers with this bill when it has the option to seek private money," said David Wolfe, Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Assn. legislative director.

Villaraigosa campaign treasurer Stephen Kaufman said the mayor was not prepared Tuesday to spend any of his campaign money on L.A. Unified's legal bills — but insisted the funds would go toward education.

Villaraigosa allies gained a majority on the board last month, when nonprofit group administrator Yolie Flores Aguilar, retired Supt. Richard Vladovic and city prosecutor Tamar Galatzan joined Garcia, until then the mayor's one ally on the board.

Partnership for Better Schools spent at least $2.2 million on behalf of Galatzan, just shy of the $2.3 million that Riordan paid in 1999 to elect a slate of four new board members.

The mayor's campaign committee also helped Vladovic, who won a seat that was vacated by departing board member Mike Lansing. Vladovic received more than $544,000 from the committee — two-thirds of the total spent by his campaign.

To help his candidates, Villaraigosa turned to an array of companies seeking to do business at City Hall, including real estate developers, media companies and potential tenants at Los Angeles International Airport.

Partnership for Better Schools received $25,000 from Entravision Communications Corp., a Santa Monica-based Spanish-language media firm that, according to its lobbying forms, is seeking new "advertising opportunities" with the city.

The committee also took $50,000 from Panda Restaurant Group, which hopes to obtain restaurant concessions at LAX. And it received $100,000 from New York City-based Fig Central LLC, which is seeking permission from Villaraigosa's appointees on the Planning Commission to build an 860-unit condominium complex across the street from Staples Center.

The Planning Commission will meet Aug. 9 to discuss the project, which consists of two towers and calls for a 222-room hotel. Fig Central wrote the mayor two checks: one on March 5 and a second on May 14 — one day before Galatzan's runoff election against incumbent Jon Lauritzen and Vladovic's runoff against retired administrator Neal Kleiner.

Another campaign contributor doing business with City Hall was Thomas Unterman, who gave Villaraigosa's school board committee $35,000 between January and April. Unterman heads Rustic Canyon Partners, which went last year before the city's pension board — four of whose seven members were appointed by Villaraigosa.

The pension board voted in January 2006 to commit $5 million to a partnership of Rustic Canyon and Fontis Partners, a private-equity venture fund focusing on businesses in Latino and emerging ethnic markets.

The size of the contributions dismayed Robert Stern, who heads the Center for Governmental Studies, a campaign finance watchdog group. Stern argued that a majority of the contributors did so because they want something out of City Hall, not the school district.

"City contractors are obviously giving because the mayor is asking," Stern said. "It's a business decision. It's not because they're interested in the school board."

Kaufman sharply disagreed, saying donors to the committee gave money because they're concerned about education.

"They share the mayor's belief that we have to fundamentally reform our schools," he said.

Brewer blasts culture of 'low expectations'

The L.A. schools chief tells administrators 'we're going to teach you how to change.' They'll get leadership training and will be held accountable for student achievement, he says

By Howard Blume and Joel Rubin, Los Angeles Times, August 25, 2007

In his first formal speech to administrators, Los Angeles Schools Supt. David L. Brewer told principals and managers Friday that they must change both themselves and a pervasive culture of "low expectations for brown and black children," adding that they would receive mandatory leadership training and support but also would be held accountable for student achievement.

Brewer, a devotee of management books, set out eight principles -- including creating "a sense of urgency," "building a team" and "communicating a vision" -- that he expects principals and others to follow.

In a later interview, Brewer said the Los Angeles Unified School District would launch a pilot management-training program, with courses shaped by input from universities, outside consultant firms and corporations.

"We're going to teach you how to change," Brewer told his audience, promising "world-class leadership and management training" as well as real support from higher-ups. "You're going to need it," he said.

Many of the roughly 1,500 administrators in attendance took notes on stationery provided free by a credit union that was trying to drum up business. After Brewer's morning speech at a hall in the Los Angeles Convention Center, "inspirational" was the adjective of choice for many.

Brewer delivered his speech against a backdrop of discord among his own bosses, the elected Board of Education. In a sharply worded memo, one board member accused the new board president of playing politics by rewarding allies of Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and punishing his critics.

Speaking to those assembled, the superintendent echoed management guru and author Jim Collins -- a Brewer favorite -- as he spoke of data-driven analysis and a need to face "brutal" facts, including, for example, that more than 40% of district students were scoring "below basic" on state tests.

"We want to take the emotion and anecdotal-ness out of our decision-making," as well as the politics, he said. "The numbers will set you free.

"What I have found in this district: We don't have any accountability," he said. At that moment, a single word was projected onto screens on both sides of the massive hall: accountability.

That's also when one administrator abandoned his note-taking and plunged his face into the palm of his hand.

Many administrators talk of being under heavy pressure to improve schools in recent years. But Brewer based his assertion on academic results that show persisting low student achievement at dozens of schools in the nation's second-largest public school system.

When Brewer said "failure will no longer be an option," his words drew barely concealed snickers as well as polite applause. But the applause was long when Brewer finished with: "If you give up, this country as we know it will not exist."

The tone contrasted sharply with a speech last year by retiring Supt. Roy Romer, who lauded the massive school-construction program and test scores that had generally risen faster than in the state at large, especially at elementary schools.

"It was different from past years when the focus was on all the good things and the progress we were making," said Daniel Bagby, an administrative specialist. "This did start to create a sense of urgency. The message today was that we're not doing so hot."

"I'm not inspired," said one administrator who declined to give her name as she strode out.

School board President Monica Garcia called Brewer's speech an "honest assessment of the place of where we are starting from."

A couple of seats away on the VIP dais, another board member was pondering pointed questions for Garcia regarding her planned assignments for board colleagues. In a memo from Garcia, only mayoral allies were picked to represent the district to outside organizations.

Board member Marguerite Poindexter LaMotte wrote in an e-mail to Garcia. LaMotte called the assignments "blatantly and externally political," meant to reward Villaraigosa allies, who now control a board majority, and to punish those who successfully sued to block the mayor's attempt to gain statutory authority over L.A. Unified.

Garcia said she welcomed feedback from her colleagues.

LAUSD hires consultants to fix image

By Naush Boghossian, Los Angeles Daily News, November 28, 2007

Hammered by a barrage of negative publicity in recent months, Los Angeles Unified School District officials have quietly hired two consultants to help improve their public image.

The school district also hired the public relations firm Rogers Group to focus exclusively on dealing with fallout from an electronic payroll system that has left thousands of employees underpaid or overpaid since February.

The recent hirings come in addition to a six-person communications staff with a nearly $1.4 million budget, an overall $10 million communications budget, and a separate consulting contract with Darry Sragow, who helps LAUSD develop communications strategies and policy issues.

But LAUSD officials on Tuesday defended the public relations moves, saying that even with the additions, their communications budget pales in comparison to those of other large school districts.

"We don't do as good a job of communicating with all the audiences we need to talk to - our teachers, students, parents, and the general public," Superintendent David Brewer III said.

"That kind of communications `overhaul' requires ... full-time attention given our size and the scope of our plans."

One of the district's recent hires is Victor Abalos, a communications consultant for Superintendent David Brewer III who has been signed to a one-year, $178,000 contract to develop communication strategies including restructuring LAUSD's communications department.

He said his position is necessary because the daily newspapers in Los Angeles "love to focus on all the negative going on in the district."

"There are several other organizations, foundations and companies that have to rely on people who know and understand communications because the two largest daily newspapers in this town would rather focus on what's wrong rather than what's working," Abalos said.

Abalos said it's too early to say how he might restructure the district's communications department or whether more people would be hired.

Currently, LAUSD's $10 million communications budget includes about $4 million for its public access channel, $3.5 million for a translation unit and $1.4 million for the office of communications.

LAUSD also has hired consultant Michael Bustamante under a six-month, $90,000 contract to deal with communications strictly related to the district's electronic payroll system.

Officials did not give the amount of the Rogers Group contract.

LASUD officials said the payroll debacle revealed communication problems - particularly internally - that left teachers frustrated and unable to get answers to questions and updates on progress in fixing problems.

Since Bustamante started Sept. 4, the political consultant who helped oversee the communications office of former Gov. Gray Davis has spearheaded an aggressive push to reach out to teachers and keep them apprised of the payroll situation through the district Web site, television station, e-mail blasts, newsletters and direct letters to staff, Brewer said.

"Over these last several months, we've been far more proactive in getting information out to teachers, employees and the public about the status of the payroll," Bustamante said.

Meanwhile, the district has been contracting for years with consultant Darry Sragow for $5,000 a month. Glenn Gritzner, former senior staff member at LAUSD who now works for Sragow, said the government affairs contract includes communications strategy and advising the district on issues including payroll problems, the union and facilities.

But critics say LAUSD should be focusing on improving its service so it won't have to worry about its image.

"The district needs to understand, if you want to fix your image, then do things right," said United Teachers Los Angeles President A.J. Duffy.

"Don't spend $10 million for spin doctors to weave their webs that try to show the world that they're really good guys. Actually do it right."

Board member Tamar Galatzan said board approval of contracts is only needed if they exceed $250,000. But she said "lack of communication - both internal and external - has been a great source of frustration."

Still, she questioned whether the consultants will be able to present a unified front.

"We have so many messengers that I'm worried that we are not going to have a single message," Galatzan said. "If the job description for all of the new communication folks is just to find happy stories and convince the newspapers to print them, then I question if that's a good use of funds."

The superintendent began searching for a director of external affairs this spring and interviewed several candidates, including Abalos.

Because Abalos does not have a college degree, he was ineligible to be hired as a district employee. A few months later, Brewer brought him in as a consultant on the condition he completes his degree. He's currently enrolled at the University of Phoenix.

Abalos said his experience makes him uniquely qualified for the job. Over 34 years, he's worked in newspapers and has served as news director, executive producer and field producer for television news.

About a year ago, Abalos left his job as director of public affairs for the nonprofit First 5 L.A., the child-advocacy organization created by California voters to invest tobacco tax revenues in programs for children.

"I'm here to put into a framework what the vision is for the superintendent and the board so that all three are working in unison so our effort is coordinated in terms of all of our outreach with the emphasis being on the civic engagement piece because we are eager to connect with parents and the community," Abalos said.

"In a district this size, that's a huge undertaking to want to try to be able to make sure that every part of the district knows what everybody else is doing."

Villaraigosa wins bid to take over seven LAUSD schools

By Naush Boghossian, Los Angeles Daily News, December 28, 2007

Marking a major political coup, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa won his bid to manage seven Los Angeles Unified schools as a majority of parents and teachers voted to partner on education reform, according to results released Wednesday.

The hard-won victory culminated several failed attempts by the mayor over the past two years to assume a role in the district and capped an aggressive weeks-long campaign to win support for his plan.

Villaraigosa's nonprofit Partnership for Los Angeles Schools is set to begin managing the schools in the 2008-09 school year, promising campuses greater resources and control over budget and curriculum.

"Today, we can truly say that the votes are in and the status quo is out," he said. "Close to 90percent of the parents of these communities said ... yes to lower dropout rates, yes to higher student achievement and yes to safer campuses.

"I grew up in these neighborhoods. I know these neighborhoods. I know that parents in these neighborhoods have the same right to have a quality education for their kids as any neighborhood in the city of Los Angeles."

The schools voting to join the partnership are Jordan, Roosevelt and Santee highs, and four middle schools - Hollenbeck, Stevenson, Markham and Gompers.

About 86 percent of 1,800 parents and 69 percent of 797 teachers voted to support the mayor's plan.

"When you look at the percent of yes votes from the parents, it's a clear mandate, and as far as I'm concerned, the faculties are also sending a clear message that they want change," Superintendent David Brewer III said. "Today we're unleashing the power of L.A. to transform the schools in L.A." Out of nearly 800 teacher votes, 250 opposed the plan, and United Teachers Los Angeles President A.J. Duffy said the union will work diligently to reassign those who do not want to work in a partnership school.

"We will work out a fair and equitable process for any of these teachers who want to transfer to another school, so that this is not a punishment," he said.

Brewer emphasized that the district, which hires 2,600 teachers a year, has great capacity to allow teachers to transfer to other positions.

The school trustees have to approve the final contract with the partnership, and they will decide whether they feel the mayor has the capacity to move forward with three high schools - as opposed to the original two proposed, said Marshall Tuck, education adviser to the mayor.

Los Angeles Unified School District officials said a second round of voting will take place in the spring to include elementary schools in the mayor's family of schools.

Duffy said the plan promotes an idea that the union backs - less-centralized control and greater autonomy at school sites.

"It's historic in its possibilities, in what it can bring in the future," he said. "Someone said you may not need a school board in the future. Maybe not."

The voting results were widely seen as a gain for Villaraigosa, even though it fell far short of his original goal to oversee all Los Angeles Unified schools.

"(Even though) he came up with something ... badly short of a larger slice of control, (it) has to be considered a political coup of sorts," said Jaime Regalado, director of the Edmund G. "Pat" Brown Institute of Public Affairs at California State University, Los Angeles.

"It's a victory for the mayor and now he's going to have to show something ... but will there be measurable improvements at his schools in the coming year or two?"

Still, the election process raised questions among critics who said a relatively small number of parents and teachers voted.

The district said it determined support based on 50percent, plus one, of certificated staffers in the UTLA bargaining unit votes and 50percent plus one of parent or legal guardian votes. Those who participated did not have to be registered voters.

At Roosevelt High, which has 4,654 students, just 545 parent votes were cast. Of those, 441 voted in support of the mayor, which the district calculated as 80.7 percent support.

At Jordan High, only 51 of 115 certificated staff members voted in support of the mayor.

Regalado said the turnout is a sign of the times. In the past 25 years, most people don't vote even when the stakes are high.

"When the issues are well understood and well defined, it's so surprising that a small turnout like this resulted," he said. "But what it really means is that the mayor's team and those who supported the reforms really got out the vote."

Villaraigosa had launched an aggressive campaign reaching out to teachers and community groups to gain support for his reform plan.

The nonprofit partnership paid the more than $200,000 in outreach efforts through grants. The district, which paid for fliers and automated phone calls the day before the election, did not have its share of the costs available.

Officials touted the reform effort as "historic," emphasizing that school districts had never given stakeholders like parents and teachers a choice on large policy decisions.

The partnership is one Brewer's major contributions through his newly developed innovation division, through which he hopes to implement nontraditional reform efforts, gauge the success, and replicate best practices throughout schools in the beleaguered LAUSD.

Each school in the mayor's family would develop its own set of targets, and if it fails to meet them in five years would return to the traditional district structure.

Schools will create governing site councils whose members are selected by peers and who will be responsible for key decisions on teaching and learning, hiring, budgeting, fundraising and scheduling.

School principals would report to a newly hired family-of-schools leader, although it has not yet been determined whether they would be LAUSD employees or employees of the partnership.

"I'm excited because we're going to have an opportunity to decide who's going to work at our school, what types of teaching and learning is going to take place, what types of services and resources our students are going to get," Gompers seventh-grade teacher Kirti Baranwal said.

The mayor emphasized after the news conference that the real story is that immigrants, blacks, Latinos and "people who have been denied a real voice in their schools are finally going to have a voice."

Markham parent Jose Gallegos already feels the change.

"A lot of parents are feeling included ... Before, you didn't have that sense of help," he said.

onathan Wilcox, adjunct professor at the USC Annenberg School for Communication, said the victory is a symbolic one for the mayor.

"Given the way his 2007 has gone, I'd say any good news is a political coup for the mayor," said Wilcox, a speechwriter for former Gov. Pete Wilson.

"He began the year as the favorite to win election as next governor of California, and now he's desperately trying to win a campaign in Los Angeles middle and high schools."

But Villaraigosa avoided any implication that he needed the victory, emphasizing that he never saw his past efforts, including the now-defunct legislation that would have given him a role in the district, as defeats.

"I don't need redemption. The mayor and the Legislature voted for (the Assembly bill), and the judiciary voted it down. It wasn't a personal defeat for me," Villaraigosa said.

"I am focused on this effort. I could have easily left this a long time ago and said I tried, and after I lost the court decision I could have walked away, but I didn't do that, so this is a good day."

Supt. Brewer's failings

L.A. Unified needs a leader who can guide the school district through tough times. Brewer isn't the one

Editorial, Los Angeles Times, November 13, 2008

The Los Angeles Unified School District is not without accomplishment. It has recently seen student test scores improve, and it is on track with a vast, long-term effort to build enough schools for all of its students. But along with much of California, the district is heading into troubled times -- largely financial -- that threaten its classrooms and students, and that will test its management and educational skills. This is a treacherous moment for a school district that has long operated on the edge of failure, and it demands unimpeachable leadership. In such a moment, the district cannot afford a superintendent who holds the title but isn't up to the job.

Retired Vice Adm. David L. Brewer reaches the second anniversary of his four-year contract today. We liked him from the start -- his intelligence and affability were and are strengths -- though we had reservations about whether he had the necessary political and educational acumen. Time has only exacerbated those concerns.

Brewer started off with good intentions and big plans. Since those early months, however, he has done little to inspire loyalty and much to stoke misgiving. He stumbled in putting together his command team and responded to crises with flow charts and management-speak. He was unable to dissuade the school board from shelling out close to $35 million the district didn't have so that cafeteria workers could receive health benefits, a noble gesture to those workers but one that came at the expense of students. He was either unable or unwilling to talk the board into putting a financial package on the Nov. 4 ballot that would have provided for both construction and instruction. Most of his own ideas -- such as getting rid of bad teachers or creating a mini-district for failing schools -- faded out or were scaled back until they were hardly recognizable.

Eventually, Brewer's accumulated missteps -- and his dismaying lack of prowess -- led to an arrangement in which he ceded much of his authority while preserving the illusion of his leadership, a revision of his job description that avoided roiling the city's ever-tenuous racial politics. Senior Deputy Supt. Ramon C. Cortines was hired in April to oversee academic matters for the district, while Brewer continued to preside over administrative matters such as payroll and construction; Brewer also acts as a public figurehead and attends the protracted board meetings. This is classic Los Angeles politics: Administrative and racial comity is achieved by paying two superintendent-level salaries for one complete superintendent-level package. It also typifies all that is wrong with L.A. Unified. The district protects administrators who fail rather than students whose futures depend on a solid education.

Brewer does not deserve all the blame for his administration's ineffectiveness. He inherited a highly politicized district and a gutless bureaucracy, both stymied by a teachers union that is effective at defending its membership but too often indifferent to the needs of students. The board majority that hired Brewer acted too hastily to bring him aboard, eager to close the deal before Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa could gain more control over the district; the newly elected board majority that followed clearly gave its allegiance to the mayor, not the new superintendent.

For his part, Brewer was overconfident about his ability to navigate the political shoals that lay ahead. Shortly after starting his job, he was confronted with an enormous payroll snafu, as a new computer system put in place by his predecessor repeatedly spat out inaccurate checks -- for months, some teachers were overpaid, some paid not at all. Though Brewer tackled the problem competently, he also compounded it, first by trying to blame district employees for the mess and then by hiring expensive and ineffectual public relations consultants to spin a new image for the district.

Today, L.A. Unified confronts a budget shortfall of at least $200 million. It is faced with the possibility of closing schools and laying off staff. There is talk of curtailing elective courses and preschool offerings. Students stand to suffer, as do teachers. Supt. Brewer, meanwhile, continues to receive $300,000 a year plus hefty perks.

Halfway through his contract, it's no longer time to voice hopes or to prod Brewer toward action. In the interests of the students he is charged with educating, Brewer and the board should acknowledge that he isn't a good fit for the job of superintendent. They should chart a graceful course for his departure and embark on it sooner rather than later.

L.A. school board takes no action on fate of Supt. David Brewer

The panel met in closed session on the schools chief, who is facing increasing pressure to resign. The absence of board member Marguerite Poindexter LaMotte complicated the deliberations

By Howard Blume, Jason Song and David Zahniser , Los Angeles Times, December, 2008

Embattled Los Angeles Schools Supt. David L. Brewer vowed Tuesday to stay on the job amid an abortive attempt to force him to resign as head of the nation's second-largest school system.

Brewer, a retired Navy rear admiral midway through a four-year contract, said nothing would change in his approach to the job.

Early this year, Brewer addressed criticism of his administration by bringing in veteran retired Supt. Ramon C. Cortines to manage day-to-day operations. That move was widely viewed as a positive. It failed, however, to repair critics' perceptions that Brewer's management skills are not equal to the task of navigating the Los Angeles Unified School District's politics and funding crisis.

Board of Education President Monica Garcia attempted to lead an effort to dislodge Brewer but it began to fall apart Monday when she failed to persuade a key board member to show up at the meeting.

Marguerite Poindexter LaMotte was attending a previously planned, weeklong meeting of the California School Boards Assn. in San Diego. Despite Garcia's entreaties, LaMotte declined to return.

Garcia and her allies were reluctant to act against Brewer, who is black, without LaMotte, the board's only African American member.

Garcia tried to reach LaMotte in person and even dashed to Union Station in an attempt to catch her before she boarded a 2 p.m. train Monday, an aide to Garcia said. The panting aide, running in high heels ahead of Garcia, reached the platform just as the train doors closed.

In an e-mail, LaMotte said she later received a "dastardly request" to return Monday "via train or chauffeured car."

The request came from Garcia, who also called other board members to alert them of a discussion about the superintendent's future. Board member Richard Vladovic, who is sick with pneumonia, struggled out of bed to make the meeting at Garcia's behest.

LaMotte judged the entire last-minute notification as questionable. She has long been suspicious of Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and his attempts to influence the school district through his alliance with Garcia and other board members he helped to elect.

"The futile attempt to have me do an immediate turnaround upon my arrival here was a disingenuous and unconscionable coverup to exclude me from this strategically and externally motivated plan," LaMotte wrote.

Villaraigosa would not comment.

LaMotte also apparently worked the phones. By 6:30 p.m. Monday, a rhetorical firestorm was erupting. One principal reported that Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles) asked her "to spread the word that there is a 'surprise' motion to be made tomorrow to ask Supt. Brewer to step down" while LaMotte was out of town.

In a widely distributed e-mail, the principal also talked of a campaign to flood board members and the mayor with e-mails and calls of protest.

Waters did not respond to a request for an interview.

Not all board members were thrilled by the unfolding events.

"I was distressed by the process," said board member Marlene Canter. "There are seven board members, and a conversation of this magnitude needed to take place with all board members" and not, she added, in such a hasty manner.

On Monday, Garcia tried to do what her office characterized as "outreach to civic leaders" to alert them of "an important issue" in the school district. Those on the list of more than 30 calls included elected officials and business leaders, including key members of the African American community.

Using a script approved by the district's lawyer, she told them that "there was going to be a discussion about the future of the district and the role of the superintendent," according to Garcia's office. Garcia's phone-banking began about 2 p.m., after aides said she had spoken with Brewer.

City Councilman Bernard C. Parks told The Times that, when his call arrived, he questioned Garcia about why Brewer was being asked to leave.

"She said 'It's an exempt position, so we don't have to have cause,' " Parks said. "I said, 'Is there a reason?' And she said, 'If you're asking me for a reason, it's that he's not moving fast enough.' "

Parks said he noted that district test scores have been improving and that Brewer inherited serious problems, such as a payroll fiasco, that were not of his making.

"I was shocked," Parks said. "It's just bizarre."

Parks has his own experience as a black civic leader forced out of a high-profile job. Former Mayor James K. Hahn declined to offer Parks a second term as police chief, a move that cost Hahn key support from black voters. Many of those voters switched to Villaraigosa, who defeated Hahn.

Villaraigosa is facing reelection in the spring, and Brewer's departure could be tied to the mayor. Villaraigosa's fundraising was instrumental to the election of the board majority that is apparently disenchanted with Brewer. Villaraigosa is said to be displeased with Brewer's performance as well.

By late Monday, Garcia realized that LaMotte wasn't budging.

The board could take the matter up again at its closed-session meeting next Tuesday.

L.A. schools chief says he'll take buyout

By Howard Blume, Jason Song and David Zahniser , Los Angeles Times, December 9, 2008

Under pressure by civic leaders and members of his own school board, Los Angeles Schools Supt. David L. Brewer announced Monday that he would leave his post rather than drag the district through a racially divisive fight.

The Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Education is expected to hash out the final details of an exit package today for Brewer, the retired Navy vice admiral who was supposed to bring military know-how and a deep passion for education to the job of running the nation's second-largest school district.

"Although this debate is disconcerting and troubling, it must not become an ethnic issue. When adults fight, it can manifest itself in our children," said Brewer, the district's second African American superintendent. "This must not become an ethnic or racial battle that infests our schools, our campuses, our playgrounds. This is not about settling an old score; this must be about what is best for every LAUSD student."

Brewer, who is midway through his four-year contract, did not formally resign. He said he would ask the school board to honor the buyout provisions of his contract.

Senior Deputy Supt. Ramon C. Cortines is widely expected to take over as interim superintendent, a job he held in 2000. Just prior to returning to the district, Cortines served as Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's top education advisor. The mayor and his school board allies have long been unhappy with Brewer's performance.

Under the terms of Brewer's contract, the 62-year-old superintendent would be entitled to 18 months' severance, an amount estimated at $500,000. His compensation package includes a $300,000 salary, $45,000 a year for expenses and a $3,000 monthly housing allowance.

School board member Julie Korenstein criticized Brewer's forced departure and buyout as ill-timed and ill-advised. With the district facing potential layoffs and massive budget cuts over the next two years, "you have to make every attempt to stabilize the district," she said. "This does just the reverse."

And she characterized the anticipated buyout as a "dreadful misuse of public funds."

School board president Monica Garcia, who led the effort to unseat Brewer, released a carefully worded statement Monday thanking Brewer "for two years of hard work and dedication."

In an interview last month, Garcia said that district reforms were moving too slowly. Last week she alerted board members and civic leaders that she intended to discuss Brewer's future in closed session.

But she quickly pulled back because of concerns about stoking racial tensions. Garcia's office said she did not want to hold the meeting without Marguerite Poindexter LaMotte, the board's only African American member, who would not cut short a previously scheduled out-of-town trip.

Brewer said last week he didn't understand the board's unhappiness with his performance. He also defended his record, noting that test scores rose this year and that voters last month passed the district's largest-ever school bond.

"I would take those two years and match them up against anyone else in the country," he had said.

Over the last week, Brewer's demeanor "changed from dumbfounded and dazed to moments of anger to moments of 'I'm protected by my contract' to moments of 'What does this have to do with kids?' " said former board member David Tokofsky, who has been in contact with Brewer.

Sunday afternoon, Brewer met at the Westwood home of board member Marlene Canter with Cortines, LaMotte and a handful of trusted district staff members. The purpose of the meeting was to help Brewer take stock of his options and decide what to do, according to those present. Canter, the former school board president, was instrumental in hiring Brewer, but she, too, has at times been critical of his leadership.

LaMotte never said that Brewer should necessarily be retained, but called it unfair to fire him without having established clear goals and giving him an opportunity to live up to them.

Korenstein and Canter echoed that sentiment Monday. Said Korenstein: "If the board majority doesn't like what the superintendent is doing, then board members should direct the superintendent on exactly what they want him to do, which they've never done."

Others said it was clear that Brewer was not living up to his promise.

A.J. Duffy, president of the powerful teachers' union, said Brewer appeared overly focused on running the district by the dictums of "how-to" management bestsellers.

"You're not going to improve student outcomes by quoting management books and extolling the virtues of systems analysis," he said. "When you're talking about student achievement, the human factor is the first factor and he never really got there."

"That's unfortunate," Duffy said, "because he's a well-meaning guy, probably with a lot to give. He was dropped into an untenable situation and unfortunately he didn't create his own life raft by surrounding himself with a strong management team."

In his statement, Brewer appeared to take aim at critics who said he lacked "the human factor." He repeatedly invoked the needs of the city's children, saying at one point: "My passion and commitment have not and will not diminish. I will not leave the children of Los Angeles."

He seemed to allude to the school board majority's agenda when he said: "What children need is not what adults want."

Brewer came to the job with little background in public education, but impressed the board as an inspiring leader with a "take-charge attitude." Over time, he was criticized for moving too slowly to fill key positions and for failing to fully grasp the complexities of running a vast, politically charged organization that struggles to educate its 700,000 students, especially the many who are poor and not fluent in English.

Earlier this year, Brewer handed off day-to-day running of the district to Cortines, 76, who has headed school districts in New York and San Francisco. While Brewer considered the partnership to be a success, others questioned why the district should be, in effect, paying two superintendents.

Some are already pushing for Cortines to take over.

"Ray has started what we consider a very good process of bringing reform to the LAUSD. We believe that he is uniquely qualified to pick up the reins and run the district," said Gary Toebben, president and chief executive of the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce. "This would be a terrible time to have a leadership vacuum."

Brewer took the job at a difficult time. He replaced former Colorado Gov. Roy Romer, who served six years as superintendent. Brewer, who arrived as Villaraigosa was pressing for control of the school system, didn't know whether his ultimate boss would be the school board, which opposed the takeover, or the mayor. The board prevailed in court, and Brewer initially received high marks for cultivating good relations with both sides. Villaraigosa later helped elect a new board majority that was dissatisfied with Brewer virtually from the start.

He leaves in equally difficult times, as the district faces what could be its biggest budget shortfall ever. Although Los Angeles Unified is now flush with construction funds, from the passage of five bond measures over 11 years, it faces a $200 million to $400 million cut in its $8.6-billion operating budget this year, followed by another $400 million next year.

$517,500-plus buyout OKd for L.A. schools chief David Brewer

No successor is named, but Ramon Cortines is expected to lead the school district, at least for the interim

By Howard Blume and Jason Song, Los Angeles Times, December 10, 2008

The Los Angeles Board of Education voted Tuesday to pay at least $517,500 to buy out Supt. David L. Brewer midway through his four-year contract to run the nation's second-largest school system.

No successor was named, but board members and other civic leaders have said they expect that the No. 2 administrator, Ramon C. Cortines, will be offered the job at least on an interim basis.

Cortines, a retired superintendent who joined the district in April, declined to comment on who would succeed Brewer, saying he intends to focus on his current job.

"I came here to help," he said. "I'm still here to help." But he added that board members need to clarify leadership roles quickly because of the current massive budget crisis: "I've made it clear. With the kind of budget issues we are facing and the change of superintendents, everything we can do to have stability in this system is very important."

The week began with Brewer's announcement Monday that he would be willing to accept a buyout, one week after Board of Education president Monica Garcia made it clear she would seek to replace him.

Because the board terminated Brewer "without cause," he's entitled to receive a buyout specified under his contract. The terms under the contract are 18 months' salary, totaling $450,000, and his expense account over that period, which adds $67,500. He'll also get cash for unused vacation pay, an amount not yet calculated. Finally, he'll be eligible for health benefits during the period covered by the buyout.

In a brief appearance before reporters, Garcia took no questions and read from a statement that echoed the concerns of Cortines. She vowed to develop a "leadership plan," adding, "We understand that we need stability."

Speaking in English and Spanish, she said she expects a decision regarding the district's top administrator before year's end. Cortines said his understanding is that the board will act Dec. 16.

Five of seven board members approved the settlement: Garcia, Yolie Flores Aguilar, Marlene Canter, Tamar Galatzan and Richard Vladovic. Voting against were Julie Korenstein and Marguerite Poindexter LaMotte.

Board members said they discussed Brewer's settlement privately for two hours in a morning meeting that sometimes became contentious.

When it was over, Brewer presided, as usual, over the ensuing public meeting, sitting next to Garcia.

Aside from Canter, the board members who favored the buyout are considered allies of Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. Of the mayor's bloc, Flores Aguilar, Galatzan and Vladovic were elected in 2007 with crucial fundraising assistance from the mayor. Villaraigosa said last week that he, too, favored a change in leadership but that he would support the board's decision.

Korenstein called the buyout an inappropriate "gift of public funds" that is especially galling given the budget crisis. She blamed the board majority, not Brewer, for the settlement, saying that she would have preferred Brewer to remain in his current role, splitting executive duties with Cortines.

LaMotte also had endorsed that tandem arrangement but said that she would not necessarily oppose a buyout, provided that Brewer's rights were respected.

Since joining the district eight months ago, Cortines has managed day-to-day operations as well as long-term planning, while Brewer has focused on lobbying efforts, school board meetings and serving as the public face of L.A. Unified. At Tuesday's meeting, Brewer noted that he plans to travel to Sacramento this week to lobby lawmakers for relief from money woes that he characterized as the worst since 1929.

"This is bad. This is ugly," he said. "We have to fix this."

In a brief statement regarding the buyout, Brewer said: "No matter what happens next, I will remain a champion for the children, teachers and staff of LAUSD."

A week ago, the retired Navy vice admiral, who is African American, vowed to serve until the last minute of his last day, implying that he intended to fight to keep his job. At the same time, some black leaders said the move against him was abrupt and unfair.

In announcing Monday his intention to step down, Brewer said he recognized that the controversy over his removal had the potential to exacerbate racial tensions in the city. His departure, he added, should not be viewed through a racial prism, although he accused his opponents of pursuing political agendas to the detriment of children.

Garcia and other critics of Brewer have said the superintendent has moved neither fast enough nor effectively enough to improve the school system. Brewer has pointed out that district gains on test scores this year well outpaced the state's as a whole and that voters last month approved the district's largest bond issue ever.

The payout to Brewer has brought to light the board's inability to create performance goals for him.

Deciding on appropriate, measurable objectives for a superintendent is difficult even in the best of circumstances, said veteran educators, including Cortines.

But in Brewer's case, uncertainties loomed over the process. With no experience in education, Brewer had to deal with goal-setting in an unfamiliar arena, and he was unsure to whom he would ultimately answer.

When he was hired, most members of the board were at odds with Villaraigosa. But that wasn't the case for the board majority that took over eight months into his term. And Brewer never won over those members.

In an interview last week, Brewer said that some of the goals they suggested were unrealistic.

Instead of getting to mutually agreed-upon objectives, the new board approved instead a series of lengthy public resolutions to guide, or control, the superintendent.

The school district might have been on the hook for a settlement regardless, said former district general counsel Kevin Reed, who worked for the school system when Brewer was hired.

Terminations "for cause," which don't require buyouts, typically involve malfeasance or violations of law.

Still, "he's been in this position for two years," said Priscilla Wohlstetter, a professor at the USC Rossier School of Education. "It's in everyone's best interests to have clear expectations."