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9486 in the collection
Romer Beset By Hostile Board
Ohanian Comment: Romer was Eli Broad's choice as superntendent. Maybe the Broad Foundation will find him another job.
Superintendent Roy Romer's three-year honeymoon with Los Angeles school board members has ended, and now he finds himself sparring with them publicly and privately while rumors swirl that he will soon quit.
The 74-year-old schools chief declined to discuss tensions with the board, while his spokeswoman denied he will walk away in the midst of a massive school-construction program and his efforts to improve student achievement.
Still, he now faces a frequently hostile board that largely owes its election to the teachers union, rather than the board backed by the civic and business elite that recruited him three years ago to try to turn around the nation's second-largest school district.
In the last two months, the new board has sparred publicly with Romer over his budget proposals, his choice of senior staff and his heavy reliance on pricey consultants to build new schools.
"I think this school board is a lot more inquisitive about how things that have come to the board came to be," said Jose Huizar, who was elected to his downtown seat with the support of United Teachers Los Angeles and the business community. He also won the board presidency with union backing.
"I do think the prior board gave a lot more leeway to the superintendent in terms of his proposals. What I see with this new board is they want to be involved in policy development and be informed of decisions that happen at the district."
While members of the new board majority say they are appropriately holding Romer accountable, critics charge that they are micromanaging and stepping into the realm of political patronage by insisting on being part of administrative and hiring decision-making.
"It's a tougher situation for him," said Jaime Regalado, executive director of the Edmund G."Pat" Brown Institute of Public Affairs at California State University, Los Angeles.
"One, the economy is worse than when he first came in. His allies who brought him to the board and his board allies are no longer on the board," said Regalado, noting that former Mayor Richard Riordan's Coalition for Kids political action committee is in decline.
The coalition candidates _ incumbents Caprice Young and Genethia Hudley Hayes and challenger Nellie Rios-Parra _ lost to union challengers Jon Lauritzen and Marguerite LaMotte and incumbent David Tokofsky.
"What that means is Romer has few allies he can turn to, unlike two years ago," Regalado said.
Romer was a former governor of Colorado and had served as chairman of the National Democratic Party, but had no background in education, when he was hired in July 2000 to head up the nation's second-largest school district.
He won a three-year contract extension in June 2002, when his annual salary rose to $250,000, his expense account was doubled to $30,000 and health benefits were granted to him for life.
Mike Lansing, one of two board members elected without the help of the union, has emerged as a minority voice on the board. Not so long ago, Lansing was part of a majority slate, backed by Riordan, that included Young, Hayes, Huizar and Marlene Canter.
Lansing, who was swept into office in 1999 with the promise to overhaul LAUSD, fears the new majority will turn the clock backward by focusing too heavily on teacher pay instead of instruction and school construction.
"We don't want to go back to what it was. We want to go forward with the achievement we have made. If I don't speak up and others in the minority don't speak up, there will be this tidal wave of going backwards," he said.
"Everything will be the way it was when we came on board in 1999."
Lansing observed that the new board majority is caught between union interests and a severe budget crisis that forces tough decisions on issues including compensation.
"The reality is the rubber is meeting the road now. We are going to have to deal with these issues head-on," Lansing said.
"As some of the board members are being pushed to meet certain needs, they are trying to find ways to meet some of those special needs and deal with the problems the district is facing. The reality is, they can't do both _ not in this economic situation."
The board voted earlier this month to keep a $50-per-student cut but to rescind employee furloughs and absorb rising costs of health-care benefits. Lansing had originally proposed the per-pupil cut, but he fought to have the board rescind it, fully fund the health benefits and keep the furloughs.
He was outvoted by the board majority, which decided to oppose recommendations by Romer.
Last year, Lansing and the previous board majority readily accepted Romer's plan to increase class size in the fourth through 12th grades by an average of two students per teacher -- a budget-balancing action that angered the UTLA leaders and membership.
In an unusual move last month that infuriated Romer, the board refused to ratify his appointment of Renee Jackson, former District G superintendent, as executive management officer for the chief operating officer. The decision shocked Romer, who said he was given no warning.
"For this board not to approve that -- without any member of it talking to me in advance -- I think is a serious breach of the relationship from a board to its superintendent," Romer said at the Aug. 26 meeting.
Calling the board's action"a serious and severe mistake," he futilely demanded that it be reversed.
Romer had promoted Jackson after consulting with LaMotte, who reportedly did not get along with Jackson. Romer expected routine ratification of Jackson's contract, but the board majority defeated it, 4-3.
Board members Lansing, Canter and Julie Korenstein, a long-time union ally, voted yes, while union-backed LaMotte, Huizar, Lauritzen and Tokofsky voted no.
Some union-backed members last week also challenged Romer's appointment of outsiders to two high-level administrative posts and pushed for at least one of the openings to go to a person they know within the LAUSD. This time, however, Romer prevailed.
On another front, union-backed members are increasingly pressuring the superintendent to rein in consulting contracts for managing the district's multibillion-dollar school construction program.
Unions have long argued that pricey consultants are in part to blame for the district's budget problems.
LaMotte last month challenged Romer publicly at the annual administrators' meeting to cut spending on consultants and instead reward teachers and principals for the academic progress the district has made in the last few years.
Before LaMotte came on board, Tokofsky was often the lone voice condemning heavy spending for consultants. Now there is a board majority raising the profile of the issue. LaMotte's sentiments are shared in part by Lauritzen and Huizar. Mirroring Romer's arguments, Canter and Lansing both have defended the use of consultants by noting the progress the district has made in building schools.
Canter has attempted to strike an awkward middle ground, catering to the union in one sense _ by voting to rescind furloughs and fully fund health benefits, but ultimately voting against the final budget that included those changes.
LaMotte makes no apologies for reflecting the views of the unions and their rank and file.
"The fact you have people who have unions that have vested interests in children supporting the board _ I don't see what is wrong with that," she said.
Both LaMotte and Lauritzen said the new board is shaped by the fact that five people on it came with teaching experience. LaMotte is a former principal, while Lauritzen, Tokofsky, Korenstein and Canter all previously taught.
"You have people who have an affinity for the classroom and local school site. Those also happen to be people who were active union people when they were working as teachers and principals," said Lauritzen, who was once the UTLA chapter chairman at Columbus Middle School and Canoga Park High School.
"They have that affinity with their fellow teachers and union members."
— Helen Gao
Romer's losing battle: LAUSD's leader beset by hostile board
Los Angeles Daily News
2003-09-15
http://www.dailynews.com/Stories/0%2C1413%2C200~20954~1633072%2C00.html
INDEX OF OUTRAGES
Pages: 380
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