Firms Tied to Schools Gave Money

Los Angeles schools Supt. Roy Romer tapped more than a dozen construction and publishing companies -- many of which have business with the school district -- to raise money for a public relations effort begun during the mayoral campaign.

Late last year, mayoral candidate and former Assembly Speaker Bob Hertzberg introduced a plan to carve the Los Angeles Unified School District into smaller districts. Other candidates, including former Mayor James K. Hahn and current Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, introduced their own reform plans for the district. In April, Villaraigosa called for the mayor to have “ultimate control and oversight” over the school system.

It was in that environment, Romer said in an interview last weekend, that the decision was made to create the nonprofit Friends of L.A. Schools in February. Romer said he sought private funds to tout the district’s accomplishments -- including its more than $15-billion campaign to build about 185 more schools by 2012 -- and to highlight its success in raising test scores among elementary students.

“Since everybody was talking about LAUSD, we thought we should be very open and available to people to tell the facts about how we were doing,” said Romer, the charity’s president.

The superintendent said the decision to fund a charity operating independently of the school district was made to avoid spending public funds on the public relations campaign.

“People sometimes criticize you when you want to spend money on communications ... rather than on children,” he said. “I thought it was a meritorious thing to do this and not to use public money.”

Friends of L.A. Schools has raised $146,755 so far, according to district officials. The district released a list of donors Tuesday. It included Cambium Learning (which gave $12,500), which provides instructional materials; Apple Computer Inc. ($10,000); publisher Harcourt Inc. ($10,000); construction consultant PinnacleOne ($10,000) and publisher McGraw Hill ($7,500).

Other donors include Pearson Education, whose subsidiary, Pearson Digital Learning, distributes the Waterford Early Reading Program, a computer reading program used by some district schools that has been criticized as failing to improve students’ skills. Pearson gave the charity $10,000.

Rory DeJohn, vice president and general manager of Turner Construction Co., said his company gave $10,000 in part because of Romer’s pledge not to spend any of the school district’s nearly $7-billion budget on the public relations campaign. Turner has 12 projects with the district representing up to $191 million in contracts, according to DeJohn and district officials.

The company got a solicitation letter from the charity earlier this year, DeJohn said, describing it as “a contribution request for a public outreach campaign to better inform the community as to what the school district is doing. We think it is a tremendous good that they are doing, and that’s why” the company donated, he said.

Glenn Gritzner, special assistant to the superintendent, said that when the charity was established, there was concern among district officials about the appearance of conflicts of interest.

“Any time you turn to the private sector for help, you face these types of questions,” he said.

He added that none of the construction firms and education companies that gave to the charity were bidding on district contracts.

Gritzner defended the decision to ask such firms for donations. “These are groups that have benefited from their relationship with the district,” he said. “Of course they are going to want to help us. It is not quid pro quo, and it is not inappropriate.... You are going to ask people who are most likely to help. Look at what this district does: We teach kids, and we’re building schools.”

District officials estimate that of the nearly $150,000 raised so far, about half has been spent. Some was used for banners, invitations, sound and lighting for Romer’s state of the schools speech, to bring what one official called “pomp and circumstance” to the annual event. It was held this year at a nearly completed high school in South Los Angeles.

The superintendent asked Hahn and Villaraigosa to attend after they became increasingly vocal about city schools. Hahn attended; Villaraigosa did not.

Other funds were spent on five community discussions throughout the district and a breakfast to acknowledge teachers, parents and administrators at some of the district’s high-performing schools.

Gritzner said Romer was not currently soliciting money for Friends of L.A. Schools, in part because the superintendent hopes to build support for a $3.8-billion bond measure that could go on the November ballot.

But Gritzner said Romer might return to fundraising for the charity after the anticipated bond campaign is complete.

This is the first charity that Romer has created to mount a public relations campaign, Gritzner said. Like many districts, L.A. Unified has a private foundation to help pay for such things as student uniforms and academic competitions.

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Times staff writer Rebecca Trounson contributed to this report.