Britton Still Cast in Outsider Role : Principals Give New L.A. Schools Chief High Marks, So Far

Leonard Britton, the new Los Angeles superintendent of schools, strode to the podium at Stevenson Junior High School in East Los Angeles recently, wearing a bright red carnation in the lapel of his dark gray suit.

“Where I come from,” the former Miami school superintendent joked, “when they pin one of these on you, it means ‘So long!’ And I’ve only been here two months!”

Earlier that morning, Britton had tried to duck a small group of picketers unhappy about his handling of a school matter. This audience--150 principals and other administrators from Eastside schools--was unaware of the incident but laughed heartily at his remark. It was no secret that Britton, on the job since July, was not everyone’s choice to lead the district. He was an outsider in a school system accustomed to promotions from within, and an Anglo superintendent in a district where 80% of the students are Latino, black or Asian.

The job was a move up for Britton, who went from the fourth-largest to the second-largest school system in the country and is responsible for a budget three times larger than the $1.3 billion he oversaw in Miami.

So the new schools chief spent the last two weeks on the stump, meeting the district’s 600 principals, as well as dozens of special-interest community groups, to outline his philosophy.

So far, the reaction has been largely positive, even though, as some principals pointed out, he has yet to prove himself.

“He’s gotten off on the right foot,” said Bell High School Principal Mary Ann Sesma. “What he’s saying sounds very, very good. . . . But we don’t know the man. He isn’t one of us. He’s the outsider who’s come in, which is quite a departure from tradition. So there’s a feeling of, we haven’t seen you in action yet . . . and we want to get to know you.”

Board members, who chose Britton over two veteran district administrators, say they are pleased with his performance thus far, calling him a quick study and a confident leader.

“I think he’s going to be terrific,” said board member Jackie Goldberg.

Known in Miami as a cautious and deliberative man, Britton kept his message to the principals simple: He said he wants to focus on the classroom and continue with the basic blueprint for school improvement established by his popular and highly respected predecessor, Harry Handler, who retired last June.

To quell any doubt that may have existed about his stand on one controversial issue, the new superintendent told principals he is a strong supporter of bilingual education, an approach to instruction that is based on the premise that students who lack English fluency learn best if they are allowed to make a gradual transition from their native language to English.

He said that pupils with limited English proficiency--who make up more than a quarter of the district’s 600,000-student enrollment--should not be forced to lose their native language ability in the process.

But “I’m a firm believer in the fact that all children in the district have to learn English first,” he stressed. “Please listen carefully to what I said. I didn’t say English only. I said English first. There are different ways to do it, and that, of course, is the bone of contention.” The allusion, lost on no one, was to the philosophical and political arguments that led to the lapse of the state bilingual education law last June.

Over the next several weeks, he and board members will begin to hear presentations from experts on various methods of teaching students limited in English, Britton said during an interview last week. He hopes that by February the board can formulate a district policy on how such students should be taught that will take into account such factors as the shortage of bilingual instructors and the apparent dissatisfaction of some teachers with the requirement that they learn a second language.

‘Sound, Reasonable . . . Plan’

Regarding instruction, he said that Handler’s “Basic Activities,” a handbook for strengthening the schools that called for strong principals, involved parents, high expectations and safe and orderly campuses, was a “sound and reasonable educational plan” that he intended to continue.

He also made a point of complimenting the district’s senior staff, although he mentioned none by name. His two top deputies, William Anton and Sidney Thompson, both district veterans, were finalists for the superintendency.

“He said nothing that is going to turn the district upside down,” said Michael J. Jeffers, principal of Harrison School in East Los Angeles and immediate past president of the district’s Elementary Principals Organization. “It’s nice to know there won’t be any radical changes.”

But the heart of Britton’s message to principals suggested that in one major area--the role of teachers--substantial changes may be afoot.

Britton, who taught science and geography as a classroom teacher in Pennsylvania in the 1950s, encouraged principals to share authority with teachers on such matters as curriculum, class schedules and discipline. A truly involved faculty will “buy into the solution” to many of the problems facing the schools, he said. When this happens, achievement and attendance would rise, discipline problems would diminish and more parents would participate in school programs.

“I’ve seen this occur,” he said.

More Power for Teachers

Britton’s emphasis on the need to give teachers more decision-making power is not new. In recent years, a number of blue-ribbon panels on education reform have recommended such a change, and Britton himself acknowledged that “great principals have been doing this all along.”

His ability to translate this philosophy into widespread practice appears to set him apart from the majority of big-district superintendents. It has earned him kudos from the teachers union in Florida, where union officials say they enjoyed an unusually cooperative relationship with district management.

According to Pat Tornillo, president of the Dade County teachers union, teacher contract negotiations were completed quickly under the Britton administration, and without the antagonism that often leads to protracted bargaining sessions, as in Los Angeles this year, when teachers staged a one-day walkout and threatened a strike over a pay offer they considered too low.

In Miami, Britton helped develop a career ladder plan for teachers. At the top rung would be a group of “master teachers,” who would be freed from some classroom teaching to undertake other duties and would be paid as much as $50,000 a year. The plan may go into effect next year if state funding of the additional salary costs is secured, Tornillo said.

Britton also laid the groundwork for two other programs that are aimed at improving the status of teachers, according to Tornillo.

More Pay for Masters

The Dade Academy of Teaching Arts, which began operations this month, was created to provide highly qualified teachers with an opportunity to share their expertise with other instructors. These master teachers will earn an additional $1,500 and will work with colleagues in a series of nine-week sessions. The combination of instruction and nine-week sabbatical from the daily classroom grind is intended to return “recharged” teachers to their classrooms, said Joseph Tekerman, a Dade County school official.

Britton also was instrumental in establishing the School-Based Management Program, a pilot project involving 32 Dade County schools that promotes a more collegial model for running schools, Tornillo said. Teachers in those schools have been given wide latitude to work with their principals to determine how their budget should be allocated, what the discipline policy should be, how the curriculum should be organized and what schedule to follow.

The power-sharing concept was threatening to some principals. In fact, a few principals in the 32 schools who were unwilling to go along with the experiment were transferred to other schools, Dade officials said. But Janet McAliley, a Dade County school board member, said that Britton was able to gradually build up enough trust to make acceptable a change that most administrators would have viewed as “the bomb under the czar’s carriage . . . very revolutionary.”

The former Miami superintendent “genuinely likes and respects teachers,” McAliley added. “Some superintendents think of teachers as the workers and not necessarily the ones they want to listen to. But Leonard is different.”

More Pressing Issues

Britton said he has mentioned some of these programs to school board members and union officials in Los Angeles but could not say when he might formally propose them. He faces a number of other issues that require more immediate attention, such as resolving questions about the district’s bilingual program.

Another critical matter is whether the district ought to expand the number of year-round schools in order to accommodate an enrollment expected to grow by 14,000 students annually for the next several years. Year-round schools are a controversial solution to a serious classroom shortage that afflicts a substantial part of the sprawling district, mostly in areas of high minority enrollment. Faced with vocal protests from Anglo parents on the Westside and in the West San Fernando Valley, where crowding is not a problem, board members postponed a decision on year-round expansion last year but say they cannot put it off much longer.

Britton said in an interview that the board will resume discussions of the matter this month and make a decision in early October. But he has not yet made up his own mind about the course of action he should recommend, he said. Averse to year-round schools when he arrived in Los Angeles, he said he now is “60% convinced” that the system--which allows a campus to be used 12 months a year through a calendar of rotating terms--has merit.

Various proposals are being drafted by district staff, he said. “It could be two schools, it could be 20 schools. I don’t know. Everything is up in the air. It all depends on how convinced I am” that creating more year-round schools is the best answer to the crowding problem.

He also acknowledged the need to tackle such chronic problems as dropouts, insufficient state funding and low test scores. Los Angeles’ problems are nearly identical to those he faced in Miami but, he noted, on a grander scale.