Compton School Chief Lands Top Job in Chicago

Ted D. Kimbrough, superintendent of the troubled Compton Unified School District, has been chosen to head the Chicago school system--the third-largest educational system in the nation and one that has been accused of having the worst schools in America.

A spokesman for the Chicago school board said that Kimbrough, 54, will be named superintendent at a press conference Monday and will assume his $175,000-a-year post in January.

His appointment comes at a time when Chicago’s school system--once called the nation’s worst by former Secretary of Education William J. Bennett--is embarking on the most radical decentralization program in the history of U.S. education. Under a new system of governance, the school board is handing over control of the district to 540 elected, parent-led councils, one for each school.

Kimbrough called his new job and Chicago’s school reform package a challenge, “an experiment that is different from what has been tried in other places.”

“I think this is an opportunity to show what can be done to bring about change in a large urban district,” he said.

Despite Chicago’s reputation as a collapsing school district, he said, “I sense a commitment on the part of the people of Chicago, the mayor’s office and, particularly, the business community, to make the schools work.”

Kelvin D. Filer, a member of the Compton school board said: “It is a loss for us. Any time you lose your chief executive officer unexpectedly, it’s a loss. At the same time, we will continue to move forward.”

Chicago wanted a superintendent with a strong management background who knew how to work with legislatures and other government bodies, said spokesman Grayson Mitchell. “It was also very important that he had big-city school experience,” Mitchell said.

Kimbrough worked in the Los Angeles Unified School District for 26 years, most recently as the district’s lobbyist in Sacramento. He became Compton’s superintendent in October, 1982.

The energetic, nattily dressed educator has earned a reputation as a skilled political facilitator who understands legislative bodies as well as he understands school boards and classroom teachers.

In 1987, he was chosen superintendent of the year by the Assn. of California School Administrators.

“I think he would be a very good superintendent in Chicago,” said Kenneth L. Moffett, superintendent of the Lennox School District. “He’s tough, he’s articulate.”

Kimbrough is generally regarded as having brought order and more professionalism to the Compton schools. Before his arrival, said Wiley Jones, director of the Compton teachers’ union, the schools were “deplorable,” whereas now they are just “bad.”

Kimbrough steps into a contentious political situation in Chicago, but the Compton school chief is no stranger to volatile politics. He has held control for eight years over a splintered school board there, rode out a bitter teachers’ strike three years ago and overcame the loss this year of 158 teachers who resigned to take much higher-paying jobs in the Los Angeles schools.

Though Compton, with 26,544 students in 35 schools, is much smaller than the Chicago school system with 410,000 students, both districts suffer the same social ills--poverty, drug trafficking, racial segregation and fractured family units--that have become synonymous with America’s cities and undermined their educational systems. And both districts are almost exclusively minority.

A native of Illinois, Kimbrough received his undergraduate degree from Northern Illinois University and his master’s degree from Cal State L.A. He began his career as a classroom teacher in the Los Angeles schools and became a principal before moving up to the higher levels of administration.

Times staff writer Tina Daunt contributed to this story.