School Official, Challenged on Degree, Quits : Compton: An Indiana university tells the district that it has no records on Associate Supt. James H. Turner, who listed a degree from the school on his application.

The associate superintendent of the Compton Unified School District resigned under fire Tuesday after the district learned that he apparently had not earned the college degree that he listed on a job application.

James H. Turner was told to resign, said a district source, who added that if he had refused, acting Supt. Elisa L. Sanchez would have asked the school board to fire him.

Turner emptied his desk Tuesday afternoon and carried his belongings to his car. He acknowledged that he had resigned but declined to answer questions about his departure, his background or the bachelor’s degree he listed from Indiana State University in Terre Haute.

In response to district inquiries, Indiana State officials apparently notified Compton school officials late last week that the university has no records on Turner, who was hired three years ago in the Compton schools as purchasing director. In 1988, he became associate superintendent in charge of maintenance and administrative services.

Turner’s first brush with controversy occurred in June, when county education officials held up payments to three contractors he had hired to renovate the district’s administrative offices.

In January, after a six-month review, the Los Angeles County Office of Education told district officials that they would not be allowed to pay the contractors, because the district should have solicited bids for the work. The county by law approves all bills paid by school districts.

One former school district employee told the county that he had warned Turner before the contractors were hired that bids should have been sought. According to the former employee, Gene Parks, who was business services manager, Turner had replied: “I have a way around that.”

Turner did not return calls for comment last week.

Sanchez insisted last week that the district had acted properly in hiring the contractors. She did not return telephone calls Tuesday.

School board Trustee Kelvin D. Filer insisted that Turner’s departure was not related to the bidding issue. Filer would not say what prompted the district to begin checking Turner’s educational background--three years after he was hired.

However, Filer did say, “I’m furious about the circumstances that have led up to this event.”

Filer refused to elaborate, but he and another school trustee, Manuel Correa, said the district’s personnel commission is in charge of all non-academic employees and was responsible for checking Turner’s background.

Correa said that the district is still investigating Turner’s background and that the board will issue a statement, probably by the end of the week.

Trustee Sam Littleton said Tuesday night that he had not yet been told that Turner had resigned.

“I’m trying to figure out how he did get hired,” Littleton said. “I guess personnel must have made a mistake somewhere along the line.”

Edward Seidler, director of personnel for non-academic employees, said that neither he nor the commission made educational background checks of non-academic applicants until a year ago.

Seidler was in charge of classified personnel when Turner and several others applied for the associate superintendent’s position in October, 1988. But he said former Supt. Ted D. Kimbrough, who now heads the Chicago school system, conducted all the interviews and appointed Turner. The superintendent is authorized to hire the associate superintendent and three other senior management posts--controller, risk manager and director of accounting, Seidler said.

He said he did not work for the district when Turner was first hired as purchasing director in 1987.

Correa said he thinks that district officials began checking Turner’s background after receiving information that Turner had included false information on his job application. Correa said he does not know the source of the tip.

The Times has learned that memos about Turner began circulating last month among school board members and administration officials. According to sources familiar with the memos, Turner was asked to produce evidence that he had a college degree. When he failed to do that, the school district contacted the university.

In 1987, when he applied for the position of purchasing director, Turner said on his job application that he had studied business economics at Indiana State in 1959-60. In 1988, when he applied for his most recent position, Turner said on the application that he had received a bachelor’s degree in business administration and economics from the university in 1954.

Turner also claimed to have been in the Air Force and to have worked at a health-care management corporation before joining the school district.

Correa said the district will check all the information on Turner’s application. “Rest assured,” he said, “we will get these answers by the end of the week.”

BACKGROUND James H. Turner, associate superintendent of maintenance and administrative services in the Compton school district, has been in the center of a dispute over the hiring of contractors to renovate the district’s administration building. County education officials told school officials last month that three contractors cannot be paid for the work because the district failed to solicit bids. A former school employee said he told Turner before the contractors had been hired that bids should have been sought. District officials have insisted that the district acted properly.