PROFILE: David Alvarez : Superintendent Hopes Climb From Barrio Sets an Example

As a youth growing up in a gang- and drug-plagued San Bernardino barrio in the late 1960s, David Alvarez never did what might have been expected of him.

The young Latino could have succumbed to crime like many of his friends, some of whom are imprisoned to this day, he says. Or, already married and with an infant son at age 17, he could have followed his father into a lifelong career as a railroad worker.

But Alvarez bucked the expected and became the only one in his family to graduate from high school, then worked nearly five years as a full-time janitor at Cal State San Bernardino to pay for the degree he earned there in 1975.

Now, after 15 years in the education business, Alvarez--the departing superintendent of the Coachella Valley Unified School District--is about to do the unexpected again. On July 1, he will become superintendent of the troubled Lancaster School District, at age 37 one of the youngest superintendents in the state, and one of less than 5% who are Latinos.

He will head a district whose students are 72% Anglo, which education officials said is exceedingly rare for a Latino administrator.

Officials in the Lancaster district, with 10,800 students and 14 schools, said Alvarez’s ethnic background was irrelevant in their decision, that they simply wanted an aggressive leader who can unite the district, beset in recent years by political conflicts and rising enrollments.

Alvarez credits his teachers for his success, saying schools can do the same for today’s youngsters, and that his own climb from the barrio can be an example to them.

“I’m keenly aware that what I do will impact kids’ lives for the next generation. I want them to know that if they set goals and work hard at it, they can accomplish whatever they want,” said Alvarez, who plans to move to the Lancaster area this summer with his family.

Described as bright, ambitious and a good “people person” by those who know him, Alvarez had been superintendent of the Coachella Valley district, which has 12 schools, since mid-1987. Unlike Lancaster, Latinos make up more than 90% of the 9,100 students in the Riverside County district.

But the Coachella Valley school board fired Alvarez late last year on a 4-3 vote, 2 1/2 years into his four-year contract. He stepped down Jan. 1, but is on a paid leave of absence from the $80,850-a-year job through June 30. Under a settlement, the district also will pay his final year’s salary.

Lancaster school officials, after talking with many people in the Coachella district, said they were convinced Alvarez did a good job as superintendent, but fell victim to a political struggle between rival Latino factions that led to a shake-up of the school board.

“It was politics he was a casualty of. He got a raw deal,” said Lancaster school board member Michael Huggins. “It’s a shame that happened. But it’s good for us. I really feel we got ourselves a gem,” Huggins said.

Coachella Valley school officials credited Alvarez with updating the school curriculum, trimming waste and demanding better accountability from employees, angering some in the process. Alvarez said he also made enemies by resisting outside efforts to influence hiring and contract decisions.

Even the four school board members who voted to fire him after winning election in November, 1988, to form a new majority on the seven-member school board have never publicly criticized Alvarez’s performance, saying only that they had “philosophical differences.”

Meeting Wednesday night, the Lancaster school board voted to give Alvarez a three-year contract starting at $83,000ayear and to pay him $3,500 in relocation expenses. School officials said he was chosen from among 51 candidates in a nationwide search.

Alvarez will be Lancaster’s fourth superintendent in the past 2 1/2 years and the first Latino in memory to head an Antelope Valley school district. Edward Goodwin, who had held the position on an interim basis since July, 1989, will return to his assistant superintendent’s job.

For the Lancaster school district, the selection was particularly important. Once considered one of the best-run districts in the Antelope Valley, Lancaster in recent years has gained the reputation of being among the worst, due to frequent administrative changes and other turmoil.

Voters rejected a district-sponsored $47-million school bond measure on the April ballot. A budget crisis is looming, its schools are overcrowded, and a slip-up may have cost the district $5 million it had hoped to get from an $800-million state bond measure on the June ballot.

Alvarez said he expects to be judged on how he responds to those and other problems. And the new superintendent said he figures “there are going to be a lot of eyes” watching his performance because of his youth, unconventional background and role as a Latino leader of a non-Latino district.

Alvarez is one of only 33 Latino superintendents among more than 700 larger public school districts in California, according to a recent survey, and most of the others work in heavily Latino districts. Thus, about 4.7% of the superintendents are Latinos in a state where 33% of the public school students are Latino.

School officials also said Alvarez, in addition to being one of the youngest superintendents in the state, may also be the youngest among the 82 public school districts in Los Angeles County. The average age for superintendents in California was 51 in the most recent state survey.

Alvarez said his first task will be to learn about his new district, and he offered no major educational proposals. But he said: “The Lancaster district has been in turmoil the past two to three years. They need a leader, and hopefully I’m that person who can bring them together.”