Inglewood Board Member Under Fire

Inglewood school board member Zyra McCloud, a former parent activist known for her confrontational style, came under fire Wednesday night as her colleagues considered launching an internal investigation into her behavior during student fighting last month at Inglewood High School.

Although not specifying McCloud’s alleged violations, board President Larry Aubry said her presence at Inglewood High School and at meetings with community members in the days after the May 1 student fighting exacerbated conditions there and probably violated school board rules.

With McCloud condemning the probe as a politically motivated witch hunt, the board postponed a decision on the investigation until its next meeting.

The raucous meeting was marked by other clashes. The teachers union, disgruntled over salary negotiations, sent a vote of no confidence to Supt. George McKenna, and community members lobbied for the return of Lawrence Freeman as principal of Inglewood High.

McCloud, a school board member since 1987, had been previously criticized by her colleagues for stirring up students during February walkouts at Morningside High School and for leading a group of residents through the Morningside campus last fall to verify reports that the school was in disrepair .

During her defense Wednesday night, McCloud criticized her board colleagues, saying that their “focus is no longer on the children. The focus is on fighting each other.”

Board members criticized her at the meeting for failing to sign a code of conduct approved by the rest of the board in April. The code calls for the creation of a two-member subcommittee, made up of board members, to investigate alleged violations of internal board rules. McCloud said she regarded the code as a poorly concealed political attack on her.

Although Aubry refused to specify how McCloud allegedly overstepped her bounds at Inglewood High, several teachers and students at the school had said in interviews after the student fighting that McCloud played a role in trying to organize a student walkout, which never occurred, and that she publicly called for Freeman’s ouster as principal. McCloud has denied both assertions.

A former PTA president, McCloud in past years had led frequent protests at board meetings and was forcibly removed from a meeting in 1985 for speaking out of turn.

She said in a recent interview that fighting for better education in Inglewood, not decorum, is her main concern.

“I can get things done the Zyra McCloud way,” she said. “I’m not worried about my office. Take the office.

“The Zyra McCloud way is combative, fiery. The Zyra McCloud way is to get their attention and force them to work for the people and the children.”

An acrimonious note was set at the outset of Wednesday’s meeting when Cheryl Bell, president of the Inglewood Teachers Assn., presented the teachers’ 372-92 no-confidence vote against McKenna. She tied it to his role in contentious salary negotiations between the teachers union and district.

The teachers ratified a contract agreement last month that calls for a retroactive 2% salary increase for the last school year and 5.4% for the current year, which ends June 30. Teachers reluctantly approved the increases after an independent fact-finder ruled that 7.2% over two years was all the district could afford. But the teachers will return to the negotiating table this summer to discuss the contract for the 1990-91 school year and beyond.

Teachers blamed McKenna for the combative environment of the talks, for an exodus of experienced teachers from the district, and for not controlling students at Morningside and Inglewood high schools.

In an interview Thursday morning, McKenna said he considered the no-confidence vote Bell’s handiwork and possibly an attempt to “set the stage for the upcoming contract talks.”

“I think the teachers have been most appreciative of what I’ve tried to do,” he said, “especially during the crises.”

McKenna also was defended by Aubry, who in a letter to teachers this week said the board and not the superintendent is responsible for negotiations.

The board itself also came under attack from a group of community members for its decision last month to replace Lawrence Freeman as principal of Inglewood High. Freeman has been on a stress leave since the May 1 student uprising.

“I’m appalled at what has happened here,” said Roosevelt Dorn, a Los Angeles Superior Court judge who credited Freeman with reducing gang activity and absenteeism at the school.

Freeman, who enforced strict disciplinary and dress codes among students, was sued and found to have used unfair labor practices in his treatment of the faculty during his six years at Inglewood High. Supporters, however, said Freeman cleaned up the campus and established high expectations for students.

His reassignment came less than two weeks after fighting broke out between black and Latino students on campus, forcing school officials to dismiss classes early and call in the police.

The search for Freeman’s replacement is under way. In the meantime, the board named Liza Daniels as acting principal and Lance Vlach and Sandra Chefney as acting assistant principals.

At Morningside, the board extended the appointment of Mallory Matthews as acting principal for the coming school year. He was assigned to the acting post earlier this year after the previous head, Art Murray, was transferred.