School Board Picks Latino to Succeed Britton

William R. Anton, a 38-year veteran of the Los Angeles Unified School District, on Monday was named superintendent, succeeding the man who beat him to the top job just three years ago.

The Board of Education voted 6 to 1 to make Anton the first Latino to head the 610,000-student district. The former deputy superintendent will earn the same salary--$164,555--as Leonard Britton, who announced last week he would leave when his contract expired in June, 1991.

But after a day-long closed-door session, the board voted 5 to 2, with board members Jackie Goldberg and Julie Korenstein dissenting, to buy out Britton’s contract. His last day will be Friday.

Korenstein cast the only vote against hiring Anton, saying she was angry that the board had awarded him a three-year contract (with a provision for a review after two years) without considering other candidates.

Estimating the buyout of Britton’s contract could cost more than $225,000 when details are finalized, Korenstein said she deplored the way the decision was “railroaded through.”

But Mark Slavkin, one of four board members elected since Britton’s hiring, said he was “excited” about Anton, calling him “the best choice.”

Slavkin added that he felt the three-year contract was important to give Anton a chance to “turn this district around” and to show the board’s confidence in him.

Anton, who began his career as a teacher at Rowan Avenue Elementary School in 1952, said his greatest assets are a willingness to work hard, a commitment to children, a thorough knowledge of the district and the communities it serves and his ability to work with people.

“I’m also an optimist . . . I’ve heard we’re adrift, but I do not believe that,” he said. “We have very capable people, and if we focus on what is best for our children,” many of the district’s problems can be solved.

Anton said he considers the size of the district, the second largest in the nation, an asset and will work to defeat proposals to break it up.

One of his first acts Monday was to phone United Teachers-Los Angeles President Helen Bernstein to offer to work with her.

But he said it has not been decided yet whether he, like Britton, will have a bodyguard-chauffeur. That was one of the union’s favorite examples of what it called administrative extravagance.

Anton’s selection marks a return to the district’s long tradition of finding superintendents from within its own ranks.

The change at the top comes during a pivotal year for the district, which plans to put all schools on a year-round calendar by next summer. The district is also wrestling with deepening financial problems while beginning to change the ways schools are run and hoping to improve student achievement.

Adding to the politically sensitive mix is the fact that the three-year contract with the teachers’ union expires next June, shortly after four of the seven board members face reelection.

One of two deputy superintendents passed over three years ago in favor of Britton, Anton, who will be 66 next week, had announced last November that he would retire at the end of the current school year. His change of heart a month later fueled speculation he expected to be offered the top job.

Anton at the time would say only that he was urged to stay by Britton and by board members Rita Walters and Leticia Quezada--both of whom have been critical of Britton.

On Monday, Anton said nothing “had been promised or even suggested” at the time he rescinded his retirement plans.

When the board brought Britton, from the top schools post in Miami, it was criticized for not picking a Latino or a black to head the huge district, in which students are about 85% minority. Latinos represent almost 62% of all students, and blacks, make up almost 16%. Almost 15% of the students are Anglos, while almost 6% are Asians.

The other finalist for the superintendent’s job in 1987 was Deputy Supt. Sidney Thompson, a black and longtime district veteran.

Britton arrived with a sound reputation for calm leadership and innovative ideas, including a proposal for school-based management, which gives more autonomy to each campus. He soon encountered a teachers’ strike in which union leaders sought to portray him as the villain, and his low-key style alienated some. Unable to bring any of his key staff from Miami, Britton said he found it difficult to build a new team. He also found a sharply divided Board of Education.

On Monday Britton warmly congratulated Anton, and said he was proud of what had been accomplished under his own leadership.