Q & A : Challenges Are Budget and Morale

* Darline P. Robles, 42, named superintendent of the Montebello Unified School District last week. She had been acting superintendent since July.

* Claim to fame: As interim superintendent, she led the state’s 12th largest public school district from the shoals of bankruptcy. Under her leadership, the district cut programs, reduced pay, increased class sizes, converted elementary school librarians to classroom teachers, and laid off about 200 employees, most of them teachers. The cuts slashed $28 million--about 22%--from the school system’s $101.5-million budget. Most parents and employees stuck by the popular Robles, agreeing that the cuts were a necessary evil.

* Background: The bilingual administrator grew up in East Los Angeles and Montebello. She earned a bachelor’s degree in history from Cal State Los Angeles (1972) and a master’s in education from Claremont Graduate School. She is a doctoral candidate in education at USC. Her entire professional career has been with the Montebello school system, where she began as a teacher in 1973. She directed the district’s bilingual program (1979-81) and worked as principal of Washington Elementary (1981-85) and Montebello Intermediate (1985-88), before becoming an assistant superintendent (1988-91).

* Interviewer: Times Staff Writer Howard Blume.

Q: What are the biggest challenges you face?

A: I think the biggest challenge is the same as when I was appointed as acting superintendent: getting the budget ready for ‘92-’93 and keeping morale up and keeping the team effort, the team morale, going.

Q: How does the financial picture look?

A: I see 1993-94 as an opening where we’re going to see some breathing room. . . . I’ve got a sense the recession is bottoming out now. I’m looking to have a balanced budget and our required $2.6 million or 2% reserve by September, 1993.

In Montebello, you have a board that wants to make sure Montebello stays solvent. They’re not going to give up the district to the state. That commitment is important.

Q: Given the budget cuts and the financial predicament, is the average student getting as good an education as, say, three years ago?

A: I think our teachers are giving the kids the best education possible. I think we’re as good or better than ever. First of all, we have experienced teachers, committed teachers. The reason I can say that we’re doing a good job is that I’ve been in the classroom.

Our parents aren’t shy. They are . . . not going to put up with bad teaching. They want their kids to succeed.

Q: How are the teachers dealing with the larger class sizes and cuts in supplies?

A: It’s frustrating for the teachers. Their morale has good days and bad days because of the financial situation. We’ve tried to keep people informed so when they walk in during the morning to the classroom they can forget about those issues and work with the kids.

Q: How do the problems in Montebello compare with the problems in education statewide?

A: Your urban districts like Montebello are going through the same problems. All we’re going to have soon is the principal, the teachers and the kids. Some districts started cutting earlier. We started last year. At a recent state meeting of school superintendents, I didn’t speak to anyone that wasn’t having a budget difficulty.

Q: Given that you had to recommend employee layoffs and drastic cuts to programs, how did you manage to preserve your popularity with parents and employee groups?

A: It’s just like anything else. One person isn’t responsible for everything. Just like one person isn’t responsible for success.

I’m not the kind of person that blames people. If I don’t point fingers and I model that kind of behavior, then I think other people won’t point the finger of blame.

I have worked with parents so much in my career that parents do know me. I live in the community. I have family in the community. I know people in the community. There isn’t the aura of: Who is this person?

Q: What went wrong with the district finances?

A: We took some calculated risks in some areas that didn’t come to fruition. We made some bad decisions without enough information, making some assumptions that ended up not being in our favor. We were deficit spending and we knew that, and we can’t do that anymore.

Now we’re taking everything that could possibly go wrong into account and operating with that.

Q: What have you learned from the past financial practices of the district that will guide you in how you handle the budget?

A: What we are doing is sharing with the board and the public the worst-case scenario. That’s the $12 million in cuts we’re looking at for next year.

People kept telling us, “Don’t keep changing the numbers on us to make the situation look better than it is for as long as possible.” I listened to them. In most organizations, you’re trying to avoid the negative, but then the negative catches up with you.

Q: How prepared were you for the job when you became interim superintendent in July?

A: The three years I was assistant superintendent gave me insight into what that role would be. . . . Then having to go through the budget situation and hearings last year helped get me prepared for what took place in July and the rest of the year. But until you sit in this chair, you don’t really know what goes on. . . . I had a lot of support of people willing to sit down and teach me things I didn’t have a handle on. My assistant superintendents were superb with me.

Q: Were you concerned about your relative lack of experience in putting together a district budget?

A: As far as the basic budgeting principles and concepts, there’s no magic to them. I wasn’t afraid or scared or worried because I felt people would give me the information I needed. People wanted to make sure Montebello came out of this.

Q: Why accept the interim position in such a financial crisis?

A: I could have easily said no, but I really believed I could help the district. I wanted to be part of the solution.

I always remember my vision for the kids, which is having them become productive citizens, able to have the tools they need, able to have options.

Q: What are your plans for the educational future of district?

A: I know in my gut level what I want to see, but have I planned things one, two, three? No, it didn’t make sense to do that. I didn’t know I was going to be sitting in this chair.

I want to see schools that are active places for kids to learn. Places where teachers are also active learners. We have it in small places, in individual classrooms. I want to see it in every school and every classroom. I want to be able to see kids that know why they’re in school. I want it translated to them and their parents.

Q: Where specifically do you want to have the most impact?

A: I have to be a visible superintendent at the school sites, interacting with people where the action is. I try to do that. My first seven months on the job I wanted to be at every school. I spoke to every staff. That’s 28 schools including the adult school.

I would want to see that every employee wants to come to work on Monday morning, is excited to come to work. I want parents to be excited to send their kids to school, and I want kids to be excited about going to school.

Q: What are the good things this district and the public schools have going for them?

A: Montebello is a large district, but it still has an intimate, small-town feeling. People don’t feel like they’re just an unknown out there at a school site.

For a long time, we’ve been getting a bad rap. We don’t toot our horns enough. That’s why we get the voucher proposals and the schools-of-choice ideas.

Given the expectations that are put on schools to do everything from child care to health issues, we’re doing a dynamite job. But we need to tell the public that we can’t do all that anymore with the money they’re giving us.

Q: How have your views of education changed over the years?

A: I don’t think my educational philosophy has basically changed. I believe kids want to be actively involved in their learning, part of the decision-making in their day-to-day work. I’ve evolved in that I’ve learned different ways to do that.

Q: Describe the administrative style of Darline Robles.

A: I believe I’m an innovator in some ways and an assimilator in others, one that takes what I like from things I see and incorporates that in my style. Part of my style has always been to be direct. I want to deal with a situation up front and right away.

I need to identify the problems, but put my energy into the solutions. That’s where my energy goes, into the solutions.

Q: Name an important influence on your feelings about education.

A: My 10th-grade social studies teacher at Catholic school, Mother Donald. In 10th-grade European history, you’re thinking of boys and everything else. But I remember discussing Bismarck, and she just made it come alive. I don’t know if she was old or young. She seemed young. She acted out the parts. She got us involved. That’s why I ended up being a history major.

Q: What was a turning point in your professional career?

A: I learned a lot with my first principalship. It was such a major moment to be a principal and be able to influence teachers, parents and kids. You don’t realize until your first year on the job how much you don’t know. Even after five or six years on the job, things come up and you don’t have the answers sometimes. People understand that one person can’t have all the answers. They want to have a person that will go out and find the answer and make sure there’s a response to the problem.

Q: You received part of your education in this school district and your son graduated from this school system. How do you feel about your public school education--and his?

A: I loved school. I always wanted to be in education because I’m sure I had good teachers. School was a positive place for me. I remember teachers teaching me things and caring about me. And I’m happy with my son’s education. He knows and I know that the education he gets is what he puts into it as well.

Q: Do you have a message for your staff, parents and students?

A: Only that I’m so thankful for the tremendous support. It’s an honor and a privilege to do this. It’s hard for me to describe the feeling because it’s been so heartwarming to know that everybody wants to work together. The first eight months have been manageable and bearable because of that support.