Payzant Gets Strong Vote of Confidence

San Diego city schools Supt. Tom Payzant received a strong vote of confidence from his bosses Tuesday in his annual evaluation, and he was rewarded with a two-year contract extension until June 30, 1996.

The San Diego Unified School District Board of Trustees expressed satisfaction at a decline--however small--in dropout rates, at Payzant’s continuing commitment to integration, at his setting up shared decision-making among teachers and principals at all schools, and at shepherding the construction bond measure Proposition O to passage in the June election.

But trustees also asked Payzant to spend more time in the district and to forgo some of his national educational consulting and travel.

“We need you to spend more time in San Diego, setting an example of not doing it all,” trustees told him in the evaluation. Because the district has reduced the number of administrative employees due to budget cuts, board members believe Payzant needs to be more visible in the district on a day-to-day basis.

In particular, they told Payzant, he “must take the lead in promoting a deeper, more meaningful and real commitment to parents throughout the district.”

Board President Ann Armstrong told The Times: “It’s a vote of confidence in him and I think a vote of confidence in the district by Tom. He is working as hard toward our goals as he possibly can, but we realize that we are dealing with human nature (with such a large district) and that you can only move so fast.”

Payzant expressed satisfaction, saying in an interview: “I’m not burned out yet. I still have something to offer. If any urban district has a chance to make it, San Diego does . . . and I’d like to be around” for the good times.

The good times were not in evidence late Tuesday, as the board wrestled late into the wee hours trying to make final decisions about where to cut $21 million in educational services because of budget shortages.

“It’s amazing” he isn’t yet burned out given all the district problems, Trustee Susan Davis said after overhearing Payzant’s comments.

The contract extension will solidify his record as the longest-serving urban school superintendent in the United States. Last November, when Payzant, 51, began his 10th year as chief of San Diego Unified, he claimed a record unmatched by any current superintendent of the nation’s largest and often-troubled school districts.

The extension is also connected to the district’s ongoing budget problems. Payzant passed over a $15,000 salary increase last year and will forgo another $15,000 raise scheduled to take effect July 1. He will also take a 2.67% cut in pay that will apply to all district employees beginning next week.

As a result, his salary for 1992-93 will be $33,337 less than the $155,000 called for in his present contract.

The latest contract extension will allow Payzant additional time to enhance his potential pension, which is based largely on the three years of highest salary at the time of retirement or resignation.

Assuming that the state budget crisis eases next year and pay raises are given to employees, Payzant’s salary on July 1, 1993, will jump to $155,000----the amount originally called for this year. It would rise to $170,000 on July 1, 1994--a year behind his present contract schedule--and remain at that level through the end of the extension, giving him two years at that amount for pension calculations.

Payzant’s educational mark on the district is already clear.

Through the years, he has pricked trustees of the sprawling district of 124,000 students into trying a host of management, curriculum and social welfare experiments--including a novel labor compact with the San Diego Teachers Assn., now undergoing its toughest test as the two sides try non-adversarial negotiations for contract renewal.

Along the way, Payzant has earned a national reputation for reform, and he sits on numerous boards and organizations, including the College Board and the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards.

His supporters, including a consistent and solid board majority over the years, see him as a visionary risk taker, battling conservative, stand-pat educators to bring academic success to more students, especially the large number of poorly performing Latinos and blacks in the district. The district has become about 67% nonwhite, compared to 42% nonwhite when he came.

But Payzant’s critics--and there are many within the teaching and administrative ranks--say his reputation is undeserved, and charge that he has led the district away from what they claim is its basic mission of education.

Some argue that test scores have not consistently improved during his watch, that class sizes have not gotten smaller and that morale remains uneven among the teaching staff--all while Payzant has taken the district into more social- and health-based programs that have not been proven to boost academic achievement directly.

Others fault Payzant not so much for his key policies as for his inattention to implementing the nitty-gritty of dropout prevention, remedial education, minority achievement and other ideas he has promulgated.

But the present board clearly believes that Payzant is doing his best and credits him with keeping the district from falling into the downward educational spirals now seen in Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston and other urban systems.

Even Trustee John De Beck, who ran for the board seat two years ago because he disagrees with many Payzant policies, said Tuesday that he remains satisfied with Payzant.

“There is no use going through the trauma of looking for someone else until we have a changed board,” De Beck said in an interview, acknowledging that Payzant loyally carries out the wishes of the majority of trustees. “And if the board changes, then Tom would have to change. In the meantime, why go bouncing ‘round the country disturbing everything when he is as effective as any superintendent we could find?”