Compton Puts Schools Chief on Probation

The Compton school board, during an emotion-charged 7 1/2-hour meeting, voted to place Supt. J.L. Handy on three months probation for alleged dereliction of duty and mismanagement.

The action came Tuesday after a rowdy audience of more than 800 cheered dozens of employees and parents who accused Handy, board members and senior administrators of poor leadership.

Gov. Pete Wilson recently vetoed a bill that would have permitted the first state takeover of a California school district on the grounds that it is failing academically. The district has also faced lingering budget problems.

Trustees for the Compton Unified School District emerged from a two-hour closed session Tuesday with a resolution reprimanding Handy. It accused him, among other things, of “dereliction of duty, consistent failure of demonstrated leadership ability, failure to submit an accurate 1992/93 budget” and “repeated failure to follow board directives.”

The board approved the measure 4 to 3.

Handy’s duties will not change. But the probation period can be used as a preliminary step to firing Handy, who became superintendent in the fall of 1990. His contract runs through June, 1994.

Handy said he does not plan to resign and made no response in the public session to the motion or board members’ statements. After the meeting, he would say only that he was directed not to discuss the reprimand.

For board President John Steward, who said Handy mismanaged the budget, the reprimand was a compromise. “Dr. Handy, I would like to see you resign,” Steward told him during the meeting. Board member Cloria Patillo defended Handy and disagreed with the board’s action. Trustee Amen Rahh also opposed the motion, calling it an empty measure to placate employees who are angry about pending budget cuts.

“This is just to appease the audience,” Rahh said. “I think it is political grandstanding, unnecessary. It is not going to affect the cuts.”

The action comes two weeks after the school system narrowly avoided the unprecedented state takeover. Wilson said he would consider signing such legislation if the district’s schools do not improve their low test scores and high dropout rates.

Many parents, employees and officials lobbied intensely against the takeover bill. School officials argued that the school system has made significant strides recently.

Once the veto battle was won, however, divisive issues resurfaced. Problems in the business office, for example, have plagued the district all year.

A January internal audit revealed that mismanagement cost the district millions of dollars in recent years. After the board received the audit, trustees removed Kenneth Flood as the district’s business manager. Flood promptly sued for wrongful dismissal.

Flood’s departure left many functions of the business department in the hands of a consultant, including directing staff efforts to prepare a budget.

Staff members fell behind in preparing the budget and finally submitted a document that was full of mistakes. The Los Angeles County Office of Education, which must approve local school district budgets, twice rejected Compton Unified’s spending plan.

As recently as August, Handy assured the board that the budget problem was not serious and that cuts would not affect employees or programs.

Ultimately, however, the school board agreed Sept. 30 to cut $4.9 million from its $88-million spending plan to get tentative county approval for the budget. The cuts, which are likely to result in 70 to 100 layoffs and program reductions, had to be made or Compton Unified risked losing financial control to state or county officials.

It was mainly the pending layoffs that brought out the crowds Tuesday.

In addition to laying off clerks, painters and mechanics, the district will trim the nursing staff and eliminate middle school librarians. Some class sizes may increase and dozens of others will be disrupted in mid-semester, when as many as 37 non-tenured teachers lose their jobs.

Numerous school districts have made similar cuts, but nearly all of them made their reductions well before the start of school this fall.

Handy quietly absorbed much of the verbal pelting from the hostile audience Tuesday, but board members also took their share of abuse.

“I am obligated to consider you an enemy of the people,” said Vernon Goins, a fourth-grade teacher at Emerson Elementary. “You are a gang, a bad gang,” he told the board and administrators. Some speakers promised to deliver a new school board during the next election.

Following the public testimony, trustee Lynn Dymally joined Steward in calling for the 52-year-old superintendent to step down.

“We made a mistake collectively, and it is time for us to correct our mistake,” Dymally said of the decision to hire Handy.

Dymally voted for the reprimand, along with board members Steward, Sam Littleton and Kelvin Filer. Manuel Correa joined Patillo and Rahh in voting no.

Handy was attentive, but expressionless, during most of the evening. He said he was wrong about the extent of the budget problems, but said he did not intentionally mislead anyone.

When a teachers union leader demanded his resignation, Handy finally defended himself by calmly asking the teachers if they had forgotten his support of across-the-board salary increases when he became superintendent. That increase raised the average teacher’s pay by 17%, Handy said.

Handy said he deserved some responsibility for the district’s recent trials, but added that he was determined to help solve the problems.