Issue: The Future of Los Angeles Schools

The Los Angeles Unified School District will begin searching for a permanent replacement for Supt. Bill Anton, who recently resigned from the post. What should be the priorities of the new superintendent?

Antonio Garcia, Principal, Huntington Park High School His first priority should be to provide as much support as possible for individual school sites. There is a feeling that what the downtown administration wants and what is accomplished at the schools are two different things. The central downtown office has goals that try to be very broad and universal. The superintendent has to give the feeling that he supports my program in my school, that the goals are things he wants to accomplish with us.

As resources become available, they should be directed to the schools and teachers. Now, resources come into a central office (which attempts to distribute them) in some equitable fashion. Instead, let’s match up funds with principals or programs. Let’s eliminate some of the middle person.

Sometimes interest from groups like Rebuild L.A. wanes if it takes too long for us to utilize their resources. If they are told to hold on for six months, they may think the school system doesn’t need their help as bad as it does.

The superintendent also needs to look at building a lot of bridges between the entire administration and the bargaining units, the unions. We’re all in this ballgame together. That may sound like words or rhetoric, but it is something that is real important at this time.

Lydia Morales, Parent of two students at Lorena Street Elementary School in Boyle Heights Somebody has to sit down and seriously re-evaluate this budget to see if there is anywhere we can cut to leave the teachers alone. It’s a hard job. I don’t know where the excess is. Only the administrators know. We hear, “Let’s cut teachers’ salaries, cafeteria help, secretarial help,” but you don’t hear about administrators taking a pay cut. They just want to hurt the little people. Why don’t they say they’ll take a pay cut for a year or two years?

School board members are crying about the government not giving them enough. They could take a pay cut so the kids could have more. The kids need the money. I hear that at some schools the kids have to bring in their own paper.

If the school board keeps cutting and cutting the teachers, they are going to leave because they need to feed their families. What happens then? How can you ask somebody to go to school to be a teacher when it’s such a thankless job? We’re talking about our children’s future, our children’s education. I don’t think the school board is even thinking about our children.

I think (interim superintendent Sid Thompson) stepped into a job that is too big for one man. I hope he can handle it. There’s a lot of angry parents, a lot of people who want him to work miracles. He’s going to have to.

Lois Hunter, Chairwoman, performing arts department, Washington Prep High School

The first priority should be to develop a plan to implement the recommendations of LEARN, (the Los Angeles Educational Alliance for Restructuring Now, which has called for a reduction in downtown bureaucracy, allowing schools more control over spending, hiring and teaching).

The superintendent should develop a consensus among the school board, the teachers and parents over the plan. I agree with its philosophy. It holds teachers, administrators and parents accountable for educating children. This is a new thrust. It’s exciting for Los Angeles. The old is going out, because the old has not worked and needs to be revamped.

Building consensus is a big job for the superintendent. He has to forge a middle-of-the-road compromise so that no one group feels like they lost face. You can’t have a superintendent who placates the board, the teachers or the parents. He’s got to be a nonpartisan person.

In the past, it’s been the superintendent and the board against the teachers. We really never had a superintendent who was nonpartisan. So he must develop a plan to pull these people together. That person must have a lot of vision. He also will have to focus on the unity of the district, which is entirely too big. The Valley probably wants to break away. The district as it is set up now cannot meet the needs of the children.

Soo Kim, Senior, University High School

His top priority should be to see that the students get what they need in education and social activities at schools, since they are spending half their time there. In my honors and (advanced-placement) classes, there are 30 or 40 students per class. There are not enough chairs. That is really devastating. My classmates just stand there sometimes.

There are no field trips, no activities, no nothing. It’s even hard for us to get sponsors for clubs. We need more materials. In my photography class, we pay for our own chemicals and photo paper. The $20 (allotted) per person lasts only about half the semester. And how about those desks we sit at? Some are broken in half, some are vandalized. They are so dirty.

The environment at school is not that good. I expect more than what we have today. Teachers are not even grading extra-credit work, because they’re not paid overtime for that. When kids are talking in class, teachers don’t yell or tell them to be quiet. They say, “If you talk, it’s your problem. If you don’t want to learn, just get out of the class.” They don’t teach them how to learn.

The message I’m getting around school is that the superintendent is not doing his job and he’s getting paid more than he should, more than other people who are in higher positions. He should pay attention to what the students really want. His job is to ensure that the teachers educate the students and that the teachers get paid. He’s not doing his job, period.