Thompson Gets 2-Year Contract to Lead Schools

Los Angeles school district Supt. Sid Thompson was handed a two-year contract by the Board of Education on Thursday to undertake what many view as an impossible task: to lead the battered school district through the most rigorous reform movement in its history.

After a daylong, closed-door meeting, all seven board members gathered to announce their 6-0 vote, with one abstention, awarding the veteran district administrator the $140,000-a-year post. He has sought the job since fall, when he was named interim superintendent after the resignation of Bill Anton. Thompson’s contract was to expire June 30.

Thompson, 61, pledged that his commitment lies with “the young people, because they are who we are all about.” After loud applause from staff and parents who gathered for the announcement, he said that his priorities will be raising student achievement and making the central bureaucracy more efficient.

To do this, he vowed to fully implement the LEARN reform plan to bring more decision-making to school sites. And he said he intends to use the recommendations in a recent management audit, which sharply criticized inefficient district operations, to clean house at district headquarters.

“It’s going to be very difficult for this system, but we believe it will be good for this system,” said Thompson, who during 37 years ascended from classroom teacher to chief of the nation’s second-largest school district. Thompson’s new contract will end in July, 1995.

Assembly Speaker Willie Brown, who saw Thompson close-up during weeks of intense negotiations over the teachers contract, praised him as “a talented, sensitive man who understands human relations as well as anyone I have ever seen--and he is literally in an impossible situation.”

Brown, in an interview earlier this week, said Thompson has been handicapped by board members who meddle in his decisions. “The school board ought to make the policy and get the hell out of the way,” Brown said.

School board President Leticia Quezada said the final board decision on the appointment was delayed because of an investigation by the U.S. attorney’s office into a contracting firm that worked for the district and a lawsuit brought by a district employee who supervised the contractor.

The contractor, Institute for Successful Living Inc., was the subject of a state attorney general investigation last year. It ran an independent studies program that allegedly duped the district out of hundreds of thousands of dollars by charging the district for students who were not enrolled and instructors who did not exist.

In April, employee Donald Martin sued the district, claiming he was unfairly demoted for being a whistle-blower on the contractor. Former Supt. Anton, the school board, then-Deputy Supt. Thompson and administrator Barry L. Mostovoy were named in the suit.

Assistant U.S. Atty. Mark Flanagan declined to comment.

Quezada said the board hired an outside attorney who assured it that “no allegations or investigation is directed at any employee of this district. The board is comfortable there is not a cloud of allegations directed at Sid Thompson.”

Thompson said he is confident that there was no wrongdoing on his part or others.

School board member Julie Korenstein abstained from the vote, citing her concern over the investigations and lawsuit.

But fellow board member Mark Slavkin said he was satisfied that none of the investigations “has put compelling evidence on the table to suggest any impropriety of the superintendent or raise any question as to his integrity.”

Quezada said the board opted against a national search because stability in the district is needed. A series of crises, including the bitter negotiations over the teachers contract, would have made recruiting difficult.

The challenge facing Thompson is enormous and his success will likely turn on whether school board members and the district’s influential employee unions will empower him to take aggressive action to restructure the district.

“This is nearly an impossible task and he certainly can’t do it right away,” said school board member Barbara Boudreaux, a staunch Thompson supporter. “Now the board members have to back off the micro-managing and let the superintendent run the district.”

Some question whether Thompson, as a longtime district insider, will be able to make tough management decisions that may hurt colleagues.

“On a personal level, I think he’s a very decent human being who cares about kids,” said United Teacher-Los Angeles President Helen Bernstein. “The question is, can he exhibit the kind of leadership needed to set this system right. There are overwhelming problems here and you need an incredibly strong leader who’ll come in and clean house.”

Times staff writers Henry Chu and Sandy Banks contributed to this article.