Laguna Supt. Sets Student Goals High : Education: Paul Possemato turned East L.A. school around. Now he’s getting good marks here in push for reforms aimed at excellence.

By the time Paul M. Possemato strode into Garfield High School in East Los Angeles, there already had been one slaying and several stabbings on campus.

“The place was absolutely a shambles,” the former principal recalled. “It was run by gangs.”

But Possemato won acclaim for bringing peace to the troubled campus where, two years later, Jaime Escalante of “Stand and Deliver” fame began teaching calculus.

Now, 16 years later, Possemato begins his third school year as superintendent of the far more docile Laguna Beach Unified School District, where, once again, he is displaying a dazzling ability to get things done.

“I really look to him as a mentor,” Laguna Beach High School Principal Barbara Callard said. “I think he has great vision and the unique ability to mobilize a group around him and see his plans come to fruition. . . . He does that better than anyone I know of.”

Last month, district trustees raised Possemato’s salary to $115,500 a year, and the district released a progress report of 28 “education innovations” made since he became the top administrator.

They include a community service requirement for graduating seniors, a citywide program to help youngsters avoid the deadly AIDS virus and a Youth and Violence summit, which spawned a game plan to keep youngsters out of trouble and parents involved.

In addition, since 1991 the district has begun teaching foreign language in elementary schools, expanded visual and performing arts classes for all grades and launched a frontal attack against falling math test scores at the high school.

Possemato can’t take full credit for all the improvements, but colleagues say he is at least partly responsible for many of them, and, just as importantly, for setting a tone in the district that encourages freethinking and innovation.

Board member Timothy D. Carlyle said Possemato’s leadership style is “inspirational,” and always focused on “what’s best for the children.”

“The thing I like best about him is he is not satisfied,” Carlyle added. “He’s pleased progress has been made, but he knows the district can be better and should do better.”

Possemato maintains that dreams are kept alive in schools by expecting excellence from students.

“It isn’t OK to have everyone move toward the norm, because the norm keeps getting lowered,” he said. “The truth is, that is really the issue of public education.”

Tributes to the superintendent are echoed by colleagues who worked with him during his 33 years with the Los Angeles Unified School District. Particularly memorable, they say, were his two years as principal of Garfield High School, where he was assigned to keep the school from losing its accreditation.

Violence was only part of Garfield’s problem. There were no biology, American government or advanced math classes being taught, Possemato said. Instead, teens were being offered instruction in “barrio politics” and other classes intended to help them survive in East Los Angeles.

The students “were robbed,” he said, “because the general philosophy was, ‘These kids are not up to the standards.’ ”

Among the sweeping changes there, drug dealers were pushed out, graffiti was wiped away and the inspirational Escalante--later immortalized by Edward James Olmos in the movie “Stand and Deliver”--began to teach calculus.

“I went to the bullpen to get the best man we had for a very difficult assignment,” said Bill Johnston, the retired Los Angeles school district superintendent, who tapped Possemato for the job. “He turned that school around.”

In Laguna Beach, Possemato has received broad praise and support.

Cindy Pruitt, executive director of the fund-raising organization SchoolPower, credits Possemato with boosting the morale of both parents and faculty.

And Walt Lawson, head of the teacher’s union for the past two years, said his slant on Possemato “couldn’t be more positive.”

“We haven’t agreed on everything,” Lawson added. “But we dealt with (issues) up front and, I feel, pretty effectively.”

About the worst thing said about the superintendent is that he works too hard. “The main lament I have about Paul is he doesn’t take enough total time off,” school board member Carl E. Schwarz said, “and he’s doing an awful lot at once.”

That’s not a charge denied by the high-energy Possemato, a self-proclaimed workaholic who is both professional and animated, kneading the air to make a point and inserting, “I don’t want to get too intense about this,” before pounding his palm to make a point.

He’s been making lists since elementary school, considers it “egotistical” to miss a deadline, and doesn’t do lunch.

His resume outlines a man on the move. Before coming south, the Connecticut-born Possemato rose to associate superintendent in the Los Angeles Unified School District, riding out many a political hurricane.

In one of his more controversial ventures, as head of that district’s high schools in 1985, he ordered high school academic decathlon team coaches to have their squads reflect the gender and ethnic makeup of the student body. It was “not reasonable,” he said, to have only one girl on a six-member team.

Many coaches balked, saying the selection should be based solely on academic excellence. The district backed down and Possemato helped draw up a more flexible policy.

During an interview at his Laguna Beach office, Possemato reminisced about the rocky and exhilarating road that led him to Laguna Beach, saying he once thought: “I’ll never leave L.A., never.”

A shift came in 1981 when Johnston left the superintendent’s position in Los Angeles. He recommended Possemato as his replacement, but the board chose someone else. In 1987, Possemato was again passed over for the job.

Several years later, he had a confrontation with the new superintendent involving “trust, integrity and relationships.” Within days of deciding to switch jobs, Possemato, who calls himself “a great believer in propinquity,” learned of the opening in Laguna Beach.

At almost 60, the Anaheim Hills resident admits it took some adjusting to move to a district where the total student population is a third less than that of Garfield in 1975.

Once tended to by five secretaries, and with 300 people reporting to him, Possemato now sometimes logs his own appointments and types his own letters. Resources simply are not as plentiful here, he said.

While Laguna Beach does not have the same problems as Los Angeles, Possemato said the city has its own demons to slay.

For example, lulled by having well-behaved and mannerly children, some parents allow their youngsters to slide by with B’s and C’s when they could be doing better, he said.

“The reality is that the youngsters have not even begun to be challenged,” he said. “It isn’t OK to have everyone move toward the norm because the norm keeps getting lowered.”

The key academic issue in Laguna Beach is the lack of proficiency in mathematics, he said. Students pick up verbal skills and other information from their parents, but “you don’t talk about math at the dinner table.”

Beyond academics, Possemato said Laguna Beach children have too few contacts with youngsters from other cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds, a problem that breeds fear and mistrust.

“We need to expand the horizons of our kids,” he said. “We’ve got to let youngsters explore and see things a little beyond what they’ve seen in the past.”

Possemato has been impressed more than once by the community’s generosity. On the Monday after last year’ Los Angeles riots, he launched a relief effort to help the victims. By Saturday, volunteers had collected nine trucks of food, blankets and clothing.

Satisfied for now with where he has landed, Possemato is still looking to the future. With a 15% hike in enrollment since 1991, he says the district must plan for more growth.

To meet the needs, Possemato said he’ll tap into the faculty’s creativity and then “sit back, relax and watch it happen.”

It is typical of Possemato to downplay his contributions, Laguna Beach High School Principal Callard said. “He will frequently take a back seat to let somebody else shine.”

Profile: Paul M. Possemato

* Born: Sept. 29, 1933, Waterbury, Conn.

* Moved: 1945, to Los Angeles

* Lives: Anaheim Hills (second home in Palm Desert)

* Family: Peggy, wife of 33 years; grown daughter, Carla

* Education: Bachelor’s degree in political science, UCLA, 1955; master’s degree in education administration, USC, 1957; Ph.D. in education administration, USC, 1969

* Hobbies: Golf, reading

* Favorite book: “The Winter of Our Discontent,” John Steinbeck

Source: Paul Possemato

Researched by LESLIE EARNEST / For The Times