PROFILE: SANFORD SIGOLOFF : To Him, Rescuing Schools Is Same as Reviving Businesses

Corporate turnaround wizard Sanford Sigoloff says he has faced tougher challenges than rescuing the state’s foundering public school system.

And if he is confirmed as the state’s next superintendent in January, he will begin by applying the same principles he has relied upon to revive failing businesses: Talk to the customers, the employees, the managers--in this case, parents, teachers and school administrators--to decide what the problems are. Scrutinize the ledgers to see where the money goes. Draw up a list of priorities, determined through consensus and teamwork. And make sure you are spending your money on the things that matter most.

“I’m not a person who intends to get involved in a battle over what textbook we use or what’s the curriculum or how the teacher presents the lessons to the students,” Sigoloff, 63, said in an interview Friday, the day after Gov. Pete Wilson announced his nomination as interim schools chief.

“What we’ve got to do, and what my job is, is to look at the process of allocation of resources from the bottom-up.”

By his own admission, Sigoloff is a “blank piece of paper” when it comes to ideas for classroom reform. But in the 10 months he will have, at most, to do his job--a permanent chief will be elected next November--he intends to shake up the education bureaucracy with a little bit of his Wall Street wisdom.

Sigoloff, whose lean frame and terse voice became familiar to Southern Californians in the 1980s from his “We got the message, Mr. Sigoloff” ads for the now defunct Builders Emporium chain, is widely regarded for his ability to salvage debt-laden companies.

In addition to Wickes, the former owner of Builders Emporium, Sigoloff helped resuscitate Republic Corp. and Daylin. However, despite his tough successes, Sigoloff has not followed up his rescues with any long-term stints as chief executive in non-crises.

After two years at Republic, which he saved by selling more than 50 money-losing divisions, he departed after disagreements with directors. Later, he left Daylin when the Los Angeles-based retailer was bought by W. R. Grace & Co.

At Wickes, Sigoloff brought the company out of Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 1985, after three years in which Sigoloff and his managers often worked 18 hours a day, seven days a week. They transformed it from a retailer to a diversified consumer and industrial products company. But when Sigoloff was unable to boost the company’s stock price, the company was sold to new investors in 1988.

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In 1989, Sigoloff was hired to rescue the troubled retail and real estate company L.J. Hooker, whose money-losing chains included Bonwit Teller, Bernard Altman, and Sakowitz. He left there in July, 1992. Since then, he has operated his own consulting firm in Santa Monica, which specializes in rescuing small, troubled companies across the nation.

During the early period of the Wickes reorganization in 1982, Sigoloff often put in 22-hour days. He still shuns a 9-to-5 routine and expects the same from his staff. He can be on the phone to subordinates as early as 6:30 a.m. and as late as 10:30 p.m.

As a corporate rescue artist, Sigoloff usually entered the picture when business owners had exhausted other options and were fighting off bankruptcy.

Although some of the state’s school districts have come close to insolvency, the overall situation is not that dire. But Sigoloff said that exploding student enrollment coupled with declining revenues means fundamental changes must be made if schools are to meet the challenge of the next decades.

“The state is in transition. It’s going to have economic problems for the next five or seven years and it faces competition from neighboring states,” Sigoloff said. “Developing an educational system that provides skilled and educated workers is a primary need.”

A graduate of Beverly Hills High School, UCLA and Pepperdine University who lives in Brentwood, the former nuclear chemist has had little direct experience in the state’s public schools.

But his business experience has taught him that accountability must be the watchword of school reform--both in making schools accountable to parents and taxpayers, and making students accountable for their own achievement.

“It’s ‘pay for performance,’ ” Sigoloff said. “We talk input, but we don’t measure output. . . . When it comes to government, we tend to say: ‘Throw more money into it and it will work.’

“I’m not saying that’s wrong, but my job will be to look at the process: How we are spending it, where does it go, is that the right thing to do? And if it needs to be fixed, everybody’s got to agree to do what it takes.”

But how will those business principles translate to the state’s highly politicized and factionalized education bureaucracy, where programs are governed by myriad regulations and employees insulated by civil service protections?

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Los Angeles financial consultants and lawyers who have worked with Sigoloff praise his ability to diagnose problems quickly and draft solutions. And they say his status as an outsider, who is not held captive by any education interest group, may aid him in identifying the causes of the public schools’ ills.

Still, they note, there remains a question of whether his skills as a corporate bankruptcy artist will translate to the political and educational arenas.

“He’s familiar with the bankruptcy code,” said one Los Angeles attorney who asked not to be identified, “but isn’t there a whole educational code that he has to work with now?”

But Robert Wycoff, the former Arco chief who heads the board of the Los Angeles school reform group LEARN, said Sigoloff’s business background could be a plus.

“As another businessman who got into the education business without any background, I think his talents as a manager and organizer might be very useful in this job,” Wycoff said.

Senate Leader David A. Roberti (D-Van Nuys) and his likely successor as president pro tem, Bill Lockyer (D-Hayward), said Wilson made a wise choice in selecting someone with business experience and no political aspirations.

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But there are already signs that resistance is brewing in the Capitol. Acting Supt. William D. Dawson, who was second in command when former Supt. Bill Honig was forced to step down last spring, said Thursday that he is troubled by Wilson’s decision to appoint a short-term manager and feared that the move “could bring to a grinding halt the hard-won progress” the state has made in school reform.

Assemblywoman Delaine Eastin (D-Fremont), who chairs the Assembly Education Committee and plans to run for superintendent next year, accused Wilson of trying to avoid controversy by selecting an outsider with no educational experience.

“It seems like that must be their strategy,” she said. Sigoloff “is someone without a track record in education. So there is no real target. My biggest concern is what is his education platform and what does he intend to do?”

Sigoloff said Friday that he has not had a chance to talk with Dawson or other Education Department officials, but understands their concerns. He admitted that he may be “a little naive about the cooperation I’m going to get.”

“This is an orderly environment of Civil (Service) workers who are qualified, but who do not want to have their lifestyles changed. And here’s this guy who comes and people say he takes no prisoners,” Sigoloff said. “So I don’t blame them for being a little nervous.”

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Times staff writer Carl Ingram in Sacramento contributed to this story.