Compton Schools Get New Chief : Education: One day after the interim administrator was fired upon, the state announces that Jerome Harris, 62, will take over the helm of the troubled district.

State officials have selected a veteran educator with a reputation for turning around urban school systems to take the helm of the financially strapped, academically struggling Compton Unified School District, where discontent erupted this week into gunfire.

Jerome Harris, 62, will be asked to bring solvency, stability and academic success to a school district that is demoralized by a state takeover, massive layoffs and employee pay cuts. The announcement of his appointment came a day after an assailant reportedly fired on the current state-appointed administrator. The incident was one of three episodes of reported gunplay that apparently arose after this week’s announcement that more than 100 non-teaching employees would lose their jobs. The cuts are the latest measures planned to offset part of an anticipated $5-million deficit in the $91.8-million budget.

The violent turn of events--which frayed nerves, but injured no one--gave Harris fair warning that he had just accepted one of the toughest jobs in education.

“The person who goes there ought to see it as a doable job,” Harris said Wednesday from his New York City home. “I think basically I don’t know anyone better than me to do it. I know how to educate urban children.”

Other district problems include racially motivated campus brawls that have divided many black and Latino students, parents and employees in a district that is about 60% Latino and 40% black. Most school system employees are African American.

From 1988 to 1990, Harris, who is black, was superintendent of the Atlanta public school system. During his tenure, student scores on the Georgia Test of Basic Skills improved to their highest statewide ranking ever, California Department of Education officials said.

Harris was fired from his Atlanta job, the result of a “lack of mutual trust and cooperation,” he said. Atlanta school officials were not available for comment.

Currently, he heads an administrative trouble-shooting program for school systems with financial, academic or labor problems at Brooklyn’s Medgar Evers College.

The selection of Harris culminates a nationwide search for an administrator to run the Compton schools. The district came under state control in July as a condition of an emergency state loan.

Harris will replace interim State Administrator Stanley G. Oswalt on Feb. 1 and earn $109,500 a year. Oswalt, a retired school district superintendent, agreed to take the job until state officials could select a new administrator.

Oswalt has been criticized for his administrative decisions and his cost-cutting efforts. A handful of death threats prompted Oswalt to authorize a state police officer to serve as his bodyguard.

Security was especially heavy for Tuesday’s board meeting, during which more than 100 employees staged a demonstration.

As Oswalt left his office building to walk the short distance to the back entrance of the board’s meeting hall about 6:20 p.m., an assailant apparently fired at him.

Officers escorting Oswalt pushed him to the ground. Also in the line of fire was newly elected school board member Michael Hopwood, who said he believes two bullets narrowly missed him.

Oswalt was hustled into his car and immediately taken home.

Police later determined that about five shots were fired from a .45-caliber semiautomatic weapon, said Michael W. Nunez, the Compton school police chief.

About the same time, witnesses also reported shots being fired near a far corner of the administrative complex, after which one witness said he saw a car speeding away.

After the meeting, board member Hopwood reported to police that he heard the sound of gunshots outside his home soon after a man had yelled at him from a distance as Hopwood entered his house.

“It’s a sad situation when we come to the point where we have to settle our differences with violence,” Hopwood said.