Compton Schools Get New Administrator : Education: State appointee Jerome Harris promises to overhaul the troubled district financially and academically.

Veteran school district administrator Jerome Harris took control of the Compton Unified School District on Thursday, announcing that he would work around the clock to rejuvenate the troubled school system financially and academically.

Harris, former superintendent of the Atlanta public schools, will serve as the district’s state-appointed administrator, replacing interim administrator Stanley G. Oswalt. Harris will have czar-like powers to run the financially strapped school system, which also has some of the lowest student test scores in the state.

“I am a 24-hour person,” Harris said of his dedication to education. “This is my golf. This is my tennis. This is what I do. This is what I work at. This is what I have fun at. This is what’s important.”

Compton Unified came under state control in July as a condition of an emergency state loan. Community critics have called the takeover illegal and accused the state administration of mismanagement.

Harris, 63, accepted the Compton job after a nationwide search to find a long-term administrator for the school system of 28,600 students.

“I come here committed to putting students first, putting students second and putting students third,” said Harris at a Thursday news conference. “After that, I’ll deal with everyone else.

“Academically, if all students are not better at this time next year, you ought to come after me,” said Harris, who arrives with a reputation for plain speaking and for improving student achievement in minority, urban school systems.

Harris headed the Atlanta public school system from 1988 to 1990. During his term, student scores on the Georgia Test of Basic Skills improved significantly in reading, writing and mathematics. He also oversaw rising test scores while heading an urban school district in Brooklyn, N.Y. From 1960 to 1973, Harris was a teacher or administrator at three Los Angeles high schools. Most recently, Harris directed a trouble-shooting program aimed at improving public school districts, based at Medgar Evers College in Brooklyn.

Former board member Kelvin D. Filer said Harris’ sincerity and pragmatism impressed him.

Oswalt also praised Harris, and added that the state intervention has already ended years of financial mismanagement and taken the first steps toward improving academic programs.

Some critics, however, including school board member Amen Rahh, are already angry. Rahh said he was angry that school board members were not invited to Harris’ introductory news conference. Rahh said that the state administration has stripped the district of its financial resources and made administrative decisions that have harmed minority students and employees.

The student population is 59% Latino, 39% African American and 2% other ethnicities. A majority of employees are black.

“The same policies will be here (under Harris),” Rahh said.

At a reception Thursday, Harris wooed about 100 parents, employees and community members, some of whom greeted him with hostility and distrust.

“It’s an embarrassment to me as a black that students who look like me aren’t doing well in their academic performance,” said Harris, who is African American. “I believe that kids who are dark and different, Latino and African American kids, can learn.”

“I am not the enemy,” he told one critic. “I’ll need your help to do what I need to do.”

Community correspondent Psyche Pascual contributed to this story.