Thompson Expected to Keep School Post : Education: Board will renew superintendent’s contract beyond 1995 to keep reform going, sources say.

Los Angeles Unified School District Supt. Sid Thompson is close to winning an extension of his contract beyond its June, 1995, expiration, signaling a vote of confidence from the school board that he is steering district reform efforts in the right direction.

With Thompson presiding over a major restructuring of the district, a majority of board members feel they cannot afford to upset the momentum of reform efforts by making Thompson a lame-duck superintendent in the next school term, according to district sources.

“He is definitely going to get an extension,” board member Warren Furutani said Tuesday. “We feel we are on the right track and have the right superintendent to get this reform and restructuring done.”

The main issue left undecided is the length of the contract extension, according to district sources. “He’s going to get at least a year,” one source said.

The Board of Education has met behind closed doors five times in the last month to undertake a detailed evaluation of Thompson and his 20-month-old administration. His time at the helm has included a brush with insolvency, a 10% salary cut for employees, the Jan. 17 earthquake--the district’s response to which got mixed reviews--and a recent flap over a bungled $15-million grant from the National Science Foundation.

Sources said, however, that a majority of the board favors keeping Thompson on the job and that the discussions have focused on whether to offer him a one- or two-year extension and how to ensure that he aggressively carries out the board’s vision.

As part of the evaluation of Thompson, the board has asked him for detailed management goals for his top deputies. On Monday the board approved 45-day contract extensions for 27 top administrators in the school district.

Board President Leticia Quezada declined to comment about the status of the discussions and said she expects to make an announcement July 11.

She said the board’s priorities for the Thompson administration include raising student achievement, increasing parent participation, decentralizing the district to give schools more power and improving race relations on campus.

After the board met privately for a fifth time Monday, Thompson said he had not been formally offered a new contract. But he said he was optimistic that he would remain at the helm beyond 1995.

“I’m still smiling,” Thompson said. “Don’t worry. . . . I’m satisfied with what’s going on in there.”

In an interview with The Times before the board discussions began, Thompson said he had asked the board to extend his contract, but he declined to say by how long.

“I’d like an extension; I’m not finished yet,” Thompson said a month ago, adding that if he were not allowed to continue beyond next year, “it would hurt me. It would hurt the system because then it becomes a matter of marking time until (I) get out and someone else comes in.”

He said he has worked to make significant changes in the district during his first year on the job, despite heavy quake damage at many schools.

School board member Jeff Horton agreed Tuesday that Thompson has moved quickly to begin restructuring the district and that the board would “have to have damn good reasons” not to extend Thompson’s contract.

While the board has been debating the superintendent’s future, it has also been involved in its own round of politicking. As a result, five-year board veteran Mark Slavkin is likely to be elected July 11 to the board presidency.

Quezada, who has served a pair of one-year terms, said Tuesday that this is the appropriate time for her to step down. Typical board protocol calls for presidential terms of one to two years. The president runs meetings and serves as the chief spokesman on school board policies.

Horton had expressed an interest in the presidency, but he said Tuesday that he decided against seeking it after Slavkin gave assurances that issues important to Horton--equity among all student groups and improving instruction--would take a high profile.