Coming Home : New Inglewood Superintendent Is Back in School to Tackle Challenge of Reviving District

It has been a long road home for McKinley Nash, the new superintendent of the Inglewood Unified School District.

Nash did not grow up in Inglewood. He still has to ask directions to get around. But in his heart, he says, all ethnic communities are related, all are siblings parented by struggle and promise. So when Nash speaks of having returned “home,” which he often does, he is referring to Inglewood, the African American and Latino community.

After four years away from public schools, working as an executive for the Assn. of California School Administrators, Nash has returned to school board politics, union negotiations and student test scores because of his broad definition of home and community.

The Inglewood school system, although it has some outstanding schools, also has ones with the lowest test scores in the South Bay.

“It’s so painful to me,” Nash said. “We have failed to protect our children. The failure of our children to achieve has to be attributed to the failure of black adults to nurture and protect our children.

“I may get in trouble for saying it, but I’m going to say it. Because there’s nothing wrong with our children,” Nash said. “We, the adults, have failed them.”

Nash says he needs to find more money for the schools, create magnet programs and specialized curricula to keep Inglewood’s best students from leaving the district, improve morale among teachers and principals and turn around the city’s bilingual education program.

But he believes the district has everything it needs to excel. The only question remaining, he said, is whether he is the one to lead it to excellence.

Nash, who at 61 is near the end of his career, was raised in a nurturing Louisiana community, where teachers and family pushed him to achieve. He earned a bachelor of science degree at the University of Arkansas, a master’s degree at Oklahoma State University and his doctorate at the University of Illinois. He left there to become principal and later deputy superintendent in Evanston, Ill., where he gained fame as a man who could improve student test scores.

A report in 1987 found that as a group, black students in the suburban Evanston Township School District had lower test scores than those in the Chicago schools, a district notorious for its problems.

Nash targeted a group of students, both black and white, of high intelligence but average grades and moved them from their easier classes to an honors track. Evanston Township’s scores on the Scholastic Aptitude Test soared.

From there he went to Centinela Valley Union High School District in Lawndale, also as superintendent, where his methods of reform and style of administration--so successful in Evanston--caused a civil war. New programs and sweeping changes led to rebellion by some teachers and parents. The district was divided between those who loved Nash and those who hated him, and students walked out of school in support of Nash. The board fired him shortly afterward, accusing him of having orchestrated the walkout.

Nash sued the district and ultimately won a settlement, as did several other African American staff members and teachers in Centinela Valley, who charged the board with racial discrimination.

Now he has again taken on an urban school district that will need a complete overhaul to achieve excellence.

The job before Nash is to provide a decent education for all students in Inglewood.

Immediate attention must be paid to bilingual education. A recent report by the state Department of Education found that the district has kept poor records and that it does not have enough books, materials or teachers for students who do not speak English. The 15,000-student district has about 5,418 bilingual students and needs 112 certified teachers, but last year had only 26.

Nash will need more money. It is not possible to educate students spending an average of $3,100 apiece, he said. But he’s not worried about finding it. Ferreting out private sources of money has been one of Nash’s successes in all past positions, including Centinela Valley. There, he worked with El Camino College and Toyota to begin a program in which students would work closely with Toyota professionals and, if they made good grades, Toyota would pay for them to go to college. After graduation, students would have a job waiting at Toyota.

Some immediate financial resources for the Inglewood district are apparent, he said. It has acres of land that he said could be sold or developed.

Board President Lois Hill Hale said the board is discussing the idea with city officials, who want to purchase some land, but selling off school land is not an idea that she supports.

The 40 acres around Morningside High School, Hill Hale said, could just as well be used for an entire education complex and athletic center, rather than city buildings.

Hill Hale, however, said she has promised Nash she will keep an open mind about his proposals and ideas.

“Our part of the bargain is to make sure when he introduces ideas that will help to change the whole educational process, that we support him in it,” she said. “We want to give him full rein with moving forward.”

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Top on Nash’s agenda is a scrutiny of the hundreds of thousands of dollars in non-classroom expenses in the school budget. He had a list drawn up of all programs that are funded by the district, and already has pinpointed between $2 million and $3 million that is not being spent directly on education. Included on the list is Inglewood’s 13-member school police department, which has a budget of $1.2 million; transportation and security for high school athletics programs, $78,415; junior ROTC at Inglewood and Morningside high schools, after projected reimbursement from the Army, $94,673.

“I’m not saying that we need to get rid of all those programs or departments,” Nash said. “Some of those provide very necessary services to our students. I’m only saying that we’ll have to find other ways to pay for it.”

Fund raising, private grants and money from the federal crime bill, Nash hopes, will help pay for some of the programs.

And he wants the city to designate 25% of the money it receives from the new Hollywood Park Casino for the schools.

Mayor Edward Vincent, who was handed a payment of $326,000 from the card club last month, vowed to help Nash get all the money he needs, but without tapping into Hollywood Park revenue.

As important as finding money for the schools will be Nash’s ability to navigate the politics of Inglewood.

Philosophical divisions and even outright hostility among the administration, board members, the teachers’ union and parents means that past superintendents have spent as much time on back room politics as they have on education.

“I think every superintendent’s job has a lot to do with politics,” said Kenneth Moffett, superintendent of Lennox School District and former assistant superintendent in Inglewood.

“But the power structures differ in minority communities,” Moffett said. In towns like Inglewood, he said, people with respect and influence in the community may not have job titles that would enable newcomers to recognize they are powerbrokers.

The board is confident that Nash can manage the schools and maintain good relationships with them and the staff.

“My reasons for selecting Dr. Nash over the other candidates is because of his tremendous success record in running school districts,” Hill Hale said. “And because of his strong fiscal background. He knows how to expend funds so they go toward educating students.”

Academically, Inglewood must offer a new kind of education if it is to stem the flow of students leaving the district. About 20% of the district’s students leave Inglewood between middle school and high school, graduating from schools in Culver City, Beverly Hills and Westchester, Nash said.

Inglewood already has a broad curriculum. It is one of a few public school districts in the South Bay to offer Latin as well as all Romance languages, performance art classes and commercial art studies. It also has a rigorous science program.

What it does not have, however, are courses geared to preparing students for jobs as well as college.

Creating magnet schools is a top priority for Nash, and ultimately he hopes Inglewood will have schools specializing in the disciplines of health, math, science, computers, foreign languages and the arts.

But Nash inherits some gifts as well as tasks.

Some of the district’s schools are among the best in the area, particularly at the elementary level.

For example, at Bennett-Kew Elementary School, fourth-graders scored higher than the state average, the county average and schools in the same economic bracket on the recent California Learning Assessment System test.

At Kelso Elementary School, student scores on the CLAS tests were comparable to those of students in Manhattan Beach and on par with or better than some Torrance schools.

By middle school, however, the divide between Inglewood test scores and those of neighboring districts widens, as some of the top students leave to go to other school districts, and by high school, its test scores consistently are among the lowest in the South Bay.

Then there is the morale problem. Inglewood’s teacher salaries lag about $2,000 annually behind those in other districts.

And the relationship between teachers and former school Supt. George McKenna was hostile and combative.

But the problems in Inglewood are ones that can be overcome if the community is dedicated to doing so, Nash said. It is a philosophy he learned from his time as the head of Evanston Township High School, when he could not be praised enough, and during his difficulties as superintendent in Centinela Valley from 1983 to 1990.

His Centinela critics--a mix of teachers, board members and some parents--charged that Nash was dictatorial in his efforts to bring math reform to the school district and that he had unrealistic expectations of teachers and students. Nash concedes that the experience taught him to be more diplomatic and sensitive.

After Centinela fired him, Nash sued and the district later paid $150,000 to settle his claim, as well as two lawsuits that stemmed from a dispute over his contract.

Ultimately Centinela also paid $425,000 to former Hawthorne High School Principal Kenneth Crowe, now principal of Inglewood High School, and $75,000 to another former district employee. Thousands of dollars in other settlements were also paid to staff members who sued the district for racial discrimination.

Investigations by the U.S. Justice Department in 1992 and several state agencies found Centinela Valley to maintain “a racially hostile environment” for everyone--administrators, teachers, students and aides.

In Centinela Valley circles, Nash is either revered or reviled.

“He brought state and national recognition for the programs he brought into the district. Now we’ve lost a lot of people Dr. Nash brought in,” said Lawndale City Councilwoman Virginia Rhodes.

“Basically, our loss is Inglewood’s gain,” Rhodes said.

Hill Hale said the Inglewood board was not concerned that Nash had been fired by Centinela.

“Centinela Valley was unfair and unjust and pure discrimination,” she said. “The U.S. Justice Department proved that in its investigation.

Nash does not dwell on his troubles in Centinela Valley, but said he takes the lesson he learned there to heart. He said he will take the time to inform, nurture and prepare the community for reform.

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He began his tenure in Inglewood by meeting with dozens of community leaders and parent groups. And, every Saturday, Nash has asked three or four principals to give him a private tour of their schools.

Monroe Elementary school was one of the first schools Nash visited. Principal Kevin Butler whipped from room to room, showing Nash every ceiling leak, broken air conditioning vent, ruptured fence and unpainted surface.

Nash was dismayed.

“Never, never ask a principal what they want,” he muttered.

“This is just an unprecedented opportunity,” Butler said. “To have the superintendent in a one-on-one situation where you can show exactly what you do and what you need.”

The Saturday school tours generally end about 5 p.m., when Nash heads home.

Home is a spacious house in Palos Verdes Estates, located a couple of blocks from the water. The house, Nash’s retreat from the rough and tumble of education politics, is filled with pictures of his four grown children.

An intense man, Nash rises daily at 5:30 a.m. and works out on a treadmill. Once he gets off the machine, his day is consumed with his work, which, he said, is also his fun. A productive board meeting, for example, can leave him awake until 2 or 3 in the morning because he is too excited to sleep.

His free time is devoted to cultivating roses and plum trees.

Even though he puts in long hours every day, he says that he no longer cares about blazing a career path.

But one job remains.

“You know, when I took this job, a reporter asked me: ‘Why would you go to Inglewood? It made me so mad I could hardly think,” Nash said. “It . . . implies that the Inglewoods and Comptons and Oaklands should be written off.

“See, what we’re talking about is the perception many people hold about African Americans’ ability to govern,” Nash said.

If the schools do improve, Nash said, it will be to the credit of the entire community. If they do not, then he wasn’t right for the job and the failure will be his alone, Nash said. He says it often.

“But if God could grant me all of my wishes, I would wish he’d give me the ability to make a difference in a place like Inglewood,” Nash said. “I am a child of a place like Inglewood.

“So it is my duty, win or lose, to come back and try.”