Citizens Panel to Aid Board in Search for School Chief

The Los Angeles Unified School District board on Monday named a citizens committee to aid its search for a new superintendent and help the district rise above the kind of ethnic politics that have marked the search thus far.

The 14-member committee--which includes parents, teachers, administrators and political and community leaders--will not be involved in the actual selection of a new superintendent but will help the board to refine its criteria and to decide whether to conduct a national or local search.

Each board member was asked to appoint two people to the panel, which is to report to the board by July 15.

Several board members said they made their choices to assure that diverse viewpoints were represented and that the panel would include Asian Americans, Latinos, blacks, parents and members of various organizations.

“I wanted to have two people, a parent and a teacher,” said board member Julie Korenstein. She selected Edward Kaz, a teacher at Reseda High School, and Lynda Levitan, director of education for the 31st Parent Teacher Student Assn. in the San Fernando Valley.

Board member Barbara Boudreaux selected former district administrator Owen Knox and Dafir Dakhil, a parent and member of the Inner-City School District Assn., a South Los Angeles group that is trying to split that area from the school district. “Both have a very clear objective, a very clear head,” Boudreaux said.

But teachers union President Helen Bernstein said some of the board’s choices--including Knox--are unfamiliar with the demands on the 650,000-student school system, which is in the midst of an ambitious reform campaign.

“I’m trying hard to figure out how these choices will help them do what they need to do,” Bernstein said. “Some of these choices absolutely floor me.”

School board President Mark Slavkin appointed Lou Moret, chief operating officer for the Southern California Assn. of Governments, and Robin Kramer, chief of staff to Mayor Richard Riordan.

Board member George Kiriyama appointed his field representative Joe Ahn and Castelar Elementary Principal Dore Wong.

Board member Jeff Horton selected Susan Yackley, an active PTA member with a child at North Hollywood High School, and Ruben Lizardo, project director for the L.A.-based Multicultural Collaborative.

Board member Victoria Castro selected lawyer Armando Duron, a former president of the Mexican American Bar Assn., and former school board member Leticia Quezada.

Tokofsky, the only board member who did not submit names on Monday, said he will do so by the end of the week and will look for “people who will think big and move the district in dramatic ways.”