Citizens Committee to Help in Search for Schools Chief

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

The 14-member committee will not be involved in the actual selection but will help the board refine its criteria and 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.

Julie Korenstein 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. Barbara Boudreaux selected former district administrator Owen Knox and Dafir Dakhil, a parent and member of the Inner-City School District Assn. 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. George Kiriyama appointed his field representative Joe Ahn and Castelar Elementary Principal Dore Wong. 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. Ann Victoria Castro selected lawyer Armando Duron, a former president of the Mexican American Bar Assn., and former board member Leticia Quezada.