L.A. District Plans Forums for School Superintendent Finalists

Finalists for Los Angeles’ top public school post will face the community at three large open forums later this month, the school board decided Monday, adding them to eight smaller invitation-only events.

The decision was unanimous, despite a rowdy protest at Los Angeles Unified School District headquarters by Latino activists and others who want to see Deputy Supt. Ruben Zacarias promoted. The job will become open at the end of June, when Supt. Sid Thompson retires.

Zacarias’ supporters gave him a standing ovation when he entered the boardroom and broke into shouts of “Si se puede, Zacarias!” (Yes we can, Zacarias!) several times during the meeting.

“They keep extending the process because they want to somehow watch him fail,” said Marta Sanchez, a member of the district’s Mexican American Education Commission. “Well, it won’t happen.”

Some board members scolded the crowd for being unruly, leading other board members to lash out at their colleagues for being disrespectful. Member Mark Slavkin worried that the uproar might frighten away prospective candidates.

The superintendent finalists--three to five of them--are expected to be presented to the board in closed session Thursday morning, with public release of their names expected later in the day. Zacarias, along with bank executive William Siart and British educator Matt Dunkley, are the only candidates who have made their interest public.

Locations and final dates of the public forums for the interview process have not been finalized.

Much of the ire Monday was directed at Mike Roos, president of the nonprofit group LEARN that designed the districtwide reform to give schools more decision-making power. Roos led the drive for the additional superintendent candidate forums.

Roos commended the board for responding to that request and in an interview later downplayed the opposition to the proposal as typical aversion to change.

“No one in this room is truly the community . . . including me,” he said. “Which is why our effort has been on achieving true community engagement” in the candidate review process.

On a table outside the board room, some of the protesters left piles of fliers supporting Zacarias, including one that read simply, “Somos la mayoria--We are the majority.” Latino students currently make up more than two-thirds of Los Angeles Unified’s student population.