Candidate for Schools Post Outlines Goals

Unveiling specifics of his plans for the Los Angeles Unified School District, Deputy Supt. Ruben Zacarias said Wednesday that if promoted to superintendent he would dedicate himself to improving student achievement.

Zacarias, the first among three finalists to undergo a two-day review for the top job, said he would accomplish that goal by:

* Increasing emphasis on instruction by assigning all the district’s business functions to a new business czar he would hire;

* Setting up teacher training laboratories run by veteran teachers at any new schools built during his tenure;

* Targeting the 100 worst schools for radical overhauls, beginning by asking the principals at those campuses for formal evaluations of what is wrong and what they can do about it in the coming year.

“By the end of the year, I expect results,” Zacarias, 68, said during a late-morning news conference on his second day of interviews at the Crowne Plaza Hotel next to Exposition Park.

He said he would implement a plan crafted by Supt. Sid Thompson, who is retiring at the end of June, to send teams of principals and teachers into poor-performing schools to intervene, “kind of like a fire brigade.”

Asked whether he would be willing to go as far as firing the principals and staffs of schools that do not improve--a practice being tried in some large cities--Zacarias said he would not shy from such an extreme measure.

“I would use that if needed,” he said, his voice hoarse from undergoing hours of questioning by various groups.

Each of the three candidates begins two days of interviews with a three-hour session with the Board of Education, followed by hourlong blocks with each of six constituent groups, ranging from politicians to community organizations and unions. One hour with each has been set aside for the news media, but otherwise, all of the meetings are closed to the public, which will get its first crack at questioning the finalists at three forums scheduled throughout the district this weekend.

Banker William E. B. Siart, 50, began the two-day process Wednesday morning and, in a brief hallway interview, said he had spent most of the day explaining ways in which the organizational expertise he honed while chief executive officer for First Interstate Bancorp would fit the school district’s needs. Siart will meet with the press Thursday.

Also on Thursday, the third candidate, Long Island, N.Y., school administrator Daniel Domenech, 51, will begin his interviews.

Turnout at the eight closed-door sessions with Zacarias was generally low, which some attributed to the fact that most people involved with the schools already know the 31-year district veteran.

Only one of 82 invited politicians--a representative of state Sen. Richard G. Polanco (D-Los Angeles)attended. And only one of 61 invited student body presidents came, perhaps because no transportation was provided. Even some of those who had pushed hard for public access to the finalists, such as Joe Hicks with the Multicultural Collaborative, failed to show.

Those who met with Zacarias gave him good reviews.

“For the first time in this district, we’re talking about accountability,” said Mike Roos, president of LEARN, the nonprofit school reform group. “These were all very encouraging signs of someone who truly wants to lead the district.”

The interviews are a microcosm of the controversies and competing demands that face the next superintendent of the nation’s second-largest school district. Of the three candidates, Zacarias may be the most familiar with the complexities of the job and he maintains that he is the best prepared to handle it.

On Wednesday, he kept his composure even when hit with a barrage of questions from the media about the story of the day: criticisms over the proposed use of school bond monies for a new high school near downtown.

At one point he scolded a reporter for dominating the questioning. At another, he acknowledged that he had not realized that more than $40 million of the $2.4-billion bond proceeds was intended for the project.

“I think that school needs to be built,” he said, gripping a podium crowded with microphones. “The choice is whether to use Prop. BB monies or go for outside finances.”

Zacarias was direct in his criticism of bilingual education, which has proved a political Pandora’s box, especially for Latino leaders. He said that while he supports the approach of letting children start school in their native language whenever possible, he believes the current rate of transferring them into all-English programs is far too slow.

“If a child enters in kindergarten and he or she is not making the transition until fifth grade, in my opinion that is too long,” said Zacarias, who spoke no English before he started kindergarten in East Los Angeles. “I will sit down with instructional leaders and teachers to figure out a better way,” he said.

While most of his criticisms of the district were subtle, issued in the form of changes he would make, he said that his management style would spawn a less top-down culture. His tendency, he said, is to give people responsibility and then let them handle it.

“I hate to say it, but in many ways we run this district like a mom-and-pop store,” Zacarias said. “We run around trying to do everything ourselves.”

He agreed to give only a few hints of the specific changes he might make in the district’s upper echelon, beyond his proposal for a new business chief, saying he did not want to give away any secrets to his two competitors.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Open Forums

Three public forums with the school superintendent candidates have been scheduled at high school auditoriums this weekend, to be televised at 7 p.m. both days on the district’s station, KLCS-TV Channel 58. For more information call (213) 625-6766.

Saturday

* 11 a.m.-1 p.m.: Birmingham High School, 17000 Haynes St., Van Nuys

* 3-5 p.m.: Dorsey High School, 3537 Farmdale Ave., South Los Angeles

Sunday

* 2-4 p.m.: Roosevelt High School, 456 S. Mathews St., East Los Angeles

Source: L.A. Unified School District