Latino Activists Blast School Chief Finalist

Former bank executive William E.B. Siart drew criticism from Latino activists Thursday for seeking the job of superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District despite his lack of education administration background.

Siart, the former chief executive of First Interstate Bancorp, was also hit hard by some critics for First Interstate’s support of Proposition 187, the anti-illegal immigration initiative that voters passed in November 1995.

The school district opposed the measure on behalf of its students, 67% of whom are Latino. The initiative, which remains stalled in court, seeks to exclude undocumented children from attending public schools.

“I asked him about the issues of immigration, poverty and diversity,” said Gabriel Medel, a parent leader who met with Siart in one of eight private constituent interviews scheduled with each of the three finalists for the job.

“He said immigration was not an issue the superintendent has to be concerned with, neither is poverty,” Medel said. “He may be a good businessman, but he doesn’t know what the business of education is.”

Responding to the critics during his first news conference as a candidate, Siart said the decision to back Proposition 187 “was an organizational bank decision” by First Interstate, which Siart left a year ago after a takeover.

He did not cast a vote on the measure in the election, he said, because he did not personally agree with “the thrust of it,” yet did not want to go against his corporation.

“In the school situation, we ought to be advocates in the process for taking care of all children,” he said.

Each of the three candidates is going through two days of closed-door interviews, followed by three public forums at Los Angeles high schools this weekend. Deputy Supt. Ruben Zacarias was first up on Tuesday and Wednesday, followed by Siart on Wednesday and Thursday.

The third finalist, Long Island regional superintendent Daniel Domenech, began the interview process Thursday and will complete it today.

In an impromptu news conference in a hotel hallway, Domenech showed a flicker of the willingness to dive into controversy, which has earned him both kudos and criticism in New York. He said he thought the district should not have backed down on its pending decision to spend more than $40 million from the new $2.4-billion school bond on a planned downtown high school.

“I would’ve tried to do a better job of explaining the project,” he said. “It seems to be a valid project, and we need to go forward with it.”

Zacarias has agreed with critics that the bond campaign may not have made it crystal clear to voters that Belmont Learning Center could be built with the funds. Siart said he would have to study it further before commenting.

For more than a year, the politics behind the superintendent’s contest have been heated, with Latino activists regularly squaring off with representatives of LEARN, the nonprofit organization that developed the district’s reform plan. The organization pushed for the weekend public forums and is working to increase attendance at them by sending a mass mailing to 12,000 parents at LEARN schools and paying up to $50,000 for radio public service announcements.

“I think these forums are important,” said LEARN President Mike Roos.

The organization has not endorsed a candidate, but has made it clear from the beginning that the district should not bow to pressure from Latino activists to promote Zacarias without a nationwide search.

The radio announcements, airing this week during drive time on news radio, feature Assemblyman Antonio Villaraigosa (D-Los Angeles) and Mayor Richard Riordan--one of the architects of LEARN. In his announcement, Riordan--who has not endorsed any of the candidates but is a longtime acquaintance of Siart--encourages people to “find out whether a candidate places children ahead of politics.”

Like Zacarias, Siart said Thursday that his top priority would be improving student achievement, noting that standardized tests peg the district at the 36th percentile nationwide. But Siart said he would not determine how exactly to do that until he had a chance to consult with educational experts.

He also agreed with Zacarias’ assessment that children should not stay in bilingual classes for more than three years, but said he would seek expert advice on that too.

“It probably would take me three months to identify who the experts are,” he said.

Overall, Siart emphasized that his strength is in creating an environment that fosters change, with clarity of both expectation and consequence. It is a pattern he established at First Interstate, boosting its solvency to a point where it was ripe for a Wells Fargo takeover.

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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) 625-4000.

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., Boyle Heights

Source: L.A. Unified School District