Domenech Has the Skills to Transform L.A.’s Schools

The Los Angeles school board will begin deliberating in closed session today on whom to appoint as the next superintendent of schools. The best choice is Daniel Domenech, a dynamic educator and take-charge administrator with the experience and vigor needed to turn around the poorly performing district. Domenech is, we increasingly fear, not only the best chance but the last chance for the L.A. Unified School District.

The next LAUSD superintendent will need vision, strong leadership skills, crisis-tested administrative abilities, political savvy and the will to restructure a system that has failed its students in many ways. The forceful and persuasive Domenech has been there and done that in similarly diverse, low-achieving school districts on Long Island.

His plan to improve student achievement in Los Angeles would focus on the classroom and the connection between student and teacher where learning takes place. He would target the worst schools, provide help, demand results and take action if the failures continued unchecked. A Cuban immigrant, he would improve bilingual education, which is one of his professional specialties. Domenech did not speak English when he started school in this country; a majority of students entering LAUSD schools speak little or none.

An outsider, he would represent a bold break from business as usual. He would not be hampered by old loyalties that promote friendship or favoritism over excellence in the district. Energetic outsiders brought in to run school districts in Seattle, Washington and Boston are making progress. Los Angeles needs a similar jolt. Domenech believes he would survive in L.A. because, as he aptly put it, “everybody loves success.”

A quick study, Domenech correctly fingered the credibility gap between the district and public. That gap was demonstrated last week when the board proposed to use Proposition BB funds without first consulting the citizen oversight board that had been promised to the voters.

Despite all that Domenech has going for him, the odds so far have favored the insider, Deputy Supt. Ruben Zacarias, a 31-year veteran of the LAUSD and a Mexican American, like the majority of students in the school district. Zacarias knows the problems from preschool through adult education, but he has given little indication that he would make the radical changes needed to improve the quality of public education, except to hire a business czar with outside expertise for the district’s non-instructional side.

William E.B. Siart, the former CEO of First Interstate Bancorp, is also a finalist for the superintendency. He’s not an educator, and that’s his biggest drawback. But he could reorganize the district to increase efficiencies, take better advantage of the economies of scale, negotiate better deals and save more dollars for use in the classroom. Like Mayor Richard Riordan, Siart could recruit stronger business support for the schools.

If chosen, Domenech is willing to include Zacharias and Siart on his hand-picked top management team. If they were willing to work together, the district would benefit from that winning combination of talents.

The search for a new superintendent has prompted a broad public debate on education. The final decision is now up to the Board of Education. Any reluctance to vote for aggressive change will hasten a breakup of this mammoth district. Parents are demanding real change. The board ignores that at its peril.

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To Take Action:

The school board’s members may be reached at the numbers below. District 1--Barbara Boudreaux, (213) 625-6382. District 2--Victoria Castro, (213) 625-6180. District 3--Jeff Horton (board president), (213) 625-6386. District 4--Mark Slavkin, (213) 625-6387. District 5--David Tokofsky, (213) 625-6383. District 6--Julie Korenstein, (213) 625-6388. District 7--George Kiriyama, (213) 625-6385.