Zacarias Closer to Schools Chief Job as Rival Pulls Out

In a surprise move, one of three finalists for superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District pulled out of the running Tuesday, clearing the way for the likely appointment of Deputy Supt. Ruben Zacarias.

Daniel A. Domenech, a regional superintendent on Long Island, attributed his withdrawal to the school board’s delay in making a decision and pressure from school officials in New York who want him to remain there. But he acknowledged that the increasing likelihood that Zacarias would be offered the position played a role in his decision.

Domenech’s withdrawal means that Zacarias, an insider with 31 years of experience in the district, is the overwhelming favorite for the job, with banker William E.B. Siart also in the running. The school board has been meeting in closed session to discuss filling the position that Supt. Sid Thompson plans to leave by the end of June. The board has said it expects to make a selection by the first week in May.

Zacarias has said he would combat efforts to break apart the sprawling 661-school system by focusing on improving student achievement, targeting the 100 worst schools first.

The promotion of Zacarias, 68, has long been championed by Latino activists, but critics have questioned whether someone who helped build the current centralized system is the best person to guide it through changes that would shift control to the schools. Even observers who view a breakup as unlikely say the transfer of authority to individual schools under LEARN--the district’s main reform and decentralization program--will change the school chief’s job, rendering the district’s central office a service provider and its superintendent the chief steward.

Domenech, interviewed Tuesday in his district offices, insisted that his withdrawal was not simply an effort to save face, but said that as the days wore on, he realized he risked losing credibility in his current duties in what was clearly a longshot bid for the Los Angeles schools’ top job.

“A lot of people told me before I went out there that it was obvious the job was going to the internal candidate, and I still came,” Domenech said. “I was insolent enough to think I could change their minds.”

In a letter faxed to school board President Jeff Horton on Tuesday afternoon, Domenech, 51, said he had agonized over the decision not to seek the job.

Horton said later that he was sorry someone with such “good qualities and credentials” had left the process in its final stages.

“That’s really too bad,” he said.

A week ago, as the seven-member school board went into private discussions about the post, members confirmed that Zacarias had three strong votes behind him--those of Victoria Castro, Barbara Boudreaux and George Kiriyama. The most likely swing vote, David Tokofsky, also said he was leaning in Zacarias’ favor.

In their closed-door meetings, board members reportedly were spending more time discussing the role they would want Zacarias to play as superintendent--what goals should be set and who should assist him--than whether to give the superintendent’s job to Domenech or Siart, 50.

There was some talk among board members of naming Domenech or Siart, the former president of First Interstate Bancorp, to secondary jobs, but both have expressed interest only in the superintendent’s job.

Tokofsky said the longer-than-expected consideration of the finalists was a tribute to each of the men’s strengths and “the seriousness with which all the board members wanted to look at all three candidates, even though there were strong feelings for one.” Quitting now is like leaving the game “in the fourth quarter with eight minutes left,” he said.

Although Zacarias was favored even a year ago, when the board agreed to launch a national search, positive community response to Domenech left the board with a tougher-than-expected decision.

An executive search firm hired by the district told the board that some of the 50 potential candidates dropped out even before finalists were chosen because they believed Zacarias was a shoo-in.

Domenech was the only finalist recruited by the firm, while Siart and Zacarias both applied for the job. Domenech said the search firm, Heidrick & Struggles, told him the board would choose someone within days of a landmark series of public and private interviews that ended on April 20.

Instead, the board has spent four long days in closed-door meetings and had recently announced it did not intend to make a final choice until early next month.

At the same time, Domenech was being beseeched to stay in Long Island by everyone from his current bosses to his family, he said. A Cuban native who immigrated to New York at the age of 9, Domenech lives on the shores of Long Island with his second wife and 5-year-old daughter. His parents live nearby.

On Tuesday afternoon, he said pressure won out over his aspirations to run a major urban school district. He said he probably would remain in New York for at least three more years, until he reaches early retirement age and can collect his full pension.

“When I went out there [to Los Angeles] I was . . . gung-ho,” he said. “But I’ve become susceptible to the cries of, ‘Don’t go! Please stay!’ ”

Domenech compared the prolonged waiting period to his experience with the New York City school board, which two years ago chose him to lead that district within 20 minutes of his interview. That board reversed its decision just a day later, however, when New York Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani intervened.

In Los Angeles, the glib and energetic Domenech created a significant stir at a series of public superintendent candidate forums held at local high schools. After the forums, even some of the strongest Zacarias supporters expressed surprise at how much they liked Domenech’s forthrightness, determination and Spanish-language skills.

News of his withdrawal elicited disappointment from some school-reform advocates, who have long pushed for the board to look beyond district headquarters for a successor to Thompson. District records show only two instances of an outsider being hired.

One reformer, who asked not to be named, said he blamed the board for not knowing a star when they had one in their grasp.

Another, LEARN president Mike Roos, said, “It’s really too bad. . . . He distinguished himself in the community forums, and I understand that board members are getting a lot of calls on his behalf.”

Roos, who joined other community leaders in pushing for the public forums with the three finalists, did not endorse any of the candidates, but said he thought Domenech was a strong contender.

A superintendent for 19 years for New York public schools, Domenech had campaigned for the Los Angeles job on a platform of being a catalyst for change. He highlighted his accomplishments in coordinating the state’s takeover of Long Island’s poorest district as evidence that he could handle the far larger Los Angeles system.

Domenech moved quickly in the 2,800-student Roosevelt Union Free School District, a cluster of predominantly black schools in western Long Island. He kicked things off nearly two years ago with an edict that all students be enrolled in college prep courses and ordered a top-to-bottom paint job of the tattered junior-senior high school campus.

As a result, last year more than 300 high school students passed Regents exams--a state test of academic knowledge--compared to just four students the year before the takeover.

In the process, however, Domenech ruffled many local feathers. His comment in his original report to the state about the Roosevelt district--that it was an example of child neglect, if not abuse--is a sore point even today among his critics in that community. Questions about such brashness arose in Los Angeles as well.

Domenech said he became concerned about the need for leadership continuity at Roosevelt after returning Tuesday from making a presentation on progress and problems in the district to the New York Board of Regents. During that meeting, numerous state officials stopped Domenech and begged him to reconsider his application for the Los Angeles job.

New York state schools Chancellor Carl T. Hayden described Domenech as “an extraordinarily gifted executive, with a lot of credibility in Long Island,” and said he would hate to lose Domenech’s expertise at the helm of New York’s first-ever school district takeover, which is frequently cited as a warning to other fumbling districts.