A LOOK AHEAD * Supt. Ruben Zacarias and his three deputies have the tentative nod for a second salary increase this year. Opponents say that any raises should be tied to performance, and now a . . . : Battle Looms Over Plan to Hike School Leaders’ Pay

A plan to give the top four Los Angeles school administrators their second pay increase this year--without any linkage to their performance--may have stalled under severe public opposition.

The raises for Supt. Ruben Zacarias and his three top deputies, tipping the combined pay hikes they have won this year to an average of almost 36%, were tentatively approved two weeks ago by the Board of Education in a 4-3 vote taken behind closed doors.

The new increases of 6% for Zacarias and about 5% for his deputies, spread over three years, were tied to a 6% raise for about 650 full-time and 1,900 part-time employees who don’t belong to unions, from clerks to division heads. The raises for these nonunion employees is intended to match a 6% pay increase the board approved earlier this year with its teachers union.

To make the decision final, though, the board must repeat the vote today in open session.

With opposition to the raises for the top administrators mounting steadily since the Nov. 3 vote, board member David Tokofsky said he expects a “high rhetoric, high atmosphere situation” today.

“The calls are pouring in,” Tokofsky said. “It’s a major phone tree.”

Among the callers are teachers whose union has taken a strong position against raises for upper-level administrators in the Los Angeles Unified School District.

Day Higuchi, president of United Teachers-Los Angeles, said he had no objection to giving raises to the lower-level nonunion employees such as budget clerks, who make a maximum of $34,935 a year.

But the 6% raise would give administrators two to three times more extra money than the “working stiffs,” Higuchi said.

After fielding protests from constituents and teachers, board member Jeff Horton said he has reconsidered his “yes” vote and will ask the board to defer 6% raises for about 30 high-level administrators until they can show that they have made a difference in L.A. Unified.

These would include jobs from budget director, who can earn up to $93,947 a year, to facilities director, which has a maximum salary of $133,410.

Horton’s plan would hold back raises for the 30 administrators until “measurable improvements” are shown in four of seven districtwide performance standards in the superintendent’s contract.

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Those standards include improvement in test scores, the pass rate for college prep classes and the percent of students reaching literacy levels.

Horton said he hopes to eventually bring all employees under performance standards, but thought it was appropriate to start with the top district leaders.

“I have to admit the public reaction caused me to stop and take a fresh look at it, and I saw other possibilities for doing something I wanted to do, which was making some link between student performance and the fate of employees,” Horton said.

Although the administrator raises passed by a bare 4-3 majority, Horton’s switch will not necessarily reverse the result, Tokofsky said, because there may be wider opposition to performance standards.

He said that both he and Horton pushed during that meeting to link extra pay to measurable objectives but couldn’t sway a board majority.

Tokofsky said he was willing to push the superintendent’s salary as high as $250,000 by giving bonuses for specified achievements.

He said other members were not convinced that the effects of individual administrators on school performance could be measured.

Board President Julie Korenstein joined Tokofsky in voting against raises for the four administrators. Member Valerie Fields voted against the raise for Zacarias.

The pay issue has also split the district’s union leadership.

Eli Brent, president of Associated Administrators of Los Angeles, which represents most school principals and school system middle management, said he wouldn’t stand in the way of anyone else’s raise.

“All school employees’ salaries are low anyway,” Brent said.

But Higuchi said the teachers believe that the superintendent-level pay raises create the appearance of “chiseling,” because all four received raises averaging 29% earlier this year through promotion.

Zacarias, formerly the district’s only deputy superintendent, got a 22% raise to $178,000 when he assumed the top job in July.

But a source who was involved in the negotiation said Zacarias had sought even more, arguing that he should make at least as much as the superintendent of schools in San Diego, who earns $185,000. The raise under consideration would boost his salary by $10,000 to $188,680. Zacarias declined to comment on the proposal.

In a reorganization of the district leadership this summer, Zacarias promoted associate superintendent Ronald Prescott and assistant superintendents Liliam Castillo and Francis Nakano to deputy positions earning $139,000. Castillo, formerly in charge of the parent and community services branch, made the largest leap, from $99,611, an increase of 39.5%.

In the meantime, however, the district created a fourth new deputy superintendent position, in charge of business operations, with a salary of $146,052. Hugh Jones filled the position.

To resolve the discrepancy in the deputy superintendents’ pay, the board tentatively approved a raise of approximately 5% during the Nov. 3 closed session in order to bring the other three deputies up to the same level as the business czar.

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Salaries of Top School Administrators

Supt. Ruben Zacarias and his top deputies received substantial raises with their promotions earlier this year and would gain between 5% and 6% more under the pay package to be considered today, bringing cumulative increases this year to more than 36% on average.

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Total % of Administrator Prior Salary After Proposed Proposed Proposed Promotion Raise Increase Increase Supt. Ruben Zacarias $146,052 $178,000 $188,680 $42,628 29.2% Deputy Supt. Ronald Prescott $111,134 $139,000 $146,052 $34,918 31.4% Deputy Supt. Liliam Castillo $99,611 $139,000 $146,052 $46.441 46.6% Deputy Supt. Francis Nakano $105,222 $139,000 $146,052 $40,830 38.8% Total $462,019 $595,000 $626,836 $164,817 36.5%

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Source: Los Angeles Unified School District