New Team to Oversee School Bond Project

A long-anticipated restructuring of the Los Angeles school bond project management team went into effect Wednesday, district sources said.

In a memorandum distributed to the Board of Education on Wednesday afternoon, Supt. Ruben Zacarias said he has formed a Superintendent’s Proposition BB Committee to assume responsibility for the $2.4-billion bond project.

The action moves aside Beth Louargand, head of the district’s Facilities Services Division, whose management of the project has been criticized by members of the volunteer oversight committee set up when voters approved Proposition BB last April.

Zacarias told Louargand in the memo that her BB duties “have become so substantial that it is difficult for you to adequately administer your division on a daily basis . . . which should be your first priority.”

The new committee will comprise Ronald Prescott, deputy superintendent for governmental relations; business manager David Koch; chief financial officer Henry Jones; Lisa Specht, an attorney on contract to the district; Steven Soboroff, chairman of the BB oversight committee; Kirk Rascoe, director of equal opportunity, and Louargand or her appointee.