L.A. Schools Add 90 Administrators; 3 to Oversee Campus Cluster Leaders

In an effort to boost student achievement, Los Angeles school officials are assigning nearly 100 additional administrators to campuses beginning this month, part of a plan assailed by critics for expanding what they say is an already-bloated educational bureaucracy.

Under the new setup, the Los Angeles Unified School District will also add three new assistant superintendents, who will be responsible for improving classroom instruction.

The changes do not cost any more money. But critics questioned how creating a new layer of bureaucrats would improve student achievement.

“Now you have two bureaucratic troughs for the porkers to feed at,” said Day Higuchi, head of the United Teachers-Los Angeles. “It seems to be very clear the last priority is the school.”

The new assistant superintendents will each oversee one-third of the district’s 27 so-called cluster administrators--each of whom supervises dozens of city schools.

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The cluster leaders, under the plan, are being directed to focus on improving instruction, leaving school maintenance and other responsibilities to the office of school operations--which will get seven new administrators.

Deputy Supt. Liliam Castillo said the reorganization will bring additional resources to classrooms. She said 90 administrators now working downtown and in administrative offices will begin working out of schools next year--advising teachers, for example, in special education and language arts.

The three new assistant superintendents will also work at schools and in administrative offices away from the district’s downtown headquarters. The three new assistant superintendents are John Liechty, who formerly supervised middle schools, and two former cluster administrators, Renee Jackson and Dick Vladovic.

“We can’t accept the status quo, which hasn’t produced student achievement,” Castillo said. “We want clear lines of accountability.”

LAUSD officials said the changes support Supt. Ruben Zacarias’ promise to raise student test scores by eight percentile points in four years.

The Board of Education approved Zacarias’ reorganization plan in April, but details were released only last week.

“It’s definitely sending people from downtown to hometown,” said Brad Sales, a district spokesman. “It is an attempt to push the resources closer to the schools.”

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Officials said limiting the responsibility of cluster administrators to instruction should make a dramatic difference: They now spend about three-fourths of their time on school maintenance and other campus chores, according to Zacarias.

But critics question the superintendent’s plan.

“If you want to change instruction, you don’t do it at this level,” school board member David Tokofsky said. “You do it by setting up a course of study about what you are going to teach in every grade and in every subject.”