Ruben Zacarias

Re “Fight Shapes Up as Zacarias Vows to Keep Job,” Aug. 17:

Cheers for Harold Williams, urging that the apparent “ugly confrontation . . . developing around [LAUSD Supt. Ruben Zacarias’] future . . . needs to be stopped.” What is (really) going on when individuals, however well-intentioned, generate behind-the-scenes forces that are demonstrably diverting the school board and superintendent “from concentrating their attention on the education of our children and on the superintendent’s accountability for improving student achievement”? Unlike the superintendent and the LAUSD board, these individuals did not publicly agree on goals and means for their being realized for students and the district; and they cannot be held directly accountable, like the superintendent and board, for the results of their behind-closed-doors discussions.

From firsthand observation and experience I believe that the superintendent of the smallest school district, let alone the second-largest in the nation, cannot possibly “turn the district around” in just two to three years. I also know, from personal observation and the praises of his former students, parents, teachers, administrators and community leaders, that Zacarias is a teacher and educational leader of exceptional competence, character and commitment.

ALAN GERSHMAN

LAUSD Board Member, 1981-1989

Sierra Madre

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I would applaud efforts by the mayor or anyone else to get rid of Zacarias. I am sick and tired of his phony pronouncements about decentralization and local control. Even LEARN schools like the one I teach at can’t hire their own teachers. We can’t accept students who want to come to our school. We can’t even pick the textbooks we want, rather, being forced to choose books off a narrow and, to my mind, mediocre list of “approved” books.

Zacarias claims he’s for improved student performance. Bureaucracy and business-as-usual are what Zacarias stands for.

MICHAEL HELWIG

Cleveland Humanities Magnet

Reseda