Zacarias’ Job Offer to Kiriyama Questioned

Four days before Los Angeles school board member George Kiriyama offered a motion to extend school Supt. Ruben Zacarias’ contract, Zacarias had offered Kiriyama a job as a school principal, education officials acknowledged Friday.

Both men insist it was a coincidence. But some people are raising questions about the appearance of a conflict of interest.

The offer came June 11 at a going-away party for Kiriyama, a former adult school principal who was defeated in the April 13 election. Kiriyama, a board member of the Los Angeles Unified School District for four years, will be out of a job as of June 30.

Kiriyama recalled Friday that “Ruben said, ‘George, we really need your expertise, and we’d like to see you come back to your old position as a principal.’ ”

On Tuesday, Kiriyama made a controversial motion in a closed session of the board to have Zacarias’ three-year contract extended by one year--before a new majority of board members take their seats in July.

Kiriyama said any connection between his motion, which has been widely criticized, and Zacarias’ offer was “purely coincidental.”

“I’ve been talking about extending Ruben’s contract for two months,” he said. “Anyone who does a good job deserves to have their contract extended.”

Beyond that, Kiriyama said, “Sure, I’d like to come back as a principal. I do have a lot to offer. It would be a benefit to the district if I came back.”

Zacarias was unavailable for comment. But his spokesman, Brad Sales, said: “Ruben stated publicly last Friday that he would welcome George’s expertise in the adult education division.

“But currently, there is no such position available,” Sales said. “And any attempt to link the superintendent’s discussion and George’s motion is erroneous.”

Nonetheless, Mark Slavkin, a spokesman for the Los Angeles Annenberg Metropolitan Project, an education reform group, said the job offer was troubling.

“In my mind, there is nothing necessarily sinister about this,” said Slavkin, a former Los Angeles school board member. “But it points to a lack of arm’s-length associations people should have.”

Mike Roos, president of the Los Angeles Educational Alliance for Restructuring Now reform group, agreed.

“It disparages what is otherwise a very good record of achievement by Zacarias,” he said. “It makes it look as though he is trying to slide a fast one past the due process of the new members of the board.”

Separately, the controversy over whether to extend Zacarias’ contract has prompted Latino elected officials and community leaders to rally in his support and the motion to extend his contract.

On Monday, state Sen. Richard Polanco (D-Los Angeles) and a group of community leaders plan to hold a news conference to express their support for Zacarias. They also plan to urge the school board to extend his contract without delay.

However, a group of local business and civic leaders organized to improve governance of the school board has been lobbying board members to turn down Kiriyama’s motion. Led by Harold Williams, resident emeritus of the J. Paul Getty Trust, that group contends that the newcomers to the board deserve the right to decide Zacarias’ future.

On Tuesday, the board reportedly gave Zacarias a lukewarm performance evaluation. Some board members characterized his performance overall as deserving a grade of C.

The fact that the confidential performance report was leaked to reporters has prompted school board President Victoria Castro to call for an investigation into possible violations of the state’s Brown Act.