School Board’s Big Chance

Reform should firmly take root on the Los Angeles school board when the four reform candidates--three newcomers and incumbent David Tokofsky--are sworn in Thursday. The board’s choice for president, most likely Genethia Hayes, one of the newcomers, should lead the district toward good governance and better schools.

The new president needs to be expert at conflict resolution to stave off the petty and sometimes personal disagreements that have bogged down the board. A consensus builder who can heal divisions is needed to unite board members in a common purpose of raising student achievement.

Before systemic problem solving can begin, the seven board members will need to learn their roles and responsibilities. They must govern without the intrusion of parochial politics. They must give Supt. Ruben Zacarias the leeway to do his job--and then hold him accountable for how well he does it.

Personalities aside, the new board will need comprehensive, accurate data it can trust--not fuzzy numbers that change daily. A systemwide performance audit is needed to determine the purpose of every job, what the position has to do with student achievement and on what basis job performance should be evaluated.

How does the money flow in the Los Angeles Unified School District? That is a $7-billion-a-year question. A fiscal audit, from the top down, should reveal whether adequate controls protect public dollars from being misspent, misdirected or even stolen. The first place to shine the light is on Belmont Learning Center, the district’s $200-million-and-still-counting fiasco.

There’s much for the new board to take on, including a worsening teacher shortage and principals who are given the responsibility for improving schools but then effectively are handcuffed by labor contracts from transferring and disciplining staff members. The number of children who read at grade level in English by age 9 needs to increase swiftly from the current one out of three; the release of statewide standardized test scores Wednesday will tell whether improvement in both reading and math has begun.

In Orange County, 21 of the 27 school districts so far have released their scores on the standardized test. One surprising result has been that those with limited English have made bigger gains than those fluent in the language. Los Angeles officials, citing a rushed year-round schedule, are already trying to dampen expectations that the LAUSD might see the same positive result. Are there legitimate large differences in circumstances or is the district just making excuses again for a job poorly done? The question points up the leadership challenge: This board must do no less than regain the public trust that has been squandered.

The board needs to set priorities. A reform majority, veterans as well as newcomers, must focus first and most intensely on student achievement. Everything that teachers, principals, administrators and the board do must flow from that overriding mandate. Teach the children. And start by example.