Board to Interview Cortines for School Post

The Los Angeles Board of Education has scheduled an interview today with Ramon C. Cortines, its primary candidate for interim successor to Supt. Ruben Zacarias, but talks on the superintendent’s departure appeared unlikely to conclude before Thursday.

Meanwhile, as the district’s turmoil continues, Assembly Speaker Antonio Villaraigosa (D-Los Angeles), a candidate for mayor of Los Angeles, added his name to the list of political figures who say they would be willing to consider the idea of breaking up the district.

The board’s interview with Cortines is scheduled to take place in a closed session of the board beginning at 9:30 a.m. today. Board members have been invited to submit the names of other candidates to be interviewed, but so far no others have surfaced, board members said.

Zacarias’ attorney, Joseph F. Coyne Jr., said Monday that he had spoken over the weekend with the school board’s lawyer, but had not yet received a formal buyout offer.

“I don’t think anything is going to happen today,” he said.

Villaraigosa’s statement about breaking up the school district was carefully hedged.

“There is no question that a school district of this size with such an entrenched bureaucracy may be unmanageable, and we shouldn’t be afraid to review the issue of whether or not a district this size can effectively engage in a reform effort,” he said.

At the same time, Villaraigosa said he remains concerned about the fact that many smaller districts also are not successful. Although the breakup issue should be examined, he said, he has not made up his mind on it.

Breaking up the district is also one of the options that the state’s Little Hoover Commission has recommended examining.

Recent events “clearly demonstrate that district officials are not thinking strategically, that a higher level of competence is needed to spearhead a thorough reform of the district’s management,” Richard Terzian, chairman of the Little Hoover Commission, the state’s watchdog agency, said in a letter being sent to Gov. Gray Davis and other state officials.

Terzian said the “rush of events” in Los Angeles had prompted the commission to issue recommendations on L.A. Unified, “a disturbingly dysfunctional organization,” ahead of a larger report on school facilities programs across the state.

The report, set to be delivered to the Legislature on Wednesday, recommended the appointment of a panel of community leaders and professionals to examine the option of breaking up the district and to explore creating an independent authority to build new schools.

The report also recommended that the state intervene to expand the school board’s membership, increase oversight of Proposition BB, the district’s $2.4-billion construction bond program, and scrutinize the district’s organizational structure.

In other district developments, school board President Genethia Hayes announced the buyout terms for General Counsel Richard K. Mason and Chief Administrative Officer David W. Koch. A report earlier this fall by the district’s auditor, Don Mullinax, had named the two men as the highest-ranking employees responsible for the problems at the environmentally plagued Belmont Learning Complex.

Both will be paid through June 30, 2000.

Mason, a 12-year district employee who earns $139,109, will retire but remain available until June 30 to assist in the transition, Hayes said.

Koch, a 22-year veteran who earns $150,287, will remain on paid leave until his retirement becomes effective June 30.

The board has been severely criticized for its decision at a closed-door meeting Oct. 12 to appoint Howard Miller, a real estate lawyer and former board member, as chief executive officer with authority over all the district’s day-to-day operations. That move effectively cut off Zacarias’ authority over the district’s staff.

Zacarias declared the new relationship unacceptable, and balked at a compromise that renamed Miller’s position chief operating officer, which generally designates a lower spot on the chain of command.

With the superintendent not yielding, the board voted last week to initiate talks on buying out his contract.

Board member Caprice Young said a decision by today “would be a lot faster than we ever expected,” but that she understood the talks were going well.

“The lawyers are meeting, and the report is they’re coming to agreement on things,” Young said. “The fact that they’re meeting and they’re not in court is a good thing.”

Young said that the board had agreed in closed session last week to interview candidates for interim superintendent today and that any member could submit names.

As of Monday, however, there appeared to be no contenders other than the 67-year-old Cortines, the former superintendent in New York, San Francisco and Pasadena.

Board member Victoria Castro, a strong Zacarias supporter, said she had precipitated the interview process by challenging the way in which Cortines became the sole candidate for interim superintendent.

Castro said Hayes took full responsibility for the selection, but agreed to allow other board members to add other names, a gesture Castro found inadequate.

“We were trying to instill a process,” Castro said.

“I certainly couldn’t come up with a name over the weekend that would be really viable so that we would come up with any integrity in the process.”

Board member David Tokofsky, who also criticized the process behind Miller’s appointment, said he submitted eight names to Hayes, including Mayor Richard Riordan, as a way of showing his dissent.

“We need a little humor out there,” Tokofsky said.

Times staff writer Louis Sahagun contributed to this story.