Youth Platform

It’s Time to Refocus on Students

This week, the Los Angeles Unified School District set in motion plans to buy out Supt. Ruben Zacarias’ contract. Zacarias’ removal has stirred a public debate over whether race or the allegiance of the board majority to Mayor Richard Riordan motivated the board’s action. Students shared their views with MARY REESE BOYKIN.

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VICTORIA PRECIADO

17, senior, Dorsey High School

I got a lot of mixed messages regarding Zacarias’ dilemma. My inference from the media’s reports was that letting Supt. Ruben Zacarias go was racially motivated. Others said he simply wasn’t getting the job done.

Last week, Dorsey’s student body president, Joshua Williams, and I talked to [school board president] Genethia Hayes, who said she was talking to students from every school in her area so that she would have a better understanding of our needs. She made it clear that Zacarias’ removal has nothing to do with his race or ethnicity.

I think that the board is taking dignity from the superintendent. Maybe the result would have been the same, but the public could have accepted it better if due process were demonstrated. In order to remove suspicion, the board should have followed its own procedures. After all, the LAUSD should be an example to us young people that you follow your own guidelines.

Many people identify with Zacarias because they know the obstacles that are put in the path of minorities who want to be something and have power so that they can help change their community.

I have no feeling for how the Latino community generally views Zacarias, since I live in a predominantly African American neighborhood. What I did find interesting, though, was the poll results that showed the superintendent does not have the overwhelming support of the Latino community.

But in a minute way, what’s happening to Zacarias may be racial. As tolerant as many of us think we are of other races, we must admit that we carry a small bias against those who are racially different from us.

I have another concern. Mayor Richard Riordan financed the campaign of three of the [new] board members. Maybe they feel more pressure than if they were on their own.

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ISMAEL VENEGAS

16, junior, Manual Arts High School

Leadership is needed to improve the school system, but just eliminating Zacarias won’t be the answer. The whole LAUSD needs improvement. Take, for example, Proposition BB, the measure that allowed for school repairs. There were no plans for how the money was to be spent, no real process.

There is not a lot of representation of Latinos in high offices in the community, so the Latino community takes what is happening to Zacarias personally. People probably feel that there is a hidden agenda.

Though I live in the Manual Arts community, I recently attended a school board meeting to support my friends at Fremont who complained of insufficient counselors and teachers. I feel that if this problem is occurring there, it could eventually happen at Manual Arts.

To the Latino community, Zacarias represents someone who was able to get into power and make schools a little better. He moved up. For me personally, his achievement means that moving up in the system is possible, that it is not as out of reach as it often seems for us Latinos.

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JOSHUA WILLIAMS

17, senior, student body president, Dorsey High School

I think that there is more talk about the issue with Zacarias publicly than there should be. It is a management issue that should be dealt with in-house. This focus is off, since the board seems mainly concerned about who it wants in the position rather that what it is doing for students.

My first impression was that what was happening to Zacarias was racial. But when I read that the likely interim superintendent is Ramon Cortines, my feelings about Zacarias’ ouster as a racial issue lessened. I think that it is key that a superintendent can relate to students’ needs rather than someone who is just about policymaking.

If Zacarias is forced out because of his unwillingness to work with the newly appointed chief operating officer, then that’s not a good enough reason. If it’s the Belmont and South Gate projects or the superintendent’s lack of follow-through on the 100 lowest-performing schools, then these are issues for letting him go.

As student body president, students and teachers share their concerns with me. Dorsey has a lot of good teachers. But schools like Dorsey sometimes tend to pull a share of teachers with less experience. There are concerns about resources. Some classes are overcrowded.

I hope that the board will resolve quickly and fairly the situation with Zacarias so that it can refocus on student achievement.