L.A. School Board Limits Zacarias’ Role

The Los Angeles Board of Education on Tuesday removed Supt. Ruben Zacarias from direct authority over any member of the school district staff, appointing a chief executive to oversee all day-to-day operations.

In announcing a nine-month appointment of former board member Howard Miller to the new post, the board said he would report directly to Zacarias.

“All other departments, divisions and units of every kind of the LAUSD will report to Mr. Miller as CEO and to no one else, and will be under his complete authority,” the board said in a statement.

Zacarias, who was not informed of the plan until Monday, declined to comment, issuing a statement saying that he would meet with Miller today “to discuss the details of his appointment as a member of my staff.”

The surprise restructuring, accomplished in a 4-2 vote with one abstention, authorized Miller to assemble a crisis management team to conduct a top-down review of school district management and recommend a reorganization.

The move seemed to fuel persistent rumors of a plan to replace the superintendent. The rumors began this summer when three new board members--Genethia Hayes, Mike Lansing and Caprice Young--were elected on a slate backed by Mayor Richard Riordan.

Hayes, Young, Lansing and Valerie Fields voted in favor of the move; David Tokofsky and Victoria Castro opposed the action and Julie Korenstein abstained.

Miller, named only last month to take over the district’s troubled school construction and maintenance functions, will also assume authority over instruction and other activities.

In its brief statement announcing the decision, which was made behind closed doors, the board said: “We believe this will provide support to the superintendent and the board.”

Board member Castro said during a break in Tuesday’s open board meeting that she was already hearing from constituents who considered the restructuring a preliminary move to oust Zacarias.

Castro said she knew nothing about the proposal until it was introduced in closed session Tuesday by Miller and Barry Groveman, attorney for the district’s environmental safety team.

She and board member Tokofsky voted against the motion, complaining that it was rushed through with only an hour’s discussion.

“Nothing should be based on secret meetings, agendas posted with no backup information,” Castro said. “Something so vital to this district taken up in less than an hour!”

Miller and Groveman said they both concluded independently that the district’s bureaucracy is out of control and that its failures are too systemic to be corrected without all authority being placed in one person’s hands.

“There is no way to separate out chunks,” Miller said. “As long as there are fiefdoms, people report around through spider webs of associations.”

“This is long overdue,” Groveman said. “It had to happen. It had to happen now.”

Groveman said he presented the idea to Zacarias on Monday and that the superintendent agreed with the concept.

The restructuring plan evolved out of discussions between Miller and Groveman over the last few weeks, Miller said.

They floated the idea Sunday to board President Hayes and member Fields in a meeting at the attorney’s Century City office, sources said.

Board member Tokofsky said he was out of the loop until Tuesday morning.

Tokofsky said he liked the concept but objected to the process, which excluded all public comment and sidestepped Zacarias.

“If the two of them meet tomorrow and continue to mind meld, then I think we’ll all be in a better place,” Tokofsky said.

Questions About New Zacarias Role

State Sen. Richard Polanco (D-Los Angeles), a steadfast Zacarias backer, said he too was caught by surprise.

“It certainly begs the question as to what role Dr. Zacarias has in the chain of command,” Polanco said.

However, Polanco said he wanted to get more information before taking a position.

Miller, who said he has no aspiration to continue in the job past the nine months, denied that the change will diminish Zacarias’ authority.

“Dr. Zacarias is still the superintendent,” he said. “I report to him. This is not to supplant Dr. Zacarias. This is to support him.”

Miller, a school board member in the 1970s, was recalled as a part of the voter backlash against the use of mandatory busing as a means to integrate schools.

The board turned to him last month after it became apparent that the development of plans for 100 new schools was so far behind that the district would have little chance to meet a July 2000 deadline to qualify for up to $900,000 in state bond funds.

At the suggestion of the volunteer committee overseeing $2.4 billion in local school bond construction, the board appointed Miller to a new position of facilities executive, charged with reorganizing the school building program.

Groveman, as a member of the safety team, was instrumental in uncovering evidence that environmental problems at the $200-million Belmont Learning Complex were not adequately addressed before construction began on the high school west of downtown.

A commission has been appointed to recommend whether to abandon the project or undertake costly mitigation to deal with the hazards of explosive methane and toxic hydrogen sulfide.

Reporting on an investigation into the Belmont fiasco last month, district top auditor Don Mullinax recommended discipline up to termination for nine senior and mid-level district managers.

As one of his duties, the board instructed Miller to report by Oct. 22 with recommendations on what action to take with regard to the employees.