Board Members Warn Zacarias to Cooperate

Los Angeles school board President Genethia Hayes warned Monday that Supt. Ruben Zacarias is making “an employment decision” if he refuses to accept chief executive Howard Miller’s sole authority over district staff.

Hayes and board member Caprice Young spoke at a news conference of the risks to Zacarias if he persists in questioning the board’s decision to put a CEO in charge of all day-to-day district operations.

“If he chooses not to follow the policy of the board, he is making an employment decision as far as I am concerned,” said Young, one of four who voted to place former board member Miller between Zacarias and the rest of the staff.

The statements came amid persistent rumors--and denials--of a buyout offer for Zacarias. It would take four votes to buy Zacarias out, but Hayes strongly denied that any offer has been made.

“If we had wanted Dr. Zacarias out, trust me, we would have said we wanted Dr. Zacarias out,” Hayes said.

The board still believes in Zacarias as a “visionary” who could lead the district out of its trouble, with Miller as a chief executive to carry out his will, she said.

Behind the scenes, however, a source close to the board said that Zacarias’ attorney had contacted the board’s attorney to talk about a possible buyout.

Zacarias is seeking at least $500,000, including $150,000 for unused vacation time, sources said.

A buyout package that would pay Zacarias $277,000 for the remaining 18 months on his contract plus $150,000 for accrued vacation reportedly has been discussed.

But Zacarias’ attorney, Joseph Coyne Jr., said Monday that the superintendent was not interested in leaving his post.

Zacarias on Monday showed no inclination to quit his job, instead saying that he is planning a new initiative “to heal the wounds of the past.” He said he will announce his own plan for a district reorganization next week.

“Rough times often create the environment in which different and innovative ideas will be accepted and progress made,” he said. “I hope these are such times.”

As the crisis over leadership of the 700,000-student district entered its second week, there was little evidence of an anticipated Latino backlash over Zacarias’ situation, but neither was an end to the turmoil in sight.

Hayes and Young would not set a deadline for resolving the impasse created when Zacarias balked at the board’s order and said he would not relinquish direct authority over his top three deputies.

However, they said, Zacarias and Miller need to work out their relationship together. They said they would accept nothing short of full compliance by Zacarias.

“The board has created a structure,” Young said. “It is his job to carry out the policy of the board.”

Hayes added that she hopes that Zacarias will understand soon “how absolutely lucky he is” to have a board that has given him the opportunity to team with Miller.

The board approved the sweeping management change in closed session last Tuesday with no prior public comment.

The decision followed several stinging reports on the district’s handling of its school construction program, and reflected board members’ apparent frustration with the lack of progress on instructional goals such as textbook purchases and teacher recruiting.

Although a prepared statement said the action was intended to support the superintendent, the move has widely been perceived as a slap at the popular Latino official, prompting Latino leaders and commentators to urge parent demonstrations and student sickouts in protest.

Zacarias and his supporters are concerned that giving Miller direct authority over all district operations renders the superintendent superfluous and vulnerable to removal.

Joining Hayes and Young at the news conference Monday afternoon, board member Valerie Fields flared with anger over attempts to cast the decision as an ethnic issue.

“I think it is reprehensible that anyone would risk turning this into ethnic animosity and risk tearing apart the fabric of the community,” Fields said.

So far, however, public reaction has been slight.

Responding to fliers distributed in East Los Angeles, about two dozen Latino activists, parents and teachers held a news conference at district headquarters Monday in support of Zacarias. They carried signs that read, “It’s Not Miller Time” and “Respect the Process.”

“If the board members want Zacarias out, they should first ask the public if it agrees,” said community activist Isabel Vasquez. “Genethia Hayes, you should be ashamed of yourself--you came from a civil rights background and yet you have chosen to ignore us parents.”

A larger rally is scheduled for Friday, organizers said.

The three board members said they took the abrupt action last week because they believe the district bureaucracy is out of control as low-level bureaucrats routinely make policy decisions on their own.

“It didn’t seem to me that any of the top leadership of the district knew what was going on,” Fields said.

The legality of the board’s action was called into question Monday by board secretary Jefferson Crain.

Crain said the item announcing that the board would discuss “appointment of management personnel” Tuesday was posted too late to meet the 24-hour public notice required by the state’s open meeting law.

Crain said that at the time he was “led to believe” that the addition to the closed-session agenda, brought to him by Miller, was “insubstantial.”

Beyond that, he said, he and Miller discussed “the timing question.”

“Looking back, that revision has been on the front page of newspapers for days,” Crain said. “It’s getting more coverage than the war in Kosovo.”

Crain, however, could not explain why the revised agenda lacked an official time stamp and date that all new board documents receive the moment they are formally filed.

The lack of a time stamp “is something that occurs when we’re hurrying up around here,” he said. “It happens and it happened.”

Miller and Hayes say they were assured the notice was posted on time.

Terry Francke, general counsel for the California 1st Amendment Coalition, said the board’s action, if illegal, could easily be corrected in a subsequent meeting.

But he suggested that a “court might find hard to swallow” the process by which Miller was appointed.

In related developments:

* The commission weighing the fate of the environmentally plagued Belmont Learning Complex voted unanimously Monday on two preliminary questions. The commission concluded that the site for the downtown school should not have been selected and that it is now not safe for one. The commission is scheduled Wednesday to vote on whether the $200-million project should be completed.

* Hayes declined to discuss rumors that buyout offers have been made to two top staff members, general counsel Richard K. Mason and Chief Administrative Officer David Koch. They were among nine staff members who the district auditor’s report on the Belmont project said should be disciplined.

* Zacarias on Monday accepted the resignation of his top spokesman. Brad Sales, assistant superintendent for communications, said he decided to leave last Wednesday after he was publicly berated by Miller while examining the agenda items.