Ex-Colorado Governor Seeking L.A. School Job

At the urging of influential civic leaders, Roy Romer, chairman of the Democratic National Convention and former governor of Colorado, has met with top Los Angeles school officials to explore the possibility of becoming superintendent.

District officials have said from the outset that they want to look outside the traditional world of educators for a successor to interim Supt. Ramon C. Cortines. In interviews they seemed elated that someone of Romer’s national stature was interested enough to visit the district.

“It’s got to be one of the toughest jobs in America, more of a challenge even than being governor of Colorado,” said Romer, 70. “Right now, I’m just working hard to find the facts of the circumstance so I can answer this question: Should I do this?”

Cortines said Romer is one of about a dozen people who have contacted the district to express an interest in the position. But Romer is thus far the only potential candidate who has conducted face-to-face interviews at the offices of education officials.

A search firm is compiling a list of candidates from across the nation and a district committee will begin winnowing the pool next week. The district hopes to find a permanent successor to former Supt. Ruben Zacarias by July. Cortines has filled the position on an interim basis since December.

“Romer has been actively investigating this position,” said Ed Hamilton, executive director of the district’s headhunter firm. “But there are a number of people who are interested in it. At the moment there’s no such thing as a leading candidate.”

Romer, who has been in Los Angeles planning this year’s five-day presidential nominating convention, said local leaders encouraged him to consider the job. He declined to name them, but billionaire businessman Eli Broad, an active Democrat who has been working with Romer on the convention, said he was the first to suggest to Romer that he think about the position.

Broad, who is a member of the search committee, noted that the district is still in the early stages of the search process. “There are other nontraditional candidates of Roy Romer’s stature in the corporate and government world who are interested in the job, but not in having their names bandied about in public just yet,” Broad said.

The three-term governor, who played a significant role in resolving labor disputes and was respected by teachers for promoting educational reform programs in Colorado, has been visiting for hours with district officials.

A week ago, he met individually with Cortines, Board of Education President Genethia Hayes, Deputy Supt. Liliam Castillo and Assistant Supt. Carmen Schroeder, peppering them with questions and noting their responses on a yellow legal pad.

“I liked what I heard and was impressed that here was someone who believed they needed to a get firsthand look at the situation,” Hayes said. “He wanted to know that there was a serious commitment on our part. My sense is that he’s giving it serious consideration.”

Schroeder said: “He asked a lot of good questions about the instructional program.”

“He seemed eager to learn as much as possible about our reading plan and literacy programs,” she said, “and what our plans are for math.”

Cortines and others emphasized that the district was far from naming a superintendent.

In an interview, Romer cited some of the education issues he undertook as governor of Colorado from 1987 to 1998. Romer was pivotal in halting a teachers strike in 1991, and he helped draft a contract that provides for greater teacher and parent participation in running schools through local councils.

He has spent more than a decade serving on national committees on education, including the Education Commission of the States, a nonprofit educational policy group.

“As governor, Romer left a mark on Colorado as an exceptionally visible and powerful leader in the arena of standards-based reform,” said Kay McClenney, vice president of the commission. “He personally knows nearly everybody in the country who has had an important role in education.”

President Clinton selected Romer to head the Democratic National Committee in 1997. He took that post at a time when the party organization was tangled in a fund-raising scandal after the 1996 presidential campaign. A year later, his reputation was sullied by his admission of a “very affectionate relationship” with a former aide. He stepped down from the Democratic committee late last year and took over planning for the convention.

In Los Angeles, Romer remains largely unknown.

“On balance, Romer is very fluent on educational issues, and he’s got a good record of resolving labor disputes,” said Day Higuchi, president of the 40,000-member United Teachers-Los Angeles union. “I have an open mind, but I really don’t know him..”

Some people expressed concerns about the seemingly secretive manner in which Romer was recruited.

Dan Garcia, who co-chairs the district’s search committee, said: “I didn’t know about this, but I would have liked to have known about it.

“They have a right to talk to whomever they want to,” Garcia said. “But there must be both the appearance and actuality of having reviewed the merits and demerits of all the various candidates.”