Hayes to Lead School Board for 2nd Term

The Los Angeles Board of Education elected reformer Genethia Hayes to a second term as its president Thursday, but after a year of contentious politics, Hayes could not muster unanimous support.

Also on Thursday, the board signed a three-year contract making new Supt. Roy Romer the highest-paid public official in Los Angeles County. In addition to an annual salary of $250,000, Romer can earn bonuses of up to $100,000 a year if he meets goals in areas including improved student achievement, school construction and teacher recruitment.

In the 6-1 vote reinstalling Hayes, board member Victoria Castro dissented, saying she objected to Hayes’ penchant for back-room politics and micro-management, including a recent incident in which Hayes proposed that her own sister help the district recruit minority job applicants.

Board member David Tokofsky echoed Castro’s criticism, but said he refrained from a symbolic dissent in the hope that Hayes, in a second year, could provide positive results rather than continued upheaval.

“Mrs. Hayes, if nothing else, has been very bold in her actions,” Tokofsky said. “We ought to see if all the turmoil and change can lead to something positive.”

Hayes, former executive director of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference chapter in Los Angeles, was one of three new board members--all backed by Mayor Richard Riordan--who defeated incumbents in a contentious election last year that hinged on the district’s poor academic performance and school construction fiascoes.

As a freshman president, Hayes presided over a series of stunning moves, often steamrollering strong political opposition from outside the district. The ouster of former Supt. Ruben Zacarias last fall and the January decision to abandon the $200-million Belmont Learning Complex have left lasting scars in the district’s relations with key Latino leaders.

Though Castro eventually joined a unanimous vote offering Zacarias a generous buyout, she sharply criticized the way the board drew Zacarias into confrontation with its sudden move to name a chief executive officer over all day-to-day operations.

Castro also opposed the Belmont decision and accused Hayes of conducting behind-the-scenes polling to hold the 5-2 board majority together after then-interim Supt. Ramon C. Cortines asked for a postponement of the vote.

Castro’s latest complaint concerns a memo Hayes wrote to the district’s director of research and evaluation, urging him to hire more African American analysts and researchers.

“I expect that you will make every effort to develop an aggressive outreach program directed by you to ameliorate our current situation,” Hayes wrote.

She said she would enlist the assistance of Cynthia Hudley, a professor at UC Santa Barbara, in the process. Hudley is Hayes’ sister.

Castro contended after the board meeting that it was inappropriate to recommend a relative and that the issue of diversity in employment should have been handled through Romer.

“I used to think it was lack of experience,” Castro said. “Now I think that’s how things get manipulated.”

During her campaign last year, Hayes, along with new board members Caprice Young and Mike Lansing, attacked the previous board for micro-managing and pledged to restrict their own activities to setting policy and overseeing the superintendent.

Hayes said she had no apology for the memo, which she distributed to the board. She said she believes she has a policy interest in seeing that there is diversity in a unit that evaluates programs for a district that is close to 90% minority.

She said she was offering her sister as a resource who would help the district at no cost.

“The only thing I said to him was my sister is an educational researcher,” Hayes said. “If he wanted, he could call her and say, ‘Here is an issue we are looking at. Can you give me some names?’ ”