Miller to Leave L.A. Unified at Month’s End

Howard Miller, the real estate lawyer who became a lightning rod for reform of the beleaguered Los Angeles school system, said Friday that he will leave his post as chief operating officer June 30, the same day interim Supt. Ramon C. Cortines steps aside.

Together, Miller and Cortines made a formidable team that shook up a district notorious for its entrenched bureaucracy. Their efforts culminated in a reorganization plan that goes into effect the day after they leave.

During his nine months as chief operating officer, Miller sought to jump-start the district’s problem-plagued school construction program, forged the decision to kill the Belmont Learning Complex and crafted the contract proposal that seeks to tie teachers’ pay to students’ achievements.

He said he is leaving because incoming Supt. Roy Romer plans to organize top leadership differently, but also because he has accomplished many of his goals.

“I just feel a sense of completeness,” he said in an interview Friday. His greatest achievement, he said, has been refocusing the huge district bureaucracy on the mission of education.

But, in the end, many of his signature initiatives remain incomplete or under siege.

Miller’s most visible assignment, to find other places for the students who would have attended the Belmont Learning Complex, has frayed into a series of community battles. And he leaves the district in the midst of contract negotiations with a teachers union that has threatened to strike over his merit pay proposal.

A charming conversationalist and brilliant thinker, Miller nonetheless has been a controversial figure since he arrived at the district.

His appointment as chief operating officer in October proved to be the catalyst for the ouster of former Supt. Ruben Zacarias. The board briefly gave Miller control over all district operations, effectively stripping Zacarias of power. In a move to head off a backlash from Latino leaders, however, Miller agreed to share leadership with Cortines after Zacarias’ Jan. 16 departure.

Cortines and Miller blended their efforts seamlessly. Although the board initially hired Miller to fix the district’s stalled school construction program, he extended his reach to educational issues such as testing.

“He has been a great partner in every aspect,” Cortines said Friday. “No one could be more interested in the achievement of students. He knows children must learn to read, with special emphasis from preschool to third grade.”

Cortines had always planned to leave June 30 but had said Miller should stay on a year longer. Miller never committed to a specific term. In an interview Friday, he said he had made up his mind in the last two weeks.

His take-command style and combativeness led to conflict on many fronts. He engaged in a drawn-out public war of words with mayoral candidate Steve Soboroff, who heads the citizens committee that oversees spending of the $2.4-billion 1997 school construction bond.

Soboroff, a sharp champion of the private sector, objected to Miller’s decision to ask the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to help in the school construction program.

Leaders of the teachers union say Miller’s provocative stance on merit pay has made negotiations much more difficult.

“I don’t fault Howard Miller as a human being,” said United Teachers-Los Angeles President Day Higuchi. “But he seemed to have a very confrontational style.”

Miller, 62, is no stranger to conflict--or to Los Angeles school politics. In the 1970s he was a member of the board for three years until his recall amid voter backlash over forced busing to integrate schools.

After 20 years in private practice as a real estate attorney, he was called back into service by the new, reform-minded Board of Education last fall with a mission to sort out the district’s failing school construction plan. The expansion of his power to encompass all district operations caused Zacarias to challenge the board, which later removed him.

Miller is unapologetic about his style.

“In the nature of things, if you’re decisive and make tough decisions, people think you’re confrontational,” he said. “We did what we thought we had to do in the way we had to do it, and in the end the only test is the results.”

Miller brought in a team of highly paid consultants to perform work that was being done by district staff members, many of whom were former teachers who had reached high management positions.

He concedes that the results were not all he had hoped, but says it was unrealistic to expect much more.

“The district was so behind in its planning, staffing, community work that the most important thing was to set the foundation to get them moving forward,” he said.

He said he is confident that many of his initiatives will move forward successfully under the new administration.

Within two years, he predicted, new high schools will open at the current district headquarters and soon thereafter at two other sites that now appear to be mired in controversy: the former Ambassador Hotel and the Dodger Stadium parking lot.

He also credits his work with political groups in the South Gate area for establishing agreement on a site that will house a new high school and middle school there.

But critics contend that the building program is stalled.

“The district’s new school facilities efforts lurched and staggered from plan to new plan continually during his short term,” said David Abel, whose friendship with Miller has been strained by disagreements over construction policy. “Even with staff turnover and tens of millions of dollars on consultants, [the district] is today only marginally better prepared for the daunting challenges it faces than it was when he arrived.”

But board member Valerie Fields said Miller’s achievement in improving the quality of the facilities staff was perhaps his greatest contribution.

“You can’t have an elementary school principal building buildings,” Fields said. “I was sort of crying in the wind during my first 2 1/2 years on the board. Howard came in and put people in place who knew what they were doing.”