Compton Schools to Get Control in Steps

After seven long years, the state Tuesday night made public its plans to relinquish control of Compton’s school district piece by piece. But the city school board, which has long sought to end the takeover, nevertheless criticized much of the plan.

Members of the board, which was stripped of its power by the state in 1993, said the phased-in return of local control was too slow and gave too much authority to state administrator Randolph E. Ward, whom they consider inflexible and inaccessible.

The board took no vote on the plan. Although the state would like board members to sign “a memorandum of understanding,” in effect the board’s opinion matters little. Delaine Eastin, state superintendent of public instruction, has the final say in how and when the Compton schools revert to local control, and her spokesman has expressed support for the phased-in approach.

“This is the fundamental problem: What the board thinks doesn’t matter,” said Basil Kimbrew, board vice president and a longtime critic of the state’s management of the system. “It’s past time for the state to give us back the schools. But what can we do about it?’

Tuesday night’s meeting represented the beginning of the end of a state takeover that is unprecedented in California history. When the Department of Education assumed control of the district, it cited financial and academic mismanagement by the board that left the schools with a deficit of $20 million and the lowest test scores in the state.

Tuesday night, however, the head of a state team evaluating the state’s management of the district said that enough progress had been made under Ward’s leadership.

“This is a success story,” said Tom Henry, the team’s chief administrative officer.

In a 237-page report, the team graded that progress in five areas: facilities, community relations, pupil achievement, personnel management and finances--on a 10-point scale.

The report recommends that the board be given limited control over two areas in which the district received a grade of more than 6: facilities and community relations. Depending on the progress the board makes, it could receive the other three areas within six months. In particular, gains in student achievement--test scores are up in about half the district’s schools--has been so strong that returning authority in that area is virtually certain.

The school board will receive total control of the district when the district achieves an average grade of 7.5, the report says.

But five of seven school board members questioned the approach. They said the standards were too strict, and they criticized a provision that would allow the state to overturn any board actions it deems illegal or fiscally imprudent.

Some board members even disputed whether the progress was real. They blasted a Los Angeles Times story that quoted school district officials and education experts praising the gains made under state management. And they said they would like to see Ward leave the district--perhaps for Dallas, where he has interviewed for the job of school superintendent.

Board members Saul Lankster and Carol Bradley Jordan said they would refuse to go along with the phase-in.

“This is insulting,” Jordan said. “The members of the board are not first-graders. We should not be subject to meeting those kinds of standards.” Fixing her gaze at Henry, she questioned whether the state really means to return to control. “The white man speaks with forked tongue,” she said.

Others indicated they would wait until after the state’s Sept. 26 community meeting on the plans before expressing an opinion. Only board President Cloria L. Patillo expressed support for the state. Board member Gorgonio Sanchez Jr. was absent.

Kimbrew said he will move to hire a lawyer to advise the board on its rights. That could be the first step toward a legal challenge to the plan. Board members have backed a half-dozen suits against the state during the seven years it has run the district.

Kimbrew said he hopes pressure from Compton residents could force the state to speed the return. About 60 people attended the meeting, with many yelling derogatory comments during Henry’s presentation.

“It’s time for the state to get out!” said Dana Ortiz, the mother of a Compton second-grader who is angry at the state for contracting out bus service, a measure that cost her friends their jobs.

But privately, board members said they had no idea how they could successfully fight the state plan.

“This is a step forward, in that it’s something after years of getting nothing,” Kimbrew said. “I don’t know right now how we get a better deal.”