Plan Would ‘De-Annex’ Compton Schools

Frustrated by eight years of state control of their schools, Compton officials are contemplating whether to withdraw from the Compton Unified School District and start a district of their own.

The City Council has approved a special question for this spring’s municipal election. Should the city, the question asks, “de-annex” from Compton Unified, a 39-campus district that includes all of Compton and parts of Carson, Willowbrook, Los Angeles and parts of unincorporated Los Angeles County?

The ballot question will not have the force of law. As a symbol, however, it powerfully demonstrates the depths of bitterness that local politicians feel for the state Department of Education, which took over Compton Unified in 1993. It also could prove useful for local officials who want to speed the return of local control.

“We would rather run our own school district instead of the one that you have taken and run into the dirt,” Mayor Omar Bradley said at a recent council meeting, in a statement directed at state officials.

Compton’s school district is the only one in California history to be taken over by the state for both academic and financial mismanagement. In the ensuing eight years, state administrators have made modest improvements in the district’s financial and academic performance. Citing those improvements, the state last fall announced plans for a phased-in return of authority to the local school board, beginning with maintenance and community relations.

State education officials and other Compton civic leaders dismiss the ballot question--and other disputes over Assembly legislation and a proposed $500,000 donation of textbooks--as political posturing in advance of April’s city elections. Actual de-annexation is a complex bureaucratic process the city has not formally begun, and the state has long served as a useful whipping post for Compton politicians. Some state officials note that Bradley, whose day job is as a Lynwood school administrator, has expressed interest in becoming the superintendent of Compton’s schools.

Nevertheless, the ballot question highlights the resistance state schools Supt. Delaine Eastin faces in executing a phased-in return of local authority. In essence, local officials want total control back now. State Sen. Ed Vincent (D-Inglewood) is preparing legislation that calls for a state withdrawal from Compton, according to three people with whom he has spoken. (Vincent did not return phone calls). School board members also are considering suing the state to force a total return.

“Delaine Eastin has no intention of surrendering this school district,” said Compton school board member and mayoral candidate Saul Lankster.

City officials cite the controversy over the council’s recent offer to pay $500,000 for textbooks as indicative of state intransigence. Board members encouraged the gift, but state and district officials said Compton Unified had enough money and textbooks and called the offer political grandstanding. In a Feb. 2 letter to City Councilwoman Marcine Shaw, state administrator Randolph E. Ward questioned whether such a donation from Compton taxpayers to a school district--which includes other cities--was legal.

“Nevertheless, if the city wishes to offset our costs for upcoming textbook purchases, it would be a pleasure to be able to allow funds already earmarked for textbook purchases to be used in other district projects,” Ward wrote.

Bradley quickly labeled the state’s response “arrogant” and said it demonstrated the need for a new district. Such a change would be the latest restructuring--from last fall’s dismantling of the Police Department to last month’s sale of the city’s interest in a local casino--in Compton.

Even as the district and city skirmished over the donation, Eastin issued an executive order last week formally returning some powers to the board and allowing its members to begin a national search for a permanent superintendent. But the order only served as another reminder of the gulf between state and local officials. Eastin and Ward had sought to return power by a signed agreement with local officials that would preserve state-mandated reforms in Compton.

Fausto Capobianco, the district spokesman, blamed Compton officials for the inability to reach an agreement. Local board members are creating “distractions that mean nothing at all” and may be afraid of assuming authority--and thus responsibility--for the district’s performance.

“Politicians here specialize in creating political issues for the benefit of politicians,” Capobianco said. “We at the school district deal with people interested in academic issues, not political issues.”