New Compton Schools Chief Favors Return of Local Control

Veteran New Mexico educator Jesse L. Gonzales on Wednesday was formally named superintendent of the state-managed Compton Unified School District, and immediately urged the complete return of authority to the locally elected school board.

After signing a three-year, $165,000-per-year contract, Gonzales, the 63-year-old superintendent in Las Cruces, N.M., suggested he might ask the state Legislature to remove the Department of Education from overseeing the district.

“I’m really looking hard at doing that,” he said. “But I would need to have more data, to look at it more, before I act.”

In 1993, the state stripped the board of all power because of academic and financial deficiencies. A state-appointed administrator has run the district ever since.

The state has begun a gradual return of local control, based on biannual reviews of district progress by a team of state auditors. The board is now responsible for facilities and community relations, and the local board members searched for and selected the new superintendent.

The board’s progress has been steady, but slow, and a complete return is not expected until early next year--unless the Legislature gets involved first.

Gonzales said he would report to work late next month.

School board members, who have fiercely opposed state management for years, used Gonzales’ formal announcement as the centerpiece of a day devoted to criticizing the state. Board members also staged a “mortgage burning ceremony” to celebrate the district’s final payment of more than $20 million Compton owed the state as a result of a 1993 financial bailout. Compton’s debt has been one impediment to a return to local control.

“Today is a major milestone for the board and for local control,” said member Basil Kimbrew. “We’re so close to having our district back, we can taste it.”