Compton Trustees Get Cold Shoulder

For tonight’s meeting of the Compton Community College board of trustees, the elected board itself will be missing -- at least in its official capacity.

State officials overseeing the troubled district have told the trustees that they would not be needed for its monthly meeting on July 26, even in the advisory role they have been relegated to -- since the state took control of the campus last year. Such a suspension probably will extend into other months as state officials try to prevent the campus from losing its crucial accreditation, California Community Colleges Chancellor Mark Drummond said Monday.

“The board in its current reality is not doing much to get us out of the woods, and some of them have been obstructing us,” Drummond said. He said that he allowed the trustees to maintain the appearance of some authority by allowing them to hold meetings as an advisory board since last year. But more drastic action now is needed, he said.

“The fact is that were up against a very, very, very difficult problem. We have minimal resources and little time,” he said. “I don’t want them in my way.”

Last month, Compton became the first community college in the state to be threatened with loss of accreditation. The Western Assn. of Schools and Colleges cited financial and management irregularities -- including improper interference by the board in administration -- and set Aug. 19 for the end of accreditation. Such a loss would end state and federal funding and potentially result in closure of the 6,600-student campus.

Drummond said he would not consider restoring of the board in any capacity until he saw “a light at the end of the tunnel” that accreditation would be maintained. The state has asked the accrediting agency to review its Compton decision and is working on reforms to satisfy its requirements.

Arthur Tyler, the state-appointed special trustee over Compton College, wrote the trustees last week that they would not have any formal role at tonight’s meeting and would be allowed to speak only as members of the public.

Board members blasted Tyler’s order, saying it would silence the voices of the communities -- Compton, Lynwood, Paramount, Carson and Willowbrook -- that the college serves.

“They don’t think they even need our advice?” Lorraine Cervantes, one of two trustees elected from Compton in 2003, said angrily. Her constituents, she said, “think of it as an attack on the community, not the board. It just doesn’t make any sense at all.”

“It’s more of the same of the insulting behavior we’ve been receiving from Mr. Tyler for the last few weeks,” said board President Gerald Burgess.

He and the other four board members said they would attend the meeting. Some said they would address Tyler during the public comment period.

“I owe it to [the constituents] to come in and weigh my opinion,” Burgess said.

The state has been pushing for the trustees to resign, which the board has resisted.

Last month, state officials ordered the board to stop using all property owned by the college, including cellphones, and computers, and turn over their parking passes. They stripped the trustees of the use of offices and support staff, reimbursement for travel expenses, medical benefits and the $240 monthly stipend paid for serving on the board.

The meeting will be Tyler’s last as special trustee for Compton College before he becomes president of Sacramento City College. Charles Ratliff, a longtime higher-education expert, is to take over on Aug. 8.

Ratliff said the trustees might play a larger advisory role, but declined to get into specifics.

“The board does have a body of expertise that I don’t bring with me,” he said. “I will listen to anybody who might have constructive advice about how to best serve the college.”