Feud Over Schools Is Public Only

Even as Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and school district officials prepare to wage war in court, senior aides on both sides are quietly laying the groundwork for a future partnership and collaborating on major initiatives, including a system to track dropouts.

The mayor’s office also, for the first time, released a list of 19 low-performing high schools Thursday from which Villaraigosa ultimately would choose three to oversee directly.

Villaraigosa will manage those high schools, and the elementary schools and middle schools that feed them, as part of legislation that gives him substantial authority over the Los Angeles Unified School District.

But before he does, the new law faces an expected court challenge, the latest round in a frequently hostile relationship between the leadership of the school district and a mayor who has repeatedly labeled L.A. Unified as “failing.”

Yet on Thursday, the mayor’s top education advisor revealed a major arena of blossoming collaboration.

“The district has been very, very cooperative,” Deputy Mayor Ramon C. Cortines said. “We’re very close to agreeing with the district on a coding process on dropouts. I hope to have a report to review in a few weeks.”

The result, he said, would be a system to track dropouts that would be far ahead of other school systems and what the state requires.

Los Angeles schools Supt. Roy Romer said he had directed top aides and administrators to work closely with city officials.

“We must not continue the battle of us versus them,” Romer told Times reporters and editors Thursday.

Speaking later in the day, he spoke about the cooperation over dropouts, while also insisting that the district already was working on a better tracking system as part of its dropout prevention initiative.

“This is not something they have come over and caused us now to do,” Romer said. “We really are trying to work with them. We want to do this with their understanding, and if they have anything to assist us, we’re happy to have that.”

Romer’s staffers said they got the message. Assistant Supt. Esther Wong, who oversees the district’s data analysis branch, is spearheading the effort to develop the tracking system.

“This is new and significant,” she said.

“And it’s going to be something we’re going to agree on,” said Bob Collins, chief instructional officer for the district’s secondary schools, who has a Monday meeting in the mayor’s office.

“It’s going to be powerful,” he said.

Romer said he also would be meeting with Cortines over which schools should become part of the mayor’s cluster.

Campuses under consideration are in four distinct regions of the sprawling school system: South Los Angeles, central city-Westside, the Eastside and the San Fernando Valley.

The school district says the mayor’s office has requested detailed information on six schools: Crenshaw and Dorsey in South L.A., Monroe and Sylmar in the Valley, Roosevelt in Boyle Heights and Belmont near downtown. The mayor’s office said all 19 remained in play.

Romer said it was premature to make final decisions.

“We need to clarify the constitutionality of this cluster idea before we get everybody unsettled about it,” he said, referring to the impending lawsuit.

The school board and the mayor’s office also remain at odds over the replacement for Romer, who is retiring. Cortines on Wednesday reiterated the mayor’s request for full inclusion in evaluating all applicants, the mayor’s office said.

District officials are so far moving forward with a confidential screening process. Still, the district and the mayor’s office are cooperating on a school safety initiative.

And over the summer the two sides joined forces on a summer jobs program for 650 students who attended summer school.

“Regardless of the legislation, it behooves L.A. Unified to have partnerships with the mayor,” school board President Marlene Canter said.

howard.blume@latimes.com

duke.helfand@latimes.com