By Howard Blume | LA Times | http://lat.ms/1Pji7vR
Dec 19, 2015 | 10:50pm
:: The Los Angeles Board of
Education met behind closed doors for 13 hours Saturday but did not announce a
new superintendent for the nation’s second-largest school system.
Instead, the seven-member board scheduled another meeting
for Jan. 5.
Board President Steve Zimmer, hoarse from a cold, offered an
upbeat message shortly after 9:30 p.m.
"The board is absolutely on track, working extremely
hard and I am confident that we will be able to reach a decision within the
first month of the school year," Zimmer said. "And the conversations
are absolutely appropriate to the weight and significance of the decision."
He added: "I am very proud of this board. Everyone has
brought their best selves and kept their best selves even through these
marathon sessions.”
The board has held four lengthy meetings over the last seven
days as it tried to make its most important hire. Supt. Ramon C. Cortines, 83,
left the school system Dec. 11 but is reachable on an emergency basis until
Jan. 1.
The district's No. 2 administrator, Michelle King, will
serve in place of Cortines, but will not receive the title of interim
superintendent. King already effectively has those duties because Cortines is
on vacation until his retirement.
No board action is required for King to take on the senior
leadership role on a temporary basis, said district general counsel David
Holmquist.
Holmquist too seemed to be suffering from the long sessions
and the stress of the task. He attended Saturday's session despite a case of
pneumonia, against doctor's orders.
King has experience serving for short periods as acting
superintendent, especially when she worked under Cortines' predecessor, John
Deasy, who was frequently out of town. Last week, she oversaw the staff
presentation at a board meeting over a sensitive topic: the temporary closing
of two schools because of a natural gas leak in the northwest San Fernando
Valley.
King is among the finalists for the job of schools chief.
Other names that have emerged as under consideration or who have been recruited
are: Fremont Unified Supt. Jim Morris, a longtime L.A. Unified senior
administrator; San Francisco Supt. Richard Carranza; and Miami-Dade County
Supt. Alberto Carvalho, who said publicly that he did not want the L.A. job.
Other individuals have been under serious consideration as
well.
Cortines came out of retirement after Deasy resigned under
pressure 14 months ago. A veteran administrator who ran the district twice
previously, Cortines had agreed to serve only until a permanent replacement
could be found.
The board had divided sharply over the type of leader needed
for this watershed moment, especially over whether to choose an insider or an
outsider.
Two inside candidates received the most serious
consideration: King and Morris, who spent most of his career in L.A. Unified as
a senior administrator.
Both would possess knowledge and experience to deal with the
district’s unique challenges from Day 1. But board members had to consider
whether either would have the strength and vision to carry the district forward
and to creatively confront or cajole its critics.
Some board members have stressed the value of choosing a
leader who is representative of district students. Like some other candidates,
Carranza is Latino, as are three-quarters of district students. Carvahlo, who
is Portuguese, learned to speak English after arriving in the United States.
More than 164,000 L.A. Unified students are learning English.
Zimmer sick. Vladovic sick. Holmquist with pneumonia.
Not good. Get well everybody!I will say that this is not good modeling-of-behavior. I know lawyers don't take much truck with the opinions of doctors - but I would hope that the general counsel of the LAUSD - especially one who came up through risk management - would follow doctor's orders. One hopes+trusts that parents would keep kids out of school on doctor's orders. One hopes+trusts that teachers and school staff will stay away from school on doctor's orders.
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