L.A. UNIFIED TAKES HAMMER TO ITS BUILDING UNIT:The loss of the head of the LAUSD's construction division could be the beginning of waste, cost overruns, political contracts and worse.

 

Opinion By Constance L. Rice | LA Times

4:21 PM PDT, September 28, 2009 -- The construction unit of the Los Angeles Unified School District has successfully and cost-effectively built 80 new schools and won scores of awards. So how has Supt. Ray Cortines rewarded this efficient unit? By driving out its superb leadership.

Guy Mehula, the talented head of the construction division, resigned Monday after LAUSD leaders made clear their intention of dragging Mehula's quasi-independent team back under the tight control of the district.

Taking away the unit's autonomy would be a huge mistake. The district has tried micromanaging the construction of schools, and it failed miserably. If you need convincing, just think about the disastrous cost overruns and construction errors of the Belmont Learning Complex.

For those who don't remember the horrific details, the district began construction at Belmont (or the Edward R. Roybal Learning Center, as it was finally called) without required environmental reviews or professional managers, ultimately building a $160-million high school that the state declared unusable for children. A scathing audit of the debacle concluded that the project had violated environmental and public safety laws, and that the uninformed district had "tolerated a culture remarkably indifferent" to standards or accountability. The audit referred several of its findings to the district attorney for criminal investigation.

With a pressing need for new schools, then-Supt. Roy Romer and a newly elected board of education were determined to avoid more Belmonts, so they established a facilities division that was independent, expertly run and free of the district's torpid bureaucracy. The new unit was staffed by construction professionals and experienced Navy engineers who were insulated from political and union pressures. Schools were built by carefully selected contractors who were closely monitored by an expert staff of auditors and managers.

The new division, charged with managing a $20-billion construction effort, quickly established a system of value-based contracting that permitted necessary -- but not political -- changes to contracts. And Romer was true to his word: The school board set policy and acquired land for schools, but otherwise stayed out of the way.

Now Cortines has rescinded key provisions that helped shield the facilities division from unwarranted interference. He proposes to remove the unit's specially assigned and quasi-independent lawyers and limit the hiring of contractors to 10-month periods -- something few competent construction professionals would agree to. Cortines and the board also want to set salary limits that are not competitive. Mehula resigned because these and other proposals would end the independence that has made the school construction unit a success.

Cortines' actions come as the construction program is also facing other threats.

Some school board members, in actions reminiscent of the group that brought us Belmont, have started pushing for expensive and wasteful changes to building contracts. They have tried to use bond funds for things that are prohibited by the bond measure. And they have increasingly questioned contract awards and dismissed the judgment of facilities professionals. Most discouraging, I have heard two school board members suggest that the facilities division needs to "look more like Los Angeles." Although diversity is important, it cannot be allowed to trump the expertise needed to manage a massive school construction program.

With Mehula's resignation, bondholders, taxpayers and contractors should be very worried. If his expert management team leaves, the successful phase of school construction is almost certain to end -- and bond money will once again be wasted.

It is time to consider creating an independent construction authority for building schools. Doctors don't build hospitals, and lawyers don't build courthouses. Why should educators who can barely manage the mission of education build schools?

Constance L. Rice is a civil rights attorney and a member of the School Construction Bond Oversight Committee.

SUPT. BREWER’S FAILINGS

L.A. Unified needs a leader who can guide the school district through tough times. Brewer isn't the one.

smf doesn't agree, see below.

Editorial from the Los Angeles Times

November 13, 2008 - The Los Angeles Unified School District is not without accomplishment. It has recently seen student test scores improve, and it is on track with a vast, long-term effort to build enough schools for all of its students. But along with much of California, the district is heading into troubled times -- largely financial -- that threaten its classrooms and students, and that will test its management and educational skills. This is a treacherous moment for a school district that has long operated on the edge of failure, and it demands unimpeachable leadership. In such a moment, the district cannot afford a superintendent who holds the title but isn't up to the job.

Retired Vice Adm. David L. Brewer reaches the second anniversary of his four-year contract today. We liked him from the start -- his intelligence and affability were and are strengths -- though we had reservations about whether he had the necessary political and educational acumen. Time has only exacerbated those concerns.

Brewer started off with good intentions and big plans. Since those early months, however, he has done little to inspire loyalty and much to stoke misgiving. He stumbled in putting together his command team and responded to crises with flow charts and management-speak. He was unable to dissuade the school board from shelling out close to $35 million the district didn't have so that cafeteria workers could receive health benefits, a noble gesture to those workers but one that came at the expense of students. He was either unable or unwilling to talk the board into putting a financial package on the Nov. 4 ballot that would have provided for both construction and instruction. Most of his own ideas -- such as getting rid of bad teachers or creating a mini-district for failing schools -- faded out or were scaled back until they were hardly recognizable.

Eventually, Brewer's accumulated missteps -- and his dismaying lack of prowess -- led to an arrangement in which he ceded much of his authority while preserving the illusion of his leadership, a revision of his job description that avoided roiling the city's ever-tenuous racial politics. Senior Deputy Supt. Ramon C. Cortines was hired in April to oversee academic matters for the district, while Brewer continued to preside over administrative matters such as payroll and construction; Brewer also acts as a public figurehead and attends the protracted board meetings. This is classic Los Angeles politics: Administrative and racial comity is achieved by paying two superintendent-level salaries for one complete superintendent-level package. It also typifies all that is wrong with L.A. Unified. The district protects administrators who fail rather than students whose futures depend on a solid education.

Brewer does not deserve all the blame for his administration's ineffectiveness. He inherited a highly politicized district and a gutless bureaucracy, both stymied by a teachers union that is effective at defending its membership but too often indifferent to the needs of students. The board majority that hired Brewer acted too hastily to bring him aboard, eager to close the deal before Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa could gain more control over the district; the newly elected board majority that followed clearly gave its allegiance to the mayor, not the new superintendent.

For his part, Brewer was overconfident about his ability to navigate the political shoals that lay ahead. Shortly after starting his job, he was confronted with an enormous payroll snafu, as a new computer system put in place by his predecessor repeatedly spat out inaccurate checks -- for months, some teachers were overpaid, some paid not at all. Though Brewer tackled the problem competently, he also compounded it, first by trying to blame district employees for the mess and then by hiring expensive and ineffectual public relations consultants to spin a new image for the district.

Today, L.A. Unified confronts a budget shortfall of at least $200 million. It is faced with the possibility of closing schools and laying off staff. There is talk of curtailing elective courses and preschool offerings. Students stand to suffer, as do teachers. Supt. Brewer, meanwhile, continues to receive $300,000 a year plus hefty perks.

Halfway through his contract, it's no longer time to voice hopes or to prod Brewer toward action. In the interests of the students he is charged with educating, Brewer and the board should acknowledge that he isn't a good fit for the job of superintendent. They should chart a graceful course for his departure and embark on it sooner rather than later.

 

●●smf’s 2¢: At this risk of appearing to (gasp!) defend the status quo I’m going to respectfully dissent from The Times position on this one – but I hope we all rally 'round their editorial board’s previous pronouncement that California needs to re-implement the Vehicle License Fee!

Superintendent Brewer and Senior Deputy Superintendent Ramon Cortines have actually created a very interesting power dynamic in the “David & Ray Show”; the truth is that the District needs someone to be Senior Deputy Superintendent —someone has to be number two  …or perhaps in Ray’s case, number 1.1.

And actually both of them, neither being ‘someone else’s man’, do a pretty effective job at keeping city hall and the Board of Education - and those who would put on the power suit and solid tie and assume the myth of The Power Elite - at bay.

The real challenge the district faces is one of economics and lack of political will in (and money from) Sacramento – problems not of Brewer's doing. Overall performance by kids in test scores and API and AYP are improving in LAUSD at a faster rate then the rest of the state – even though we get less and less money every year.

Back in they day when the search was on for A New Superintendent my candidate was Lawrence Summers: former Treasury Secretary, former Harvard President,  former chief economist of the World Bank.  In light of the current economic and credit debacle how kewl would what've been?  Call me Mr. Prescient.  

But Larry is going to be busy on the national stage, so let’s let David and Ray do their thing and may the Times editorial board deal with it’s own demons of declining readership, advertising revenues and an absentee owner who knows much about real estate and little about newspapers.

THE NEW LAUSD ORG CHART

...you can't tell the players without an org chart!

officially available here

1. note the date of the org chart: 4.4.2008

2. note the effective date of the org chart: "current as of the day posted".

3. Ramón Cortines, the Senior Deputy Superintendent - didn't begin employment until 4-14-2008; the announcement of his hiring wasn't made until 4.8.2008