from the Downtown News:: READY FOR A MEGA YEAR: School is in Session + LEADERS OF THE PACK: Monica Garcia

In the fall, the $232 million High School for the Visual and Performing Arts will open. LAUSD officials still have to hire a staff and decide who will be able to attend the state-of-the-art facility. Photo by Gary Leonard.

from Ready for a Mega Year  by Anna Scott

DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES - One of the biggest stories of 2009 will be the economy, and some of the signature projects Downtown Los Angeles has long awaited - the Grand Avenue plan, Park Fifth, etc. - are in question. Yet, despite the fears and uncertainties, the community this year will see the debut of several mega-developments, ones that began construction during the boom cycle and that have the power to continue to help transform the area. From skyscrapers that will house more stakeholders to an underground transit line that will make commuting into the Central City easier, these projects will all have a major impact on the people who live, work and visit Downtown.

School Is in Session: Jan 5 - The Los Angeles Unified School District's $232 million, 1,700-seat High School for the Visual and Performing Arts will open for classes this fall. The 238,000-square-foot campus at 450 N. Grand Ave. includes a 950-seat auditorium and 140-foot tower; the eye-catching (some say audacious) project is designed by Austrian firm Coop Himelb(l)au. The school will feature music, dance, visual arts and performing arts academies. However, with only months until it opens, a few key issues have not been decided, such as how much of the student body will come from outside Downtown, and whether the school will be enveloped by the LAUSD, or if it will have some charter-like independence.

 

from Leaders of the Pack by Jon Regardie: Elected Officials Who Will Be at the Center of Things in 2009

Fresh off her ouster of former LAUSD Supt. David Brewer, school board President Monica Garcia has put herself in a position of power. Photo by Gary Leonard.

DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES - In the grand scheme of things, with scheme being the operative word, the political scene in 2008 in Downtown was pretty quiet. The scandals were less fantastic than in previous years, the local elections were a far second in terms of excitement to the vote for president, and the city's rock star politician, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, was on good behavior as he worked hard to bounce back from a disastrous 2007.          Will it be more of the same in 2009? Hard to tell at this point. We expect there will be some surprises (there always are), but for right now, expect the five figures below to be the ones to spur movement in Downtown Los Angeles

Monica Garcia: Jan 5 - The president of the school board last year led the effort to get rid of Superintendent David Brewer. It came off clunky, but the key is, she got him out and her guy in, and in politics, results are what matters. Garcia has the ear of Villaraigosa (though some say she's just doing his bidding) and she sits at the head of a school board where her side has the majority. With billons coming to the LAUSD after voters approved a school bond proposition last year, Garcia has power and is ready to use it.

A LEADERSHIP CHANGE AT THE LAUSD

 

Adolfo Guzman-Lopez | KPCC Public Radio

December 31, 2008
Listen

These last days of the year are also the last days on the job for L.A. Unified Superintendent David Brewer. He leaves his position almost two years before his contract is up. Earlier this month, most of the school board voted to buy out the remaining time on his contract. KPCC's Adolfo Guzman-Lopez examines Brewer's record.

Adolfo Guzman-Lopez: Retired vice admiral David Brewer made his first public appearance as L.A. Unified's new superintendent just over two years ago.

David Brewer: Well good morning. I am glad to be in L.A. I think Los Angeles is a fabulous city. My wife and I spent many, many, many days, weeks in this great city. And I'm looking forward to joining you in educating the children of Los Angeles Unified School District.

Guzman-Lopez: Brewer's predecessor, former Colorado governor Roy Romer, had retired a victorious general. Romer had helped to improve elementary school reading scores and to lead a major school construction program. At Brewer's first official meeting, then-board member David Tokofsky projected even higher expectations.

David Tokofsky: There's so much in our children that can be unleashed into great, imaginative, high levels of success. I know you're the exact person we've been looking for to take that energy from our children and transform this entire district and this entire county into a global moment.

Guzman-Lopez: Brewer, in response, expressed his eagerness to fulfill those hopes.

Brewer: I spent 36 years fighting that foreign enemy. I'm now here to fight that domestic enemy. As crime, ignorance, and poverty, and that's what I'm here for.

Guzman-Lopez: But Brewer remained an outsider to Southland educators and civic leaders. In one of his first acts, Brewer met privately at a Huntington Park Mexican restaurant with the mayors of southeast L.A. County cities served by L.A. Unified. He promised to listen and act on their concerns. Many district students and their parents are Spanish-speakers. Brewer pledged to become one, too.

Brewer: My wife has already told me, "You will learn Spanish, Brewer." I will.

Guzman-Lopez: His most critical meeting followed, with L.A.'s mayor, Antonio Villaraigosa. For more than a year Villaraigosa had lobbied for an official role in school district administration.

L.A. Unified's board appointed Brewer without the mayor's consultation. Despite that, Brewer predicted both men would join forces for the sake of the schools.

Brewer: What the first thing the mayor's going to find out is that I'm his man in terms of partnering. He's going to find out we have a lot in common. And that means that I am interested in educating these children.

Guzman-Lopez: The two met and praised one another after some very public initial meetings. Then, their talks tapered off. At the time, Villaraigosa was busy moving to unseat board members who'd appointed Brewer.

That worked – three school board candidates buoyed by the mayor's endorsements and fundraising power won seats to create a Villaraigosa-endorsed majority at L.A. Unified. Pomona College politics professor David Menefee Libey said the new board clouded Brewer's future prospects.

David Menefee Libey: He was in an impossible situation where he was brought in to be superintendent during, by a board that was in conflict with the mayor and not given a clear set of expectations and standards he could measure his performance by.

Guzman-Lopez: Menefee Libey said Brewer was capable. He continued a push for high school reform and higher graduation rates. L.A. Unified test scores did climb higher than the state average. School district administration has been in a state of crisis for years, Menefee Libey said, and that's led to low public confidence.

Problems with the district's new payroll system sunk that confidence even lower. It took more than six months for the flood of paycheck mistakes to slow to a trickle.

African-American leaders who'd supported Brewer began to express concerns about his effectiveness. This year, a week after Thanksgiving, school board president Monica Garcia moved to oust Brewer. He suggested at first that he'd fight the move – but then he turned an about-face.

Brewer: I am asking the Los Angeles school board to shield our students from this contentious debate and honor the buyout provisions of my contract.

Guzman-Lopez: The board bought out Brewer's contract for about half-a-million dollars – and in his place appointed veteran schools leader and Villaraigosa ally Ramon Cortines to a three-year term.

Board president Garcia suggested that she and her colleagues need to establish clearer expectations for Brewer's replacement.

Monica Garcia: Looking forward, there's absolutely, accountability is with all leadership of the district. And being clear on goals and roles is something that we all have work through. Change is necessary throughout our organization and that includes the board of education.

Guzman-Lopez: That strikes some education observers as the same flowery language of high expectations the board would roll out like a red carpet for any new superintendent. Ramon Cortines will walk that path starting New Year's Day, in the hope that he can transform L.A. Unified.

LAUSD SUPERINTENDENT DAVID BREWER SPEAKS AFTER OUSTER

by Dick Price & Sharon Kyle – LA Progessive e-newsletter & blog

December 28, 2008 -- In his first public appearance since his contract was bought out by the Los Angeles Board of Education, Superintendent David Brewer said his ouster will only make a bad situation worse. “This district has eaten up five superintendents in 14 years,” he said in speaking to the Urban Issues Forum a week ago last Friday. “You’re not going to make progress with that kind of instability.”

Hosted by Anthony Asadullah Samad at the California African-American Museum, the monthly breakfast event attracts a mostly African-American audience although the doors are open to all. Samad brings speakers who address social and political issues relevant to urban Los Angeles and its surrounding communities. Past speakers have included Barack Obama, Cornel West, Tavis Smiley, and Antonio Villaraigosa.

This particular forum was scheduled months before Brewer was ousted, according to Samad, who intended to bring Superintendent Brewer to the community to discuss the progress he has made after just two years on the job. News of his buyout came just weeks before the event.

“In districts where superintendents have turned situations around, in Chicago and New York City, for example, they’ve had time and space to make progress—six to 10 years,” Brewer said, comparing the challenges in Los Angeles with other cities. “In two years? You can’t get anything done that fast, especially when you’re where Los Angeles is. LA is behind; it will take time to catch up.”

In recent reports, LAUSD School Board president Monica Garcia made it clear that she was seeking to replace Brewer. All but two school board members approved a buyout of Brewer’s contract of $517,500. Mayor Villaraigosa reportedly said he favored a change in leadership.

Replacing Brewer, at least in the interim, will be Ramon Cortines, a retired superintendent who was brought in by Brewer to serve as senior deputy superintendent. Cortines has been running day-to-day operations since he came onboard eight months ago.

Data Will Set You Free
Citing his philosophy that “data will set you free,” the retired Navy vice admiral pointed to the progress LA’s schools have made in the short time he’s been at the helm as nothing short of phenomenal. “We’ve had a 21-point growth in API scores this year, to 683,” he said in his upbeat presentation to the forum. “That’s better than the state as a whole and the highest gain of any major school district in California.”

“Our 12th grade enrollment is also up, to 34,763—the highest it’s been since 1997,” he continued.

Brewer has attempted to run the district according to, what he calls, five “guiding principles:”

• We will be a data-driven organization; we will use research and analysis to make decisions.
• All of our employees will be lifelong learners.
• We will actively encourage change and innovation within the District
• We will empower and engage parents and partner with the community.
• We will ensure the physical and emotional safety of our students.

As part of his efforts to take LA’s schools to the next level, Brewer was planning to unveil the “school report card” this January, a system that grades schools much like students are graded. He intended to use this tool to promote school visibility with parents, teachers, and the general public. He also planned to implement a Web-based application that allows teachers to look at each student’s education background, modeled on the SchoolNet program developed in the Inglewood School District.

Brewer was also developing plans for more boarding schools, modeled on successful pilots undertaken in Washington D.C. and Atlanta as well as single-gender academies in New York City.

“The Seed boarding school in Washington serves grades 6 to 12. It’s a good example for us,” Brewer said. “Los Angeles needs 10 similar boarding schools, especially for our foster kids. We have 14,000 foster children in this district and another 10,000 who are homeless.” He also wanted to implement a teacher-mentoring program, based on the “sailor-to-admiral” program from his Navy days, designed to improve development of new teachers.

 

While praising him for working with the Legislature on the education budget—Los Angeles school’s budget will need to cut another $200 million, according to Brewer—his critics claim that the gains in scores and enrollment aren’t really the result of Brewer’s action and also slight his lack of educational background and the slow pace of accomplishment, according to the Los Angeles Daily News.

Where From Here
Brewer, who is a black man, did not think his ouster was race-based. However, he does see a racial and gender connection to the problems with LA’s schools.

“Middle class blacks and Latinos score below poor whites and poor Asians,” he said in returning to his beloved statistics. “So LA’s low scores aren’t just an economic problem.” He also emphasized the performance gap when gender was considered. The bottom line is that black and brown boys are not being educated in Los Angeles schools.

He attributed this education gap partly to what he called an “expectation bias,” both for Latino students and especially for black students, who fulfill a prophesy by performing poorly on tests and in school generally, in part because they’re not expected to perform as well as white and Asian students.

“But that expectation bias goes throughout our schools, through the community, and into our black homes,” he said. “We’ve got a generational issue coming out of slavery. Blacks don’t read the way whites do.”

“Whenever I take a flight, I walk down the aisle and see who’s reading,” he said in speaking to a nearly all-black audience. “It’s not us.”

“What I wanted to do, when I came here, was to change the culture in the schools,” Brewer said. “But we also have to change the culture in the community. We’ve got to get to parents, get them educated, get them stabilized. If you want your child to love reading, you’ve got to read yourself.”

What He Might Have Done
“Well, politics is a contact sport. The only thing I could have done was to delay the inevitable,” Brewer said when asked what he might have done differently. “I could have spent more time working politically—former Superintendent Ray Romer was a master politician. But I thought that if I spent that much time in politics, what would give? Working with the kids—that would have had to give.”

After seeing the strong evidence suggesting Brewer was making significant progress with the LAUSD, we asked why he thought he was asked to leave.

In a way that seemed to skirt the question, Brewer talked about politics. He said he believed the elective nature of the LAUSD board might be part of the problem, for him and for other superintendents past and future. “What you have in the country, you have political boards whose members have their own agendas,” Brewer said. “It doesn’t matter what progress you’re making.”

“Philly and Chicago have gone to appointed boards—three appointed by the governor, three by the mayor, I believe,” he continued. “Somehow you’ve got to give superintendents time and space to make changes.”

< Dr. Anthony Asadullah Samad

After Brewer spent a couple of minutes giving his answer, Moderator Samad jumped in and put the issue in balder terms:

“Sharon, the deal is about the money,” Samad said. “The budget for LAUSD is four times the LA City budget. Most of that budget goes toward building projects. Every board member has a favorite contractor to build buildings. Antonio has some guys who want to get at that pot of money.”

Samad speculated that Brewer’s removal may have a lot to do with a potential Villaraigosa run for the governorship, in this case aided by the school board members he helped to get elected.

Conclusion

The forum concluded with Brewer being surrounded by a supportive audience looking for ways to continue to support his agenda after he is gone and Cortines takes the helm. With the passage of Measure Q—the $7 billion school bond—there will be resources to achieve some, if not all, of Brewers initiatives. Let’s hope the kid’s needs don’t get lost in all of the politics.

Dick Price and Sharon Kyle are Editor and Publisher of LA Progressive

LAUSD Statement on State Freeze on Funds for Public Works Projects

 

For Immediate Release	
Contact:  Shannon Haber 					Dec. 19, 2008
(213) 241-4575									
#08/09-178 


LAUSD STATEMENT ON STATE FREEZE ON FUNDS FOR PUBLIC WORKS PROJECTS

Los Angeles (Dec. 19, 2008)- Sacramento is betraying the children of the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) by freezing state funds that have already been approved for projects ranging from construction of new schools to upgrades of the oldest campuses. 

The District had planned to get $833 million in state funds for projects that have already been approved and construction started.  Without the promised funds, the District could be required to stop work on projects currently underway and the ability to go forward with the $1.5 billion in construction 
contracts planned for 2009 would be in jeopardy.  

"We absolutely need these funds, because turning off the spigot would paralyze the District's ability to complete these urgent projects," said Superintendent David L. Brewer III.

Based on the dire nature of this threat, the District is beingpro-active and making plans to try to sell more local bonds earlier than expected to avoid these catastrophic issues.  This will only work if there are buyers, given 
the nation's financial crisis.  The District will not know the answer to this until late January.

"Delaying our children's ability to get back the education they deserve in two semester neighborhood schools is unacceptable and we need to take action," said Guy Mehula, head of the District's facilities program.  

"These economic times are not the time to eliminate jobs," said LAUSD Superintendent-elect Ray Cortines.  "We should be encouraging our legislature to find other solutions for the students of the Los Angeles Unified School District and continue to infuse the local economy with jobs."

                    
#  #  #

Contributed by Facilities News

BOARD NAMES CORTINES NEXT LAUSD SUPERINTENDENT

LA Daily News Wire Service

Senior Deputy Superintendent Ray Cortines speaks at the Council of Mexican American Administrators in Los Angeles, Wednesday, Sept. 17, 2008. (Michael Owen Baker/Staff Photographer)

Tuesday, 16 Decemeber 2008 -- LOS ANGELES -- Ramon C. Cortines, a Los Angeles Unified School District senior deputy superintendent, was named Tuesday as the successor for outgoing superintendent David L. Brewer III.

Brewer will be leaving at the end of the month, after the LAUSD board voted last week to pay him about $500,000 to buy out the remaining two years of his contract.

The board's vote to hire Cortines was unanimous. He agreed to a three-year contract and will take over as superintendent Jan. 1.

Brewer's decision to hire Cortines in April to oversee LAUSD's day-to-day operations and instruction quickly drew criticism on grounds that it meant, in effect, paying for two superintendents.

Cortines, 76, served as LAUSD superintendent in 2000. He served as Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's top education adviser and previously headed school districts in New York and San Francisco.

The LAUSD is the nation's second-largest school district, with about 700,000 students.

After weeks of debate among district leaders, the board voted 5-2 to buy out Brewer's contract, with Marguerite Poindexter LaMotte and board member Julie Korenstein dissenting.

Brewer, a retired black U.S. Navy vice admiral, previously called the effort to oust him "demoralizing and debilitating" and suggested he was the victim of racism.

Brewer had earlier vowed to stay on the job, but he said last week he wanted the board to buy him out.

Brewer's supporters have noted that test scores have bumped upward during his stay.

Other critics, including state schools superintendent Jack O'Connell, said that while the district was showing academic improvement, it wasn't happening fast enough.

Brewer was chosen as superintendent after an eight-month search to find a replacement for Roy Romer, former Colorado governor, who retired after six years at the helm of the LAUSD.

---

More:

LA schools get new superintendent
Examiner.com -
Dec 16, 2008 8:25 PM (13 mins ago) AP LOS ANGELES (Map, News) - The Los Angeles Unified School District on Tuesday chose a veteran education administrator as its next superintendent, one week after the school board voted to replace the current leader.

Cortines Named Schools Superintendent
Los Angeles Business Journal, CA - Brewer’s critics, including many in the business community, had been disappointed with the slow pace of efforts to turn around the nation’s second largest school district. In an unusual move last week, the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce ...

Board names Cortines next LAUSD superintendent
Contra Costa Times, CA 
(Michael Owen Baker/Staff Photographer) LOS ANGELES -- Ramon C. Cortines, a Los Angeles Unified School District senior deputy superintendent, was named Tuesday as the successor for outgoing superintendent David L. Brewer III.

Veteran administrator picked to lead LA schools
The Associated Press LOS ANGELES (AP) - The board of the Los Angeles Unified School District has chosen a veteran education administrator as its next superintendent.

LAUSD Chooses New Superintendent
LAist, CAJust a few days after David Brewer's buyout of over a half million dollars, the LA Unified School District voted to give Ramon C. Cortines, the second man down the line, the job on a three-year contract.

Cortines Hired to Replace Superintendent
KTLA, CA DOWNTOWN LA-- Following weeks of controversy surrounding the position, Ramon C. Cortines, a senior deputy Los Angeles Unified School District superintendent, has been named. Cortines is the successor for outgoing superintendent David Brewer.

LA SCHOOL DISTRICT AND DELOITTE IN 18M FAILURE SETTLEMENT

“This case offers examples of the worst sorts of customer and consulting behavior.”

ZDNet IT Project Failures Blog(!) | Posted by Michael Krigsman

Categories: Project failures, Government projects, IT issues, CIO issues, Consulting..., End-user impact, SAP

Tags: Deloitte LLP, Settlement, Payroll, IT Devil, Payroll Solutions..., Operational Accounting, Finance, Michael Krigsman

Tuesday, 16 December 2008 - Implementation consulting firm, Deloitte, will pay the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) $8.25m and forgo $10m in unpaid invoices to settle a long-standing dispute over payroll problems arising during an SAP implementation. The agreement comes almost two years after severe payroll issues caused upheaval among teachers in the district.

• Related: Turnaround strategy for Los Angeles school district payroll failure

According to the Los Angeles Times:

The payroll system, based on software designed by a German company, SAP, and tailored to the district’s needs by Deloitte, cost $95 million. It was a disaster from the moment it went online in January 2007, spitting out checks that were wildly inaccurate, including $53 million in overpayments to Los Angeles Unified employees.

The district, which issues 120,000 paychecks a month, eventually paid $37 million in repairs and delays, but did not get the system working to its satisfaction until January, a year after it was launched.

THE PROJECT FAILURES ANALYSIS

LAUSD teachers paid a high price for mistakes made by both the district and Deloitte. As I wrote previously, several conditions came together to cause this problem:

• University payroll is inherently complex
• Roll out and testing were likely flawed
• The union work rules may be overly complicated
• I suspect Deloitte has pussy footed the issue, to avoid pissing off this big client
• SAP hasn’t taken a sufficiently proactive role

Perhaps unsurprisingly, union president, A.J. Duffy, called the settlement “outrageous,” saying Deloitte should have paid least $20 million to $30 million in settlement:

“This is what we’ve come to expect from Supt. Brewer,” Duffy said, “shortchanging members and employees and having no sense of responsibility for the harm that Deloitte . . . has done to his employees.”

The LA Times added:

David Tokofsky, a former school board member who voted for the initial contract with Deloitte but later was critical of the company, also said the firm had gotten off cheap. “I guess this is one major company the federal government doesn’t have to bail out, because the district just did,” he said.

Although tempting to place full blame on Deloitte because they make a simple and easy target, such conclusions would not be consistent with the facts. Despite the significant human suffering paid by teachers, this problem was ultimately a shared problem caused by actions from both Deloitte and the school district. Although I do think the settlement was lower than reasonable, the amount does reflect this shared responsibility.

The IT Devil’s Triangle dictates that three primary participants drive success or failure on technology implementations: customer, consultant, and software vendor. In this case, both LAUSD and Deloitte contributed to the problems. Although SAP was only the software provider, nonetheless it should have taken stronger and earlier steps to help resolve issues.

This case offers examples of the worst sorts of customer and consulting behavior. I believe the customer’s leadership was insufficient to the challenge of this implementation, while Deloitte brought unqualified resources to bear on a complex situation.

[Image via iStockPhoto]

Michael Krigsman is CEO of Asuret, Inc., a software and consulting company dedicated to reducing software implementation failures. Click here to discuss this post with him on Twitter.

See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.

LAUSD NEEDS A PIT BULL PTA MOM

L.A.'s school district should take to heart one thought: It's about the kids.

Op -Ed Sandra Tsing Loh in the LA Times

 

December 16, 2008 -- In these last few minutes before the inevitable happens and Ramon C. Cortines is named David L. Brewer's successor as superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District, here is a modest proposal: How about a PTA mother for the job?

PTA moms are the very opposite of the $500,000-golden-parachute bureaucrats Brewer has come to represent. PTA moms draw no salary. We work nights, weekends, holidays. We bring our kids' schools new resources every day -- whatever we can load into our minivans. (Binders, colored pencils, toilet paper, snacks, basketball hoops and musical instruments are but some of the items I've seen moms deliver.)

We know not just how to make a dollar stretch but how to make no dollars stretch. (Look how handy we are with scrip, Chuck E. Cheese fundraisers, Vons give-back-to-school cards.) So thrifty are we, it shocks us when our snickerdoodle-baking world meets the LAUSD money-hosing world.

My L.A. public school mom friend -- and Oprah Angel Award winner -- Rebecca Constantino is the founder of Access Books, a 10-year-old non-profit that brings 10,000 new and almost new books to each of the many needy LAUSD elementaries requesting them. Thanks to a web of volunteers and private donations, the books come absolutely free.

The only obstacle? LAUSD Central Library Services. It has capped Access Books donations to a maximum of 300 books a school (some with more than 1,000 students) because of an LAUSD cataloging cost of $18 a book!

Call me hormonal (what I actually call myself is a "Burning Mom"), but I believe the district's director of Instructional Media Services should be fired -- today! That would save taxpayers $119,724.84 a year, according to an L.A. Daily news website that allows you to check the salary of any LAUSD employee.

While we're at it, let's also right-size the budget by firing any LAUSD front office worker who is rude (do you, like me, suddenly see huge, huge savings?).

In this, the 21st century, even fast-food employees greet customers with "Hello! Welcome to McDonald's, may I help you?" Walk into most LAUSD schools and you're treated like a felon -- or more likely, ignored by the sour office drone who refuses to look up from her typing. Get to know us -- we are parents, we are taxpayers, we are your bosses. And if you're at a loss for words, try this: "Hello! May I help you?" If you're lucky, you won't soon have to add: "Welcome to McDonald's!"

And then there's the union problem. Even a chipper, resourceful PTA mom will have her hands full dealing with A.J. Duffy's teachers union. Consider this sad tale.

Two years ago, the school my children attend was lucky enough to receive a VH1 "Save the Music" gift of 36 string instruments, the only requirement being once-a-week musical instruction. Not only could our Title I school not come up with $10,000 a year for an LAUSD teacher, there weren't any available. Fortunately, a professional musician parent was thrilled to step in to volunteer. However, according to union rules, we could not call that person a "teacher" or "instructor" and technically could not bring the person into the classroom -- we'd potentially be denying a teacher a job.

If you haven't seen the pattern yet, ask yourself this: Whose needs are held hostage in every case? That's right -- the children's.

I think Brewer truly cared about the kids, but what he found is that a school district is not like the Navy. In the Navy, you assume excellence and accountability -- military personnel actually earn their stripes. Not so in the LAUSD.

So which PTA mom should we look to in our hour of need? Well, why not the pit bull with lipstick herself, Sarah Palin? I hear she's available, and the LAUSD certainly has some bridges to nowhere that could use exploding.

Sure, this hair-trigger hockey mom might ban a book or two. But with Palin in the job, local schools would finally be front-page news. And the city might finally notice how children's opportunities are being squandered by a nest of non-admirals saying, "The buck stops there."

● Sandra Tsing Loh is a KPCC-FM (89.3) commentator and the author of "Mother on Fire."

●● smf’s 2¢:  I know better than to speak for her, but I presume (always dangerous) that Sandra's tongue is firmly in her cheek in suggesting Sarah Palin for LAUSD Superintendent.

First – contrary to popular opinion, Mrs. Palin isn’t available – she is currently the Governor of Alaska.

Second – as to her PTA bona-fides, it seems that Palin – the mother of five – the school-aged of whom all attend or attended public schools – joined the PTA for a total of two years. That enough is apparently to qualify one as a “PTA Mom” in campaign rhetoric – but falls short of the kind of commitment-to-the cause I believe Sandra has in mind for pit bull status.

However, if you reread what Sandra has written it fairly describes her as a candidate … and as The PTA Burning-Mom-from-H-E-double-hockey-sticks!  So let me second the self-nomination – move that nominations be closed and call for the vote. 

The ¡Aye Carumbas! have it.

Of course the current Secretary for Education started out as a parent in the Houston schools …and look where that got us!

The news that didn’t fit from Dec 14th

SUPERINTENDENT BREWER’S STATEMENT

Statement from Superintendent David L. Brewer, III, made in the LAUSD Boardroom at 2PM on December 8^th:

smf's STATEMENT

Statement from Scott Folsom, made to the LAUSD Board of Education at 10AM on December 9^th:

---

2nd L.A. SCHOOL BOARD HOPEFUL WON’T BE ON BALLOT

Bill Ring, a second Los Angeles school board hopeful was told this week that he had not gathered enough voter signatures to qualify for the March ballot.

SCHOOL BOARD CANDIDATE BEN AUSTIN DISQUALIFIED FOR INVALID SIGNATURE PETITIONS

Austin,  former Deputy Mayor and Green Dot Employee, was favorite of Villaraigosa, Broad & Co.

2 from The Wave: BREWER’S FORCED EXIT STUNS BLACK EDUCATORS + RUSH TO REMOVE: ANOTHER TAKE ON THE BREWER EXIT

· The impending departure of Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent David L. Brewer leaves only 13 Black superintendents in school districts across California, down from 23 in 2007.

· As L.A. school board moves to oust superintendent, African-Americans wonder how big a factor race will play in charting the district's future.

· Rush to Remove: Another Take on the Brewer Exit

· What happened to LAUSD Superintendent David Brewer wasn’t so much racist as it was a naked power play on the part of Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who never liked Brewer from jump street.

L.A. SCHOOL BOARD HOLDS TALKS ON REPLACING BREWER

Ramon C. Cortines, 76, the district's No. 2 official, who is Latino, is expected to take the post. At a news conference Thursday, a coalition of black leaders sought a role in picking the next chief.

Steve Lopez: MAYOR VILLARAIGOSA, RECESS IS OVER ON L.A. SCHOOLS REFORM.

Back when he was running for mayor of Los Angeles and calling education the No. 1 issue in the city, Antonio Villaraigosa's campaign put out a news release chiding his opponent for not being more involved with the schools.

The headline was:

"Jimmy Hahn, Please Report to the Principal's Office."

No one can dispute that Villaraigosa has been more involved in the schools, but somebody needs to call Tony V. into the principal's office too.

SCHOOL BOARD MEETS ON SUPT. BREWER’S EXIT, RAMON CORTINES EXPECTED ENTRANCE

The school board at this hour is meeting in closed session, with the main order of business being how to terminate the employment of Supt. David L. Brewer, who is midway through a four-year contract.

LA UNIFIED’S BREWER EXPERIMENT

The outgoing LAUSD superintendent showed signs of succumbing to pressures within a year of his taking the job.

LA UNIFIED SUPERINTENDENT IS OPEN TO A BUY OUT OF HIS CONTRACT

For a week since school board members signaled they wanted him out of the job, David Brewer's defended his achievements as Superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District. Yesterday at an L.A. Unified headquarters press conference, Brewer came closest to saying he wants out of the appointed position.

LAUSD SUPERINTENDENT ASKS BOARD TO BUY OUT HIS CONTRACT

A statement released by LAUSD board President Monica Garcia indicated the panel will buy out the contract of Superintendent David L. Brewer III.

‘Although this debate is disconcerting and troubling, it must not become an ethnic issue,' says David Brewer.

LAUSD CHIEF WANTS A BUYOUT

After a week of controversy over his future, Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent David Brewer III said today he wants the LAUSD board to buy out his contract.

Brewer will ask the board Tuesday to buy out the last two years of his deal, he said during a press conference this afternoon.

"To the people of Los Angeles, demand that political and adult agendas take a back seat to student agendas," he said, calling himself "an experienced warrior that had come to battle on behalf of the students of Los Angeles."

SCHOOL BOARD MEETS ON SUPT BREWERS EXIT

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► FROM A STATE WITHOUT A BUDGET, A GOVERNMENT WITHOUT A CLUE: 4LAKids tardy/absent excuse notes on the state budget

Bad headlines to make you feel good: “OHIO ISN'T THE ONLY STATE WITH BIG BUDGET WOES”

On Friday,  December 12, 2008 3:17 AM  Jim Siegel writes in THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH : “Ohio's budget misery certainly is getting plenty of company.

“State officials across the nation are facing daunting budget shortfalls and painful cuts, particularly if the federal government does not provide help.

“States face shortfalls this year of at least $32 billion, and are staring at $65 billion in funding gaps for next year's budgets, according to a report from the National Conference of State Legislatures.”

●●What’s 2¢ worth of $65 billion?: Of that $65 billion, almost $44 billion is California's. – smf

OtherState’sWoes.pdf — State Budget Update: November 2008 from the National Conference of State Legislatures

from the NCSL report:

As early as fiscal year (FY) 2008, nearly half the states faced budget gaps. That number rose to two-thirds by the time states were crafting their FY 2009 budgets. But despite closing a cumulative gap of nearly $40 billion during budget development, the states were not done addressing FY 2009 budget problems.

Another sizable gap has opened and an even bigger one looms for FY 2010. The state budget situation is grim and getting worse with each new revenue revision.

SIGNS OF THE TIMES

Notice:

DUE TO BUDGET CUTS, THE LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL IS BEING TURNED OFF

Effective Immediately

CALIFORNIA BUDGET SHORTFALL SEEN NEARING $42 BILLION: California's general obligation debt rating is paired with Louisiana's at the bottom of Wall Street's state rankings.

• Standard & Poor's Ratings Services late on Wednesday expressed its concern about California's financial condition by lowering its rating on the state's recently issued $5 billion revenue anticipation notes.
• S&P also placed $46.6 billion of the state's general obligation debt on negative credit watch for a possible downgrade, reflecting concern over the weakening finances of the biggest issuer of U.S. public debt.

S&P DOWNGRADES CALIFORNIA BOND ISSUE

Extended bickering over the California budget led Standard & Poor's on Thursday to downgrade the state's recently sold $5 billion revenue bonds and put more than $50 billion of debt on watch for a downgrade.

GOVERNOR SAYS STATE’S BUDGET CRISIS HAS GOTTEN WORSE

KPCC's Shirley Jahad talked with the Sacramento Bee's Dan Walters about the governor's dark words.

The $41 billion/growing-at-$470-a-second deficit: SCHWARZENEGGER’S FULL COMMENTS (AND LAWMAKERS' RESPONSES)

Sandy Banks: JORDAN HIGH PRINCIPAL FINDS A FORMULA FOR SUCCESS

Under Stephen Strachan, students wear uniforms, it takes a C to pass and a 'fifth-year senior' program is bringing dropouts back.

Sandy Banks| Columnist in Los Angeles Times

 

Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times: Stephen Strachan, principal of Jordan High School in South Los Angeles, is surrounded by students during lunch period on December 10.

December 13, 2008 -- You can blame the failure of Los Angeles' latest school superintendent on racial politics, an incompetent school board or a bureaucracy impervious to reform.

But you can't sell that to Stephen Strachan.

Strachan is the principal at Jordan High in Watts. Like Supt. David Brewer, Strachan thinks big and is brimming with self-confidence.

But unlike Brewer, Strachan has managed to move beyond summits and slogans to remake a high school long considered one of the district's worst.

I met Strachan two years ago -- about the time Brewer arrived in Los Angeles. I visited Jordan High because I wanted to know what it was like running a school that bordered one of the city's most dangerous housing projects.

Back then, I found a school in the beginning stages of change, thanks to a $1.5-million Gates Foundation grant, a committed faculty and staff, and a principal who is as tough as the school's bulldog mascot suggests. This week, I went back to Jordan to find out what has happened on the campus in the two years Brewer has been at the district's helm.

:: In Alberta Henderson's math class, the window shades stay down. "You look out that open window and you see the projects," she explained. She wants her students to think of where they can go, not where they are from.

Her classroom is plastered with mathematics posters. One wall headlined "Habits of the Mind" is full of students' essays about the importance of managing impulsive behavior in class and life.

I watched her teach a ninth-grade algebra class -- an area in which Jordan students do better than the districtwide average. Last year, 78% of Jordan High ninth-graders passed algebra, compared with less than 50% of students at schools with similar demographics.

With her broad gestures and corny jokes, Henderson radiated enthusiasm from the front of the class. And if her students didn't seem quite so delighted -- it is algebra, after all -- they were polite, engaged and on-task.

Each student had a small, white dry-erase board to work equations and answer questions. When Henderson gives the cue, they raise their boards for her to check. She passes out raffle tickets at the beginning of class and when she asks a question, she reaches into a glass jar for a ticket stub, then calls out the winner's number for an answer.

Henderson came to Jordan two years ago because she wanted to teach the kind of student she once was. She grew up "in the hood" in St. Louis. "I was a teenage parent, had a husband who was in a gang, my mother got shot when I was 13," she said. "These kids are wounded. I know what that means."

A mother of two grown children, Henderson spent 21 years in middle management at Kaiser before becoming an elementary school teacher six years ago. Moving to Jordan was "a culture shock," she said.

"I wanted to quit almost every day for the first few months. I thought, 'Are they sending me all the incorrigibles?' . . . Dr. Strachan convinced me to stay."

When I left Henderson's class, I roamed the campus. That alone is a sign of Strachan's confidence; there are few things more dangerous for a principal than an unescorted reporter on a mission.

In the school's College and Career Center, I found student body President Zindy Valdovinos and yearbook editor Valeria Vega, both 17-year-old seniors with their sights on college. Valeria hopes to attend Mount Holyoke; Zindy is still deciding.

I asked what changes they'd seen in four years at Jordan.

"Now, there are a lot of teachers here who say, 'You can be something,' " said Zindy. "They encourage you to come to school, give you a reason to come to class."

Teachers are accountable to their students, Valeria added. "If they're not doing what they should, you can complain and Dr. Strachan will do something about it."

Valeria's younger sister attends Markham Middle School, where an assistant principal was charged last spring with sexually assaulting a student. "That couldn't happen at Jordan," she said. "There was this one teacher here who made inappropriate remarks. The students complained and it stopped."

Strachan told me he tries to empower teachers and students. "In assemblies, I tell the kids, 'You have a right to be respected, just as you have to respect your teachers and you have to respect each other.' "

But the principal is no miracle worker. Students told me that some classes are still rowdy, there are too many pregnant girls on campus and it's hard to get the schedule you want.

"But we have a lot more clubs than we used to, and students are more involved," Valeria said. She tutors classmates after school "and it's crowded sometimes. Kids actually want to learn. They'll say, 'Give me another problem!' because they get it. They like that."

Strachan ticked off a list of changes on campus in the last two years: Students wear uniforms. Teachers have common planning periods. It takes a grade of C -- no Ds allowed -- to pass a course. A "fifth-year senior" program is bringing dropouts back.

And the all-male academy idea that Brewer spent two years studying and planning to implement? Strachan launched his four years ago. In June, every student in the program graduated, and all but one went on to college.

But those are not just feel-good stories. Jordan's test scores are rising much faster than the district's average. Yet they still have so far to go.

In last Saturday's column, I took Brewer to task, wondering how much he really cares about the students in the district he was paid to run. I'll never really know because he will be stepping down at the end of the month. He talked a good game, but his record is painfully thin.

Yes, Brewer had obstacles: a financial crisis, a micromanaging school board, an uncooperative union and a mayor hellbent on seizing control. What he lacked was a sense of urgency.

Maybe if Brewer had seen the fallout from failing schools up close and personal, he would have realized what's at stake. If he had sat through a student's funeral, gone to court to keep a girl out of jail, counseled grieving boys after their friends got shot, or wooed back one dropout who'd given up, he would have known -- as Strachan does -- that two years is too much time to waste.

2 from The Wave: BREWER’S FORCED EXIT STUNS BLACK EDUCATORS + RUSH TO REMOVE: ANOTHER TAKE ON THE BREWER EXIT

 

- Photo by Gary McCarthy

Brewer's forced exit stuns Black educators

The impending departure of Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent David L. Brewer leaves only 13 Black superintendents in school districts across California, down from 23 in 2007.

Five black supes have lost their jobs in the past eight weeks.

By OLU ALEMORU, Staff Writer  Los Angeles Wave Newspapers

As L.A. school board moves to oust superintendent, African-Americans wonder how big a factor race will play in charting the district's future.

11.DEC.08 -- A group representing Black school superintendents in California has criticized the actions of the Los Angeles Unified School District school board, after it effectively fired Supt. David L. Brewer III on Monday by voting to buy out the remaining two years of his contract.

Dwight Bonds, acting executive director of the California Association of African-American Superintendents, reacted with “disappointment” to the news after a week of heated speculation over Brewer’s future. “We were pleased with the process he was making,” said Bonds, “especially in test scores and other areas of growth — particularly in African-American male improvement.”

In an interview, Bonds also voiced concerns about a recent decline in the number of Black superintendents across the state. He said five have lost their jobs in the past eight weeks, leaving only 13 in place, compared to 23 in 2007.

“So, our challenge and mission,” he said, “is to garner support for our members and make sure we are continued to be represented within the 1,140 school districts within California.”

The LAUSD board met behind closed doors for over two hours before announcing it had voted 5-2 in support of the $500,000 buyout, which included an annual salary of $300,000, $45,000 a year in expenses and a $3,000 a month housing allowance. Board members Marguerite Poindexter LaMotte and Julie Korenstein were the dissenting votes.

“I do not believe that a buyout of $500,000 during a budget crisis was appropriate,” said Korenstein in a statement. “We are in the worst possible times, and we’re going to have to cut millions of dollars and positions, and I believe this was a waste of taxpayers’ money.”

LaMotte declined “to comment at this time.”

“I serve at the pleasure of the Los Angeles Board of Education,” Brewer said in a statement after the vote. “I plan to continue my role until Dec. 31. No matter what happens next, I will remain a champion for the children, teachers and staff of the LAUSD.”

The 62-year-old former U.S. Navy vice admiral had vowed last week to stay on the job in the wake of a plan to discuss buying out his contract two weeks ago. However, LaMotte, the only African-American member of the board, forestalled proceedings when she refused to return from a previously scheduled education conference in San Diego.

But Monday, he announced that even though things had improved under his leadership, he would accept a buyout in order to avoid a racially charged confrontation with the school board, whose president — one of his most vocal detractors — is Latina. Some have speculated that racial considerations were key to the board’s desire to fire Brewer and replace him, at least temporarily, with Deputy Superintendent Ramon Cortines.

“We have a lot of work to do,” said board President Monica Garcia, who had also thanked Brewer for his hard work and dedication. “The district is facing the worst financial outlook in 20 years.”

In a Tuesday morning television interview on KTLA, a defiant Brewer described the buyout as “an ouster” and admonished “the press to do your job.”

“Student achievement went up dramatically,” he said.

Second District County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas, who sat on a special selection committee that helped choose Brewer for the job in 2006, said he took “ownership” of that decision but wouldn’t draw any racial implications.

“It wasn’t working out, and they mutually agreed that severance was appropriate,” he said. “It’s back to the drawing board and they need to open up another search and try to get it right. LAUSD needs a leader of credibility to bring the enterprise of public education to the L.A. region in a significant way.”

 

Rush to Remove: Another Take on the Brewer Exit

By BETTY PLEASANT, Contributing Editor the WAVE Newspapers. 11.DEC.08Soulvine  Betty Pleasant writes Soulvine for THEWAVE

11 Dec 2008 — What happened to LAUSD Superintendent David Brewer wasn’t so much racist as it was a naked power play on the part of Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who never liked Brewer from jump street.

He never liked him because he wasn’t his.

This wasn’t the first time an ambitious Los Angeles mayor orchestrated the ouster of the superintendent of schools: Mayor Richard Riordan commanded then-school board President Genethia Hayes to get rid of Superintendent Ruben Zacarias in 1999 and now nine years later, Villaraigosa’s handmaiden, school board President Monica Garcia, carried out her assignment to do the same to Brewer, with Villaraigosa’s toxic water-carrier, former Councilman Richard Alatorre, aiding and abetting the whole mess. (Remember the firing of Franklin White as the CEO of the M TA in 1995? Remind you of anything you see today?)

The school board names have changed, but the purported issues remain the same — “the need to improve the quality of education dispensed by the Los Angeles Unified School District.” That’s what Riordan, Hayes, et al. said then, and that’s what Villaraigosa, Garcia, Alatorre, et al. are saying now.

But the real issue is power. Brewer had the misfortune of being hired by a school board which was in a bitter fight with Villaraigosa over who would run the school district — the board or the mayor — so the mayor did what politicians do best: He politicized the school district, bought himself a school board and assumed the power over everyone except Brewer. Villaraigosa wanted very much to oust Brewer, but he couldn’t.

Until recently, the mayor had a potential formidable rival to his bid for re-election in the form of former Police Commission President Rick Caruso. Villaraigosa had to have known that if he caused Brewer’s removal, he would trigger an instant replay of what happened to former Mayor James Hahn when he fired then-Police Chief Bernard Parks. Black people would elect Caruso, just like Black people elected Villaraigosa.

But, Caruso decided not to run for mayor, thus freeing Villaraigosa to rid himself of Brewer with little concern about a racial backlash, since he has no viable competition in his re-election race. Well, absent a nice big backlash, the only thing for those of us to do who are uncomfortable about what happened this week is to vigorous repudiate assertions that Brewer hasn’t done anything during his two years as school superintendent, as the data begs to differ.

According to LAUSD’s own reports, the academic performance of the district’s elementary school pupils was noticeably improving during the six years Roy Romer served as superintendent, but middle and high school students struggled. That is where Brewer put his emphasis and it showed, as API scores rose 74 points in the middle schools and 62 points in the high schools under Brewer. Nearly 70 elementary schools made gains of 40 or more points on the API last year, with 122nd Street School making the greatest progress — 70 points.

Jefferson High School made the greatest improvement among high schools with a 60-point gain, and Dorsey also showed strong improvement with a 30-point increase. Standardized test scores went up in the double digits at every level last year, as the district’s overall progress outpaced every other public school district in California.

Brewer’s detractors admit these successes, but they say Brewer had nothing to do with them. Nonsense! He’s the head of the joint! It’s his tenure, his leadership and all that that entails. That’s like saying when the nation’s economy starts to improve, President Barack Obama will have had nothing to do with it!

In Brewer’s two years on the job, he has dealt with round after round of devastating budget cuts, which caused LAUSD to lose $800 million this year, a total that would easily result in school closures in other districts. Yet, no LAUSD school has closed; no teachers have been sent home, no children have been put on the street. The district eliminated 650 positions at its Beaudry headquarters and managed to keep the cuts out of the classroom. When it comes to leadership, this ought to count for something.

But I reiterate, Brewer’s ouster is not about his job performance, his management style or the academic performance of the students. It’s about that old bugaboo: political power.

Therefore, I wholeheartedly agree with Councilwoman Janice Hahn’s proposal to seek a change in the City Charter allowing the superintendent of schools to be elected by the people rather than being hired by the board of education and manipulated by the mayor.  

This article also appeared in LA CityWatch Dec 12

SCHOOL BOARD MEETS ON SUPT. BREWER’S EXIT, RAMON CORTINES EXPECTED ENTRANCE

by Jason Song and Howard Blume  | LA Times LA NOW/Breaking News blog  | 11:15 AM, December 9, 2008

The school board at this hour is meeting in closed session, with the main order of business being how to terminate the employment of Supt. David L. Brewer, who is midway through a four-year contract. Brewer announced Monday his willingness to accept a buyout, one week after Board of Education President Monica Garcia made it clear she would seek to replace him.

Garcia -- and some of Brewer's critics -- have said the superintendent has not moved quickly enough and effectively enough to improve the school system. Brewer has pointed out that gains on test scores this year well outpaced the state as a whole and that the district last month successfully passed its largest bond issue ever.

In April, Brewer brought in veteran educator Ramon C. Cortines to manage day-to-day operations as well as long-term planning, and Cortines is expected to replace Brewer as interim superintendent once a deal is made. Brewer's contract entitles him to an 18-month buyout, which apparently could cost in excess of $500,000 including salary and expenses.

Today's meeting, which began in open session, proved an anticlimatic sequel to Monday's dramatic events. A sober Brewer said nothing during the 10 minutes of open session before he and board members went behind closed doors.

Only two of six scheduled speakers came forward to the microphone. One of them was Scott Folsom, a PTSA board member who also sits on the appointed committee that oversees school-bond spending. He spoke in support of Brewer staying on, praising the superintendent's effectiveness as a lobbyist on behalf of the district during the current budget crisis.

With Brewer apparently departing without a fight, activism on his behalf also has wound down. Community activist Earl Ofari Hutchinson had scheduled an event this morning at board headquarters, where he planned to present a letter to board members urging them not to rush to judgment on Brewer and to disclose their reasons for wanting to replace him. The event was canceled.

 

smf’s statement: 

Good morning Madame President, members of this board. Mr. Superintendent.  I speak to you today as a member of the LAUSD community to which we all belong.

You have a packed closed session before you.

· You will discuss a pending lawsuit and acquisition of millions of dollars worth of land for new schools - the futures of many peoples' homes and businesses. The lives and livelihoods of people you will never meet.

· You will discuss with your negotiator the state of ongoing contract negotiations with seven employee unions (including the teachers) and unaffiliated employees and personnel. Your negotiator is Superintendent Brewer.

· And, item # 2: You will discuss the future of Superintendent Brewer himself.

· You do this against the backdrop of the Global Economic Meltdown, the State Budget Crisis and a potential $400+ million mid year/this year budget cut. There is the inevitability of layoffs and possibility of the District's insolvency and bankruptcy; the very real possibility that LAUSD may have to close down and send the kids home - their schoolwork incomplete - three weeks early this year for lack of funds.

Much has been said and written already about Superintendent Brewer's performance.

I hope you have done your homework and read the Superintendent's statement yesterday; it is an eloquent claim to success and an appeal to reason.

And - in due respect to the Superintendent, I hope you respectfully reject his offer.

I have been with the superintendent in the halls of power an Sacramento; I have seen how well he represents the interests of this district - yourselves, your employees, this community of educators and parents, citizens and taxpayers we call LAUSD - and most of all the best interests of schoolchildren -- in the state capitol.

I have spoken with others who have seen him at work in the nation's capitol.

David Brewer in his Navy career if anything learned to navigate the deep water and the shoals of bureaucracy and power; the skill set of a modern peacetime navy admiral is to obtain an audience and support for mission and programs from politicians who would prefer to invest their money and influence somewhere else.

Politicians live to argue with other politicians ….but they listen to admirals - whether they want an aircraft carrier or flexibility in categorical funding.

Against the economic crisis and the budget squeeze David Brewer is an admiral when we need one.

So please thank the admiral for his suggestion and table agenda item number two until another time. Support him in what he does best - which is supporting our children - and move forward.

I'm going to end here by quoting my friend and fellow LAUSD parent Bob Sipchen from his Op Ed in today's Times: "The LAUSD could do worse than having a superintendent who has already made the school board so mad he has nothing to lose."

I started by saying good morning; you can make one of it. Thank you.

LA UNIFIED SUPERINTENDENT IS OPEN TO A BUY OUT OF HIS CONTRACT

Adolfo Guzman-Lopez | KPCC Public Radio News
December 09, 2008
Listen

For a week since school board members signaled they wanted him out of the job, David Brewer's defended his achievements as Superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District. Yesterday at an L.A. Unified headquarters press conference, Brewer came closest to saying he wants out of the appointed position. KPCC's Adolfo Guzman-Lopez was there; he brings us this report.

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Adolfo Guzman-Lopez/KPCC

L.A. Unified Superintendent David Brewer said he's open to a buyout of the remaining two years on on his contract.

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Adolfo Guzman-Lopez: Former L.A. Unified interim superintendent and the man David Brewer hired this year as his instruction deputy, Ray Cortines, introduced the superintendent.

Ray Cortines: He is not resigning and he will take no questions.

Guzman-Lopez: L.A. Unified board members, administrators, parents, and reporters filled the school district's board room. Brewer outlined his climb up the military ladder, said he set high goals upon taking the superintendent post, and highlighted rising test scores in the 700,000 student district. He characterized the board members' efforts to remove him before his four-year contract's up as an "adult agenda."

David Brewer: As an African-American I have experienced my share of discrimination. When I joined the Navy as an officer 37 years ago, there were only 250 African-American officers out of 72,000. I know what it looks like, smells like, and the consequences.

Guzman-Lopez: Brewer did not accuse board president Monica Garcia, the reported leader of the attempt to oust him, of discrimination. He did suggest he's had enough.

Brewer: I am asking the Los Angeles school board to shield our students from this contentious debate and honor the buyout provisions of my contract. Regardless of the board's decision I will continue to work for the children of Los Angeles and this nation.

Guzman-Lopez: Brewer left immediately after his remarks. So did the four board members sitting in the front row. Leon Jenkins, president-elect of the Los Angeles NAACP, listened to the speech a couple of rows behind them.

Leon Jenkins: The two things that were disturbing to me, one, he did mention buyout, which indicates to me that apparently the votes aren't there to keep him there. Secondly, that he feels that he's not getting a fair shake and it may have some ethnic potential there.

Guzman-Lopez: Some civic leaders say that while test scores are up, Brewer's lost the confidence of L.A. Unified's top administrators. Teachers' union president A.J. Duffy said that's slowing momentum toward reform.

A.J. Duffy: If he is going to leave, if he steps down or is bought out, he needs to leave right away and we need to have Ray Cortines in his place immediately to bring stability back to the school district.

Guzman-Lopez: Some education scholars say that while newly elected school boards in other districts often replace superintendents, performance at L.A. Unified doesn't appear to merit such a drastic change. Now, that decision is up to the seven-member L.A. Unified Board of Education.

SUPERINTENDENT BREWER’S STATEMENT

Statement from Superintendent David L. Brewer, III, made in the LAUSD Boardroom at 2PM on December 8^th:

 

I’ve scheduled this press availability to set the record straight about the accomplishments of the wonderful students, employees, and parents under my leadership over the past two years.

· Two years ago, I took the helm of the Los Angeles Unified School District with vision and optimism. You see, I firmly believe that every child can learn. Every child can succeed. Every child can do great things. I know the power of education. My grandparents, the grandchildren of slaves, graduated from college. I know the power of opportunity. As an admiral in the Navy, I saw thousands of sailors, including high school dropouts; earn college degrees while in the service and master skills that would lead to prosperous and productive futures.

· As a leader, I came to the Los Angeles Unified School District, with many goals, chief among them - results. I walked through this door with my eyes wide open. I did so with the belief that, together, we could take this District from good to great. We have many good schools. I wanted to support them so they could become great schools. I wanted to help our students read, write, think and speak their way into great futures.

· As an experienced warrior, I came ready to fight the battles on behalf of all of our LAUSD students. When I think of this current battle, I think of the students who have no one to fight for them. I challenge every adult in this District and every adult in Los Angeles, to fight on behalf of our students. Fight for their right to a world-class education. Fight for a future that includes college and a career. Their success is the only thing worth fighting for. What our students need—not what adults want—must be LAUSD’s guiding priority.

· To the people of Los Angeles, demand that political and adult agendas take a back seat to student agendas. The winners—today, tomorrow and every day--must be our students. The most important question we must answer is how to build on their most recent successes.

· I knew the students of the Los Angeles School District could do better, and they proved that on the 2008 Academic Performance Index.

· LAUSD students had the highest academic gains of any other major school district in the state last year. Elementary schools, middle schools, and high schools had record gains - and not just by a point or two, but by double digits.

· All of our ethnic groups, with one exception, exceeded the academic gains of their state counterparts.

· I am especially proud of one our high schools. For years, Jefferson High School had languished at the bottom in academic achievement. In 2008, thanks to great leadership and teachers, their scores soared and went up 59 points.

· There is much more good news at the high school level. LAUSD has the largest class of 12th graders – 34,768 students – since 1979. That means more high school students are staying in school. More high school students are passing the high school exit exams. More high school students are graduating and going to college.

· I am proud of these accomplishments, and so much more.

· Our students also deserve world-class campuses.

· In that regard, last month, thanks to the voters’ overwhelming confidence in LAUSD, we passed Measure Q - $7B - the largest school bond measure in the history of the nation, with nearly a 69% margin of voter approval. Because of that $7 billion investment, soon more of our students will study in traditional classrooms, not portables crowding on playgrounds. Soon, more of our students will attend schools that have state-of-the art computer centers, chemistry labs and modern cafeterias.

· To increase the safety of our students and decrease gang violence, we opened the first-ever Boys & Girls Club on one of our campuses at Markham Middle School.

We will open a YMCA on the campus of University High School in the near future.

· I would like to thank all who have contributed to these successes. All of the students, all of the parents, all of the teachers, all of the principals, librarians, custodians, cafeteria workers, bus drivers—everyone who works for the Los Angeles Unified School District and every one who supports our students.

· The current debate about my leadership and the performance of the district has been contentious. It has been demoralizing and debilitating, not only to our valued employees, but has spilled over into the community. As an African-American, I’ve experienced my share of discrimination. When I joined the Navy as an officer over 37 years ago, there were only 250 African-American officers out of 72,000. I know what it looks like, smells like, and the consequences. Although this debate is disconcerting and troubling, it must not become an ethnic issue. When adults fight, it can manifest itself in our children. This must not become an ethnic or racial battle that infests our schools, our campuses, our playgrounds. This is not about settling an old score; this must be about what is best for every LAUSD student.

· Therefore, I have decided to do what I think is in the best interest of the children, to put all of our students first. Although my two years of service as superintendent contain an undeniable record of significant accomplishments, I am asking the Los Angeles School Board to shield our students from this contentious debate and honor the buy-out provisions of my contract.

· Regardless of the Board’s decision, I will continue to work for the children of LA and this nation.

· There’s still so much work to be done. We’re facing the worst budget crisis in since 1929; we must continue to have leadership in Sacramento. I have been leading this fight for the past year. This fight must continue.

· Gang violence persists. Too many of our young boys are dying or being maimed in the streets of LA. That’s why I’ve launched a Single Gender Academy initiative, with an emphasis on boys. Last month, I went to New York and visited two boys’ academies and one girls’ academy to benchmark and replicate in this District. Jordan High School, King-Drew Magnet School, Audubon Middle School and Tom Bradley Elementary School have very promising single gender pilot programs. We must continue this work to save our boys.

· One of my guiding principles in Life’s Little Instruction Book.. Let me quote: “Never deprive someone of hope, because that may be all that they have.” Let me give you an example. Harris Rosen, CEO of Rosen Hotels, is providing hope in Tangelo Park in Orlando, Florida, where he has established a Pre-kindergarten to College program for the poorest children in that city. He invests $1 million per year to provide educational and other services to these children and their families. He guarantees a college education to any Tangelo Park student who is accepted to college. Many of the District’s children are living in similar neighborhoods with no hope. That’s why I have solicited the support of various community leaders to work with me in bringing the Tangelo Park program to the District. This work must continue.

· We have the best students in the nation. One of the best and most rigorous academic

programs in the world is the International Baccalaureate program. When I took the helm at LAUSD, there were 82 of these programs in California and zero in LAUSD. We now have nine programs, but we need to do more. LAUSD students deserve Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate programs in our secondary schools.

· My passion and commitment have not and will not diminish.

· I am proud and grateful that the Los Angeles Unified School District is better than I found it. As a third-generation college graduate who has benefited from his education, I want the same for all the students of this district. I’m reminded of my favorite hymn: “If can help somebody as I pass along, If I can show somebody that he’s traveling wrong, if I can cheer somebody with a word or song, then my living is not in vain.”

Live for our children.

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.

LAUSD’s MARKHAM ASSISTANT PRINCIPAL SCANDAL: District officials, claiming ignorance, were warned about Steven Rooney

by Tibby Rothman – LA Weekly

published: March 27, 2008 |  photo: LAPD

WHEN LOS ANGELES SCHOOLS SUPERINTENDENT David Brewer declared recently that top district officials were unaware of the past behavior of alleged Markham Middle School molester Steven Rooney, longtime teacher Mat Taylor* was appalled. He’d known Rooney when they worked together at Fremont High School, and the picture fresh in his mind was an unpleasant one.

According to Taylor, a little over a year ago he filed an official grievance charging that Rooney exhibited violence, shoving another administrator, while he was, ironically, vice principal in charge of discipline at the sometimes troubled Fremont campus.

“They had their warnings,” Taylor tells the Weekly. “There’s no reason why [district administrators] could claim that they didn’t know what was going on — except incompetence. They knew what was going on, they just passed him on anyway. ... Somebody had to call up and say, ‘Put this guy back in a position’” that resulted in his transfer to unsuspecting Markham.

Media accounts have reported that Rooney was investigated by the Los Angeles Police Department for statutory rape at Fremont before being arrested on March 4 for allegedly sexually assaulting a 13-year-old girl who attended Markham.

But according to Taylor, Rooney had well-known anger-management issues at Fremont. Taylor’s allegations dispute Brewer’s premise that district administrators did not realize they had a problem on their hands when they moved Rooney to Markham. In fact, school-district policy calls for a standard of internal investigation that is far more strict than LAPD’s threshold of criminal wrongdoing.

In 2007, as a vice principal in charge of discipline at Fremont, Rooney was investigated by police for alleged statutory rape of a 17-year-old former student and was arrested for allegedly pulling a gun on that teenager’s stepfather. Rooney was removed from his post while the case was investigated, and no charges were filed. He was then transferred to Markham.

But according to Taylor, the teachers union had also filed an official grievance against Rooney after he allegedly pushed a Fremont dean during an argument. Marla Eby, director of communications at UTLA, confirms that a grievance was filed, but won’t discuss details.

“IN ALL MY YEARS OF TEACHING, I’ve never heard of an administrator pushing a teacher,” says Taylor, an outspoken union activist who has taught in South-Central for more than 20 years. “You have somebody who obviously had problems with two previous schools, gun problems, problems with female students, at Fremont — anger issues — and they just pass him on to another school!,” says Taylor, who represents UTLA at Fremont. Both the school district’s legal counsel and its communications office refused to comment.

Taylor contends, “When [Rooney] was an assistant principal at Fremont, more than a few teachers came to me and said, ‘I had an argument with Rooney and he was really aggressive and lost his temper.’” Taylor says he notified Fremont’s principal.

Taylor says Rooney had a particularly challenging job as vice principal of discipline at a campus of about 4,500 students, adding that students there are unfairly stereotyped, and that many teenagers are “desperate to learn ... wonderful, wonderful kids [who] see school as a sanctuary.” But Rooney dealt with the underside of that world: teenagers who got into fights, got caught with guns or were linked to drug dealing or felonies on campus.

It was Rooney’s job to coordinate deans, security personnel and the district’s own police force to make sure the school was safe. So, according to Taylor, when teachers brought Rooney’s anger problems to his attention, Taylor informed Principal Larry Higgins, hoping that help would be made available to Rooney. Taylor says that Rooney did not improve, and he does not know if Higgins intervened. (Higgins declined to comment.)

“Before he was transferred to Markham, someone should have looked at that file,” states Taylor, who holds responsible the local superintendent of District 7, Carol Truscott, who oversees both Markham Middle School and Fremont High School. Truscott’soffice would not comment.

Taylor says Rooney’s arrest at Fremont in 2007 occurred on a street next to the high school where Rooney had parked his car — and that it was carried out in view of students. A second Fremont employee confirmed that students saw Rooney arrested and gossiped about the widely-known arrest incident.

Taylor also says students told him they saw police remove a gun from Rooney’s car, and Taylor passed the students’ comments to Higgins. Says Taylor: “My inquiry was: Was [Steven Rooney] walking around Fremont with this gun?” But, Taylor claims, “I could never get an answer.”

Taylor was concerned enough about the alleged discovery of a gun in Rooney’s car that he spoke to an elected member of the LAUSD Board of Education. Taylor was perplexed, later on, “when I heard that [Rooney] went back to being an assistant principal [at Markham]. I thought, ‘They didn’t find anything there.’” Now, Taylor says in disbelief, “How could they not know?”

Reach the writer at tibbyrothman@gmail.com.

* LA Weekly Editor's note: An earlier version of this story incorrectly spelled Mat Taylor's name as Matt Taylor. Also, an earlier headline of the story referred to Steven Rooney as vice principal. He was in fact an assistant principal.

 

COMMENTS FROM LA WEEKLY WEBSITE:

1. Its incidents like this that give school districts a black eye. Afraid of litigation for unlawful termination, they let people like Taylor manipulate the system to protect their benefits and job security while keeping them in a prime spot for preying on their victims.

   Comment by Kim on Mar 28th, 2008, 08:39 am

2. This is poor reporting. Mr. Rooney was not investigated for statutory rape. He was investigated because the stepfather of a student for accused pulling a gun during an argument. During the investigation it was alleged that Mr. Rooney had a year-long affair with a student, which would have made her 17 at the time. There was no evidence of assault with a deadly weapon, only an accusation. The former student did not cooperate. If Mr. Rooney protected himself with a gun, he was not in the wrong, but its just as likely that the charge was made up in revenge against Mr. Rooney. The hearsay and rumors would have been enough of a reason to transfer him, even if he is innocent. Once transferred, Mr. Rooney would have been vulnerable to rumors based on his history form the other school, and would have been easy to set up for a false accusation by students with axes to grind against him because of the disciplinarian nature of his position.
   Ms. Rothman did not disclose that people who did not talk to her are not allowed to talk to her (this is where an unidentified source if appropriate to quote), and basically printed Mr. Taylor's account and opinions. For all you know, Mr. Taylor had an axe to grind because he didn't like Mr. Rooney's aggressive attitude, and did not win discussions or arguments because of his own passive nature. Rooney may indeed be guilty of molesting the Markham student (and kidnapping if anyone can prove they saw her go to his apartment), but you have presented no facts or evidence supporting any claim of statutory rape or molestation. You presented one point of view, and left out the reasons why the other sources and school authorities you contacted would not comment. You are basically greasing the path to prison — at least for your readers — for an untried, unconvicted man. And the Weekly dares to publish criticism of the Times? For shame. Another sacrificial white male gets the treatment

   Comment by LA Weekly Reader on Mar 31st, 2008, 09:08 am

3. I worked with this racist bigot and he had the nerve to make false allegations against me while we worked together at Foshay. Iam more than elated to see the tables turn on "looney Rooney"

   Comment by spin on May 14th, 2008, 23:54 pm

4. I represent three of the minors allegedly molested by Asst Principal Steven Rooney. If you have any information concerning this case and/or Rooney's transfer to Markham Middle School after LAUSD learned of the accusations, please contact me. The information you provide may be helpful to the prosecution of the minors' case. Thank you. Ricardo Antonio Perez, Esq. 626-353-9734

   Comment by Ricardo Antonio Perez, Esq. on May 29th, 2008, 22:11 pm

5. this man makes me sick of the things he has done.

   Comment by juan alvarado on Jun 23rd, 2008, 11:15 am