1,000 AUDITS, NO RESULTS CITY CONTROLLER SAYS LAUSD OFFICIALS HIDE TRUTH IN TONS OF PAPER.

Byline: Naush Boghossian Staff Writer

After reviewing more than 1,000 Los Angeles Unified School District audits conducted in recent years, City Controller Laura Chick issued a report Thursday blasting district officials for a ``disturbing lack of transparency and accountability.''

Chick said the truckload of audits did little or nothing to improve the education of the 700,000 students in the nation's second most populous school district, and she reiterated her offer to conduct a comprehensive, independent audit that would provide recommendations for improvements and measure results.

``How could the school district make sense of these mounds of paper?'' Chick asked, standing behind the mountain of reports evaluating LAUSD since the 2000-01 school year.

``Audits and reports are intended to bring transparency. LAUSD has used them to hide from the public, to obstruct and to delay. How have the children benefited from these reports?''

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa immediately seized on the findings, saying he would ask the state Legislature to order an independent audit if district officials continue to reject Chick's efforts.

``I think we have every right to audit, and if the district doesn't agree to an audit, I'm going to ask the Legislature to do it,'' said Villaraigosa, who has proposed a mayoral takeover as one of the ways to reform and improve the city's public schools.

LAUSD Superintendent Roy Romer scheduled a news conference of his own in which he stood firm in his refusal to allow the city to interfere, once again rejecting Chick's offer to conduct an audit that would cost $800,000 to $1 million.

``We're not going to spend our dollars for Laura Chick to do an additional audit,'' he said. ``We are the most audited entity in this town.''

District officials said they spend $1.5 million a year on a state-required audit.

And it is exactly because the district closely audits its educational performances that students' standardized test scores - the ultimate measure of academic performance - have been rising steadily over the past five years, Romer said.

``This is the kind of specific work that we do to hold ourselves accountable,'' he said. ``Eight hundred thousand dollars is a big thing in this district. It's money that'll buy a lot of textbooks, and I don't want to spend it on anything that's not going to give us something added.''

Chick faulted the district's previous audits for not focusing on improving education - specifically instruction and learning - and noted that nearly three-quarters of the reports had dealt with administrative issues such as petty cash, budget analysis and contract reviews.

While Romer and school board members would not speculate on Chick's motives for offering to audit the district, many have questioned her timing, citing Villaraigosa's efforts to take control of the school system.

Villaraigosa said he did not believe that Chick was politically motivated in seeking an independent LAUSD audit and that he did not collaborate with her on the request.

And Chick - considered a Villaraigosa ally - said she has not taken a position on mayoral takeover, but believes Los Angeles Unified is badly in need of reform.

``At this point, after what I've seen, after the experiences that I've had, I'll say this: The current form of school governance, in my opinion, is not working, and there's no transparency and no accountability.''

Allan Hoffenblum, a Los Angeles-based political analyst, said statements and actions by Chick and Villaraigosa are a classic political strategy aimed at appealing to voters.

``The mayor wants greater political control over L.A. Unified, and the majority right now of the school board and teachers union are pushing back on that, so what they're trying to do is a sell job to the broader electorate,'' Hoffenblum said.

``He can't do anything unless it's put on the ballot and the voters change the laws. This is basically part of a P.R. campaign to inform the electorate to try to get them to concur that the mayor should have more power over the district.''

In her review of previous district audits, Chick offered no specific recommendations.

But she said she would like to analyze whether the district is using the best recruiting, training and retention strategies; whether teachers have adequate resources; and whether some administrative funds could be transferred to classroom uses.

But Romer said that, as part of the last union contract, district officials agreed to conduct an additional performance audit. He said officials have contracted with Educational Resource Strategies, a national specialist on educational performance, for a $200,000 study to recommend methods to increase short- and long-term savings.

Staff Writer Lisa Mascaro contributed to this report.

Naush Boghossian, [phone]

naush.boghossian(at)dailynews.com