LAUSD STICKING TO PRIVATE MEETINGS : SUPERINTENDENT SEARCH TO INCLUDE 1 OPEN FORUM.Byline: Sharline Chaing Daily News Staff Writer The Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. Board of Education voted unanimously Monday to hold invitation-only meetings between community groups and school superintendent Noun 1. school superintendent - the superintendent of a school system overseer, superintendent - a person who directs and manages an organization candidates, but promised to hold at least one open forum to appease ap·pease tr.v. ap·peased, ap·peas·ing, ap·peas·es 1. To bring peace, quiet, or calm to; soothe. 2. To satisfy or relieve: appease one's thirst. 3. critics. The board has been under pressure from the LEARN reform movement which said the private-meeting plan stood in the way of ensuring that the most qualified person was chosen to be superintendent with the broadest community support. The seven-member board stood by its plan to hold meetings between final candidates and invited community members only, but agreed to hold one or more public forums. The amended motion, suggested by board member Mark Slavkin, reflected pleas from the LEARN group and other city leaders for open ``town hall'' candidate forums. Although the plan for open forums was vague, Mike Roos, LEARN president, called it a positive step. Roos held a news conference for a more open process during the board meeting. ``I think it can be a model for how we should handle every bureaucratic bu·reau·crat n. 1. An official of a bureaucracy. 2. An official who is rigidly devoted to the details of administrative procedure. bu decision,'' Roos said. ``The strength of the organizations calling for an open forum is too powerful to ignore,'' he said. Roos, the head of Los Angeles Educational Alliance for Restructuring restructuring - The transformation from one representation form to another at the same relative abstraction level, while preserving the subject system's external behaviour (functionality and semantics). Now, said the invitation-only proposal could lead to ``back door'' decisions. A revised plan articulating the final process will be presented at Monday's board meeting, said board President Jeff Horton Jeff Horton, born (date?) in Arlington, Texas, is currently an assistant coach (Special Assistant/Offense) for the St. Louis Rams of the National Football League. He has also been active as an assistant coach at the collegiate level (Minnesota, Nevada, UNLV, Wisconsin) and as a . Although most of the board agreed to the open-forum addition, board member Barbara Boudreaux remained a staunch proponent One who offers or proposes. A proponent is a person who comes forward with an a item or an idea. A proponent supports an issue or advocates a cause, such as a proponent of a will. PROPONENT, eccl. law. of keeping the final candidates' interview process limited. ``To open it up to open forums for outside groups, I am not interested in that,'' Boudreaux said. Boudreaux insisted that the superintendent search has included plenty of opportunities for public input. Alan Clayton, director of the equal opportunity division of the Los Angeles County Chicano Employees Association, who supports the appointment of Deputy Superintendent Deputy Superintendent, or Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP), was a rank used by police forces of the British Empire. In some territories it was called Deputy District Superintendent of Police (DDSP). Ruben Zacarias, said the decision to add public forums infuriated in·fu·ri·ate tr.v. in·fu·ri·at·ed, in·fu·ri·at·ing, in·fu·ri·ates To make furious; enrage. adj. Archaic Furious. him. ``I thought the vote was tragic. The way it's set up, it opens it up to political manipulation,'' said Clayton. Horton applauded the board's decision. ``We had a very complicated issue brought to us and we came to the meeting with very different opinions, but obviously with an underlying belief to let the public be part of the process,'' he said. ``After genuine debate, we came to a unanimous vote.'' The invitation-only proposal, submitted to the board by its four-member citizens committee, gives 99 nonboard members a chance to talk to candidates in a downtown location from April 15 to 25. The board took more than two hours to listen to public comments and debate the proposal before making the final vote. In the end, in addition to accepting the plan ``in concept,'' the board also unanimously voted for the one or more open forums, Horton said. ``We've adopted both sides of the coin,'' said Horton. ``There will be (input) from the general public in addition to those of invited stakeholders Stakeholders All parties that have an interest, financial or otherwise, in a firm-stockholders, creditors, bondholders, employees, customers, management, the community, and the government. .'' Superintendent Sid Thompson will be retiring by the end of June. The board is scheduled to receive the names of up to five finalists April 10 and select a new leader by early May. According to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. the proposal, candidates would have a chance in hour-long sessions to answer questions from seven union representatives, 15 high school students, 22 representatives from district organizations, 26 from community organizations and 15 more from parents groups. Several Latino activists, many vocal supporters of Zacarias, argued against the invitation-only meetings and open forums, saying groups like LEARN were trying to divert di·vert v. di·vert·ed, di·vert·ing, di·verts v.tr. 1. To turn aside from a course or direction: Traffic was diverted around the scene of the accident. 2. the board's attention away from Zacarias. Pat Springer springer a North American term commonly used to describe heifers close to term with their first calf. , chairwoman of the district's Mexican American Mexican American n. A U.S. citizen or resident of Mexican descent. Mex  i·can-A·mer Education Commission, said the board was ``changing the rules in the
middle of the game.''
``It appears the process has not yielded the results some groups wanted,'' she said. ``We're asking the board to stick to (the process) as it was set up.'' Zacarias, a former Los Angeles educator with 30 years of experience with the district, has been cited as the top candidate by several groups for his experience and sensitivity shown for various ethnic groups, including Latinos, which make up nearly 70 percent of the district's 667,000 students. BOARD MEMBERS' VIEWS Under intense pressure to open up the process of selecting a new superintendent of schools, LAUSD LAUSD Los Angeles Unified School District (Los Angeles, CA) board members voted unanimously Monday to approve in concept a recommendation for limited meetings in private between finalists and selected community groups. However, their motion included the addition of one or more completely open public forums with the finalists. Here are the board members' observations on the controversy during the debate: JEFF HORTON: ``The public input is done in different stages, and we've done an exemplary job, and I'm confident we will continue to the final stage. An hour with 20 people can be quite a productive discussion. So I support the recommendation of the committee. I think it's a good process.'' MARK SLAVKIN: ``I suggest we add one or two truly open forums where everyone who wants to come can come. There should be something where we don't have arguments of, `Well, we weren't invited,' or ``They don't represent us.' '' BARBARA BOUDREAUX: ``This has gotten to be a circus and a superintendent selection is not supposed to be a circus. We were selected by you in seven regions to represent each of you. We've had 31 public meetings and anyone who has said that we don't want community input, where have you been?'' DAVID David, in the Bible David, d. c.970 B.C., king of ancient Israel (c.1010–970 B.C.), successor of Saul. The Book of First Samuel introduces him as the youngest of eight sons who is anointed king by Samuel to replace Saul, who had been deemed a failure. TOKOFSKY: ``It's a meet and greet, and it doesn't get to the content. I don't think you get to content by rushing through without dialogue. I'm opposed to receiving this and going into the back room. I think we should keep it public and open.'' GEORGE KIRYAMA: ``All along we have been doing public forums. . . . We are the elected officials here. We are the ones who are supposed to select the superintendent. . . . I think we can do that. That is our job.'' JULIE KORENSTEIN: ``There's been no time for discussion at all on the recommendations, or what type of process we want. . . . I'm not ready at this point in time to go forward on this recommendation.'' VICTORIA CASTRO: ``I'm open to a continual open process, but I'm also concerned that it continues to include the parents of the district.'' CAPTION(S): 2 Photos, box PHOTO (1) The Los Angeles Board of Education makes a key vote on the process for selecting a new superintendent. Michael Owen
(2) Mike Roos Fears ``back door'' decisions Box: Board members' views (see text) |
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