MAYOR OPENS FLOODGATES LAUSD REFORM PROPOSALS PILE UP AFTER HE SPARKS DEBATE.

Byline: NAUSH BOGHOSSIAN Staff Writer

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa failed to win cooperation, lost in court and now has one shot left to take over some of L.A.'s lowest-performing schools -- by winning control of the school board.

But having sparked an intense public debate about the successes and failures of Los Angeles Unified, Villaraigosa finds that his own plan is just one of the various subplots unfolding for reform of the 710,000-student district.

Successful charter operator Steve Barr has submitted a proposal to new Superintendent David Brewer III, seeking to transform the beleaguered Locke, Dorsey and Crenshaw high schools, as well as their feeder middle schools, with the tenets of his Green Dot Public Schools.

The questionable future of the mayor's legislation for a partial takeover and his plans to back candidates in the expensive March school board election have opened the door for various interests to push their own ideas for reform.

And that has set the stage for the school board -- facing changes in its membership -- to look at new options, especially with Brewer working far more closely with Villaraigosa than retired Superintendent Roy Romer ever did.

``It's a golden opportunity for people like Steve Barr and others to get a piece of the action,'' said Jaime Regalado, director of the Edmund G. ``Pat'' Brown Institute of Public Affairs at California State University, Los Angeles.

``It's logical that the mayor did open the lid to the Pandora's box on a very troubled school district, and a lot of potential and real reformers were waiting to see what would happen. It opens other fronts of potential reform dialogue.

``The school board is going to give because they realize they're going to lose some of their control, and I think they've already lost it.''

Several reform plans

Brewer said Barr is one of several people who have approached him with reform plans. He plans to evaluate each proposal for practicality and maturity, and he then will decide whether any will be implemented at the district's 800 schools.

He would not divulge details of the other proposals.

But the retired Navy admiral promised to launch ``innovative and bold'' plans in the next two to three months.

``The changes proposed will be very bold. We have a lot of ideas of our own,'' Brewer said. ``I am a transformer, not a reformer.

``Part of the bold change will be transforming within LAUSD so we can execute and scale.''

Deputy Mayor Ray Cortines, himself a former superintendent of LAUSD and other districts, said the mayor's team would welcome the opportunity to oversee a cluster of schools if offered. That would allow them to demonstrate the feasibility of implementing the 52 initiatives included in their ``Schoolhouse'' reform blueprint.

``I want LAUSD to be a viable choice. ... Why do we need another 15percent of our young people and parents leaving the public school system to go to a charter school because they want a quality education?

``If we had charge of a cluster or if we had charge of a group of elementaries, or all of the elementaries, next year, there would be no social promotion.''

Proposal: Go smaller

Barr's proposal includes focusing on Dorsey, Locke and Crenshaw high schools and their feeder schools, which are in dire need of intervention. The total number of schools that would fall under the proposal would have to be negotiated, Barr said.

Locke's freshman classes have had about 1,400 students in past years, but they graduate just 350 seniors, Barr said. Accounting for families moving out of the neighborhood, the dropout figures are still disturbing.

What Barr proposed to do is incubate small, autonomous kindergarten-through-ninth-grade schools, where students would be brought up to grade level in reading and math. Each incubator school would have its own autonomous budget, principal, staff and uniforms.

In the meantime, 10th- to 12th-graders would receive significant intervention. Within four years, Barr said, the entire school would be broken into six or so smaller campuses.

Another component of the proposal is to create same-sex academies for boys and girls.

At Jefferson High, another troubled campus in downtown Los Angeles, Barr came close to achieving a collaboration with LAUSD administrators.

``(But) when push came to shove, there wasn't complete buy-in. It's got to be everybody pulling,'' he said.

What followed was a massive parental revolt, resulting in their demand for Green Dot to take over and to break the large campus into smaller schools.

Barr said he hopes to partner with the district, but if he encounters resistance -- as he did with Romer -- he will mobilize the community to ensure their demands for change are heard.

And his default strategy would be to create charter schools nearby that would compete with Dorsey, Locke and Crenshaw and their feeder schools.

``When we look at an area, we figure out if there is space for collaboration with the district,'' he said.

``At the same time, our involvement in that area is not going to be determined by if they want to have a collaboration. We're going to do something in that area.

``We're building coalitions, but I would prefer collaboration with the district or the mayor to change the system and improve educational choices for the kids.''

Barr, who has 12 charters pending within LAUSD, has been planning to penetrate predominantly African-American neighborhoods, since eight of Green Dot's 10 schools are almost entirely Latino.

It's black and white

Crenshaw and Dorsey are among the last of the prominent African-American populated schools, where more than half the students are black.

Locke's enrollment is about 40percent African-American, but it's a much bigger school, serving more African-American families than the first two schools combined.

But Barr said a majority of blacks in the community are fleeing Los Angeles, dropping out, or sending their children to other suburban public schools or to private schools.

``Our theory of change is the district will never get better until we get African-American and white families to move back in the district.''

So far, both Barr and Villaraigosa -- whose own cluster concepts were heavily influenced by Green Dot -- have heard the same response from district officials: They'll take the proposals under consideration.

So many people eager to have a hand in the district is an opportunity LAUSD should embrace, Barr said.

``If the mayor were running some clusters, if we were running some clusters and if basic tenets were adhered to, then things would be humming,'' Barr said. ``Some friendly competition would be great.''

Cortines credited the district with having some of the best practices in the nation, but he said they are not implemented consistently and coherently.

That's why the mayor's team is urging the district to create a plan that includes a timeline for implementation and bringing it to scale -- a process to which they would love to contribute.

Regalado said Brewer is wise to take his time because he's in a precarious position in a situation fraught with political danger.

Negotiations with the powerful teachers union are strained. United Teachers Los Angeles is averse to expanding the charter movement, and the mayor is exerting political pressure on the board elections.

But district officials are also aware that if they reject Barr's offer, the maverick charter leader could home in on a school like Locke and create a parent uprising that would force them to allow control of the school.

A lack of urgency

Cortines said the problem with LAUSD administrators seems to be a lack of urgency, particularly in taking their time to accept partnerships.

``I certainly think there's the rhetoric, but I don't hear that, `Come July1 or September, we will do this,''' said Cortines, whose key adviser on the education team, Marshall Tuck, was hired from Green Dot.

``It's one thing to talk about it, and it's one thing to study things to death. I think there's the wherewithal, but where is the will? Why aren't we doing something together?''

Regalado thinks the mayor will have a role in LAUSD even if he can't achieve a majority of supporters on the school board -- although that would make his mission much easier.

The mayor's key goal has always been overseeing the clusters, since a small group of schools is manageable, with measurable results.

And it is a tangible demonstration of success that would give him crowing rights that he could use if he decided to seek higher office.

``If he gets a majority, he'll get a defined role in the clusters without the political wrangling, but I still think he gets clusters no matter how the elections turn out,'' he said.

``They'll feel they have to give this mayor something because they'll feel he will be their worst nightmare and critic if they don't have a role for him.''

naush.boghossian(at)dailynews.com

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