OUR OPINION; ZACARIAS' LAST WORD.Outgoing LAUSD LAUSD Los Angeles Unified School District (Los Angeles, CA) Superintendent Ruben Zacarias said goodbye this week to the nation's second-largest school district, admitting it is so mired mire n. 1. An area of wet, soggy, muddy ground; a bog. 2. Deep slimy soil or mud. 3. A disadvantageous or difficult condition or situation: the mire of poverty. v. in 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 bungling bun·gle v. bun·gled, bun·gling, bun·gles v.intr. To work or act ineptly or inefficiently. v.tr. To handle badly; botch. See Synonyms at botch. n. and beset by such serious academic and leadership problems that it has little hope for success. His critics might say it's sour grapes. But Zacarias was speaking the unvarnished truth, perhaps for the first time in his 30-month stint as leader of a district with 710,000 students. The public wants results now, not empty promises and pleas for more time. ``The only thing that matters to the public is improving student achievement,'' said Zacarias, who will retire on Saturday with $800,000 in his pocket in salary and benefits. That's just what parents in the school reform group, Finally Restoring Excellence in Education, have been saying. If the board and the interim leadership can make dramatic and tangible changes in how the district delivers education, then all is well. But time is not on their side, as Zacarias found out. A dozen mini- districts won't do any better than one behemoth behemoth (bē`hĭmŏth, bĭhē`–) [Heb.,=plural of beast], large, fanciful primeval monster, like Leviathan, evoking the hippopotamus mentioned in the Book of Job. if the same incompetent middle managers are running the operation. Zacarias learned that one too late. The clock is ticking. |
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