RIORDAN'S SCHOOL BOARD GAMBIT; MAYOR PICKS CANDIDATES TO HELP ZACARIAS.Byline: Terri Hardy Daily News Staff Writer In his first major move to create a revolution in Los Angeles schools, Mayor Richard Riordan Richard J. Riordan (born May 1, 1930) is a Republican politician from California, U.S. who served as the California Secretary of Education from 2003–2005 and as Mayor of Los Angeles from 1993–2001. Riordan ran for Governor of California unsuccessfully in 2002. said on Friday that he and a group of education and business leaders are handpicking a slate of candidates to try to capture majority control of the Los Angeles school board. Riordan said drastic action was needed to turn around the troubled Los Angeles Unified School District The Los Angeles Unified School District (the "LAUSD") is the largest (in terms of number of students) public school system in California and the second-largest in the United States. Only the New York City Department of Education has a larger student population. and empower Superintendent Ruben Zacarias. ``We're taking a huge step,'' Riordan said. ``We've done a lot of thinking in the last year on how to change the way the district is governed. The LAUSD LAUSD Los Angeles Unified School District (Los Angeles, CA) is a total disaster.'' Among the needed changes Riordan identified: Boost the superintendent's power to fire bureaucrats, restructure departments and give more authority to principals. Riordan and the coalition intends by the end of next month to choose four candidates for the April 1999 election. The incumbent board members, whose terms expire in April, are David Tokofsky, who represents portions of the East San Fernando Valley San Fernando Valley Valley, southern California, U.S. Northwest of central Los Angeles, the valley is bounded by the San Gabriel, Santa Susana, and Santa Monica mountains and the Simi Hills. and East Los Angeles East Los Angeles, uninc. city (1990 pop. 126,379), Los Angeles co., S Calif., a residential suburb of Los Angeles, in an industrial area. It has a large Mexican-American population. There is a performing arts center and a cultural center. A junior college is there. ; George Kiriyama, of the San Pedro area; Jeff Horton, who represents the Hollywood area; and Barbara Boudreaux, who represents South Central Los Angeles. Board members Julie Korenstein, who represents most of the Valley; Valerie Fields, who represents part of the West Valley; and Victoria Castro have two more years to their terms. The Riordan group, top executives from Sony Pictures, Atlantic Richfield Co. and University of California, Los Angeles UCLA comprises the College of Letters and Science (the primary undergraduate college), seven professional schools, and five professional Health Science schools. Since 2001, UCLA has enrolled over 33,000 total students, and that number is steadily rising. , are searching for candidates who will supply strong overall leadership but not micromanage micromanage Administration A popular term for excess oversight of lower management by upper management the superintendent or the district. Kiriyama said it's within Riordan's rights to use his political force to support other candidates but defended his work on the board. ``I feel I'm doing what I should be doing. The district is focused now, and we're starting to turn student achievement around,'' Kiriyama said, referring to test scores that showed slight improvement this year but remained below the national and state averages. ``Whatever (Zacarias) has asked for, we've never said no. I don't think that's micromanaging.'' A candidate to oppose Boudreaux has already been selected by the committee - Genethia Hudley Hayes, executive director of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), civil-rights organization founded in 1957 by Martin Luther King, Jr., and headed by him until his assassination in 1968. , a civil rights organization. Hayes could not be reached for comment Friday. Ted Mitchell, vice president for education at the Getty Center and one of 19 coalition members, said it was crucial to have the best people on the school board. ``It's clear to all of us that the school board is the highest calling in public office in L.A.,'' Mitchell said. Although Riordan has no constitutional authority over schools, he has used his office as a bully pulpit to push for reform of the LAUSD. ``This has been on the top of my radar screen for a long time now,'' Riordan said. ``People question why the mayor should be involved in education. There is nothing more important than the education of our children.'' A loose group of concerned citizens has for a year considered what could be done to change the governance of the LAUSD, Riordan said. They debated, and dismissed the possibility of constitutional change or legislative action that would have put the mayor in charge of the school district. The group has discussed the plans with unions, including the United Teachers Los Angeles, as well as the state Assembly speaker Antonio Villaraigosa. Riordan said the UTLA UTLA United Teachers of Los Angeles (California) was partially receptive to the plan, but they support Tokofsky and Kiriyama. Villaraigosa, Riordan said, was ``supportive of the concept.'' Day Higuchi, president of UTLA, said he was keeping an open mind. ``We hope the mayor's candidates will be supportive of our issues,'' Higuchi said. ``We're hopeful it will be candidates like David and George, who everyone can support.'' Zacarias was unreachable Friday, and LAUSD spokesman Brad Sales declined to comment on the committee's plans. Tokofsky, a former social studies teacher who has been praised by Riordan as the ``Winston Churchill of the school district,'' said he hopes the reform candidates espouse family friendly policies that make a meaningful difference for LAUSD students. ``I'd like to make sure people on this slate have children in the school district,'' he said. ``The solution to our public schools is about substantive curriculum and measurable results. It's not about power that is symbolic. We've had fights between the teachers union and the administrators union, and that didn't lead to anything good for children. We've had fights about the status quo [Latin, The existing state of things at any given date.] Status quo ante bellum means the state of things before the war. The status quo to be preserved by a preliminary injunction is the last actual, peaceable, uncontested status which preceded the pending controversy. and outside reformers, and that hasn't led to test scores above the 50th percentile.'' Daily News Staff Writer Sherry Joe Crosby contributed to this story. COALITION MEMBERS Hope Boonshaft, senior vice president, external affairs, at Sony Pictures Entertainment Mary Chambers, lawyer and former director of the New Los Angeles Marketing Partnership and vice president of Los Angeles Educational Alliance for Restructuring Now Fernando Guerra, director of the Center for the Study of Los Angeles at Loyola Marymount University Genethia Hayes, executive director of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference Ted Mitchell, vice president for Education and Strategic Strategies at the J. Paul Getty Trust The J. Paul Getty Trust is the world's wealthiest art institution with an estimated endowment of $5.8 billion. Based in Los Angeles, it operates two museums: the J. Paul Getty Museum in Brentwood and the Getty Villa in Malibu, California. , special adviser to Mayor Richard Riordan on education, UCLA UCLA University of California at Los Angeles UCLA University Center for Learning Assistance (Illinois State University) UCLA University of Carrollton, TX and Lower Addison, TX professor of education Barry Munitz, president and CEO (1) (Chief Executive Officer) The highest individual in command of an organization. Typically the president of the company, the CEO reports to the Chairman of the Board. of J. Paul Getty Jean Paul Getty (December 15, 1892 – June 6, 1976) was an American industrialist and founder of the Getty Oil Company. Biography Born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, into a family already in the petroleum business, he was one of the first people in the world with a Museum and former chancellor of California State University Enrollment 
Bill Ouchi, professor at John E. Anderson Graduate School of Management at UCLA, former chief of staff to Riordan Christine Robert, president of The Robert Group, a consulting firm Virgil Roberts, chairman of head of New Los Angeles Marketing Partnership, member of LEARN board of directors Cynthia Telles, doctor at the Neuro-Psychiatric Institute and Hospital at UCLA Carmen Carmen throws over lover for another. [Fr. Lit.: Carmen; Fr. Opera: Bizet, Carmen, Westerman, 189–190] See : Faithlessness Carmen the cards repeatedly spell her death. [Fr. Warshaw, philanthropist, longtime member of the Jewish Federation Council, and a former member of the Democratic National Committee. Peter Woo, president, Megatoys Mike Roos, president of LEARN Mike Bowlin, chairman and chief executive officer of Atlantic Richfield Co. Thomas Decker, executive vice president of Bank of America
Bank of America (NYSE: BAC TYO: 8648 ) is the largest commercial bank in the United States in terms of deposits, and the largest company of its kind in the world. Kip Hagopian, co-founder of Brentwood Venture Capital Tony Ressler, partner at Apollo Partners, vice chairman of LEARN Paul Watson, Wells Fargo vice chairman Chuck Young, former UCLA chancellor CAPTION(S): Box BOX: COALITION MEMBERS (see text) |
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