ZACARIAS: BREAKUP MAY HELP SCHOOLS; RETIRING BOSS LOOKS TO FUTURE.

Byline: Sherry Joe Crosby Staff Writer

Ousted Superintendent Ruben Zacarias said the Los Angeles Unified School District is beset by such severe academic and leadership problems that breaking it up may be the only answer pending a swift and remarkable improvement in student achievement.

``The only thing that matters to the public is improving student achievement,'' Zacarias said last week in his first extensive interview since being stripped of his primary administrative powers by the Board of Education in October. He will retire Saturday.

``Whether it's one large district or 12 smaller districts or whatever the number is, if we don't do right, then it's time to look elsewhere. It's time to look at some other configuration like smaller districts.''

His comments came during a wide-ranging discussion that touched on his strained relationship with the board, Mayor Richard Riordan, the Belmont Learning Center scandal and the events that led to what his supporters say was his public humiliation in October.

Under the deal reached with the school board, the 71-year-old Chatsworth resident is entitled to as much as $277,000 in salary compensation for his contract, which extends to June 30, 2001, plus $150,000 for accrued vacation. He remains eligible for an annual pension of nearly $150,000.

All told, the immigrant kid from Boyle Heights who became a teacher in his mid-30s will leave the district with about $800,000 in salary and benefits not including retirement, said his attorney, Joseph F. Coyne Jr.

A product of the school system, Zacarias rose from the barrios of East Los Angeles to the highest pinnacle of the 710,000-student school district. But those hard-won achievements began to unravel this past year with the election of a slate of reform board members, backed by Riordan and swept into office by a public weary of waiting and desperate for change.

``People wanted miracles, and no one could have provided those miracles,'' said Julie Korenstein, who helped appoint Zacarias as superintendent and, with 12 1/2 years of experience, is the longest-serving member on the board.

``The nature of the timing, of the demand for change, the impatience - and legitimately so - of so many people, it would have been pretty difficult for things not to have come out the way they did.''

BLAMES HIMSELF

During the interview, Zacarias said he blamed himself and his staff for not knowing more about the out-of-control finances and environmental problems plaguing the Belmont Learning Center, a $173 million half-completed school that sits atop an oil field oozing toxic and explosive gases.

He said his greatest regret is not having had more time to improve student achievement and reform the district's cumbersome budget system.

``Boy, I wished we had had more time,'' said Zacarias who counts among his achievements the rise of standardized test scores by 2 percentile points each year since he took office, the development of policies to end social promotion a full year before the state mandate took effect and an increase in parent involvement. During his watch, the number of parent centers jumped from less than 100 to 389 across the district.

Despite those accomplishments, test scores still remain mired in the bottom third, about one-quarter of the district's 36,000 classroom teachers are on emergency permits and breakup efforts are building across the city.

``I still feel more needs to be done,'' said Zacarias, who feels his efforts were cut short by the election of board members Genethia Hayes, Mike Lansing and Caprice Young, who all had a different vision of the district and of the person to lead it in the 21st century.

He said the next six months will prove crucial to restoring the public's confidence in the beleaguered school system that has been battered by scandal over the financing and construction of the nation's costliest high school and now is trying to stave off district breakup efforts building in the San Fernando Valley and elsewhere.

He said plans to split the 708-square-mile system into 12 subdistricts, which he initially proposed and interim Superintendent Ramon C. Cortines now is touting to employees and the public, is the LAUSD's last, best chance for keeping the district intact.

``The next six months will dictate the future organizational structure of this district,'' Zacarias said.

Any reorganization of the district, however, must be accompanied by a rise in student achievement - and quickly, he said.

``This board has six months to prove itself,'' Zacarias said. ``They've got six months to show the kind of steps that will make the public feel like, hey, things will be different.

``If they don't have the same momentum we started with - improving test scores, lowering the dropout rate, increasing student attendance, increasing the number of Advanced Placement tests - the public will say we've had enough promises with changes, let's break it up.''

While never close to board members, Zacarias said he always tried to meet with them twice a month to discuss issues of varying importance. Those meetings no longer take place with the new board, he said.

``I don't talk to them, they don't talk to me. It's not because we're mad at each other. They're off doing their own thing. They work very closely with Ray Cortines and Howard Miller,'' he said. ``It's part of their `hey, we stay out of your way, you stay out of our way' type of thing.''

RIORDAN CRITICIZED

Zacarias also criticized Riordan's involvement in education issues. He said that at times the mayor's participation has acted as a lightning rod for controversy, diverting attention from the district's primary mission, improving student achievement.

``It lent itself to generating all this divisive dialogue,'' Zacarias said, citing critics who accused Riordan of buying the school board after he financed the election campaigns of several reform candidates last spring.

``The man has every right as a citizen to be involved in education,'' he added. ``It might have been appropriate, but it . . . raised a lot of issues that I think some would use to create divisiveness.''

Zacarias also opposed the notion of the mayor exercising legislative or municipal control over the school board and its appointments as Riordan's counterpart enjoys in the city of Chicago.

``At my gut level, I have a feeling that the less political involvement over educational issues, municipal involvement, City Hall involvement, the better,'' Zacarias said. ``The risk is too great for politicizing.''

Noelia Rodriguez, deputy mayor of Los Angeles and spokeswoman for Riordan, said the mayor would have been remiss in his duties as the city's primary leader had he not gotten involved in education.

``The mayor is proud of the fact that he placed a spotlight on what he believes to be a dysfunctional school system,'' she said.

``The mayor's priority is not following the status quo. He did what he believed was in the best interests of the children, which is to bring about a reform movement where children become the No. 1 priority instead of the bureaucrats or the status quo.''

His voice weary at times during the interview, he also accepted limited blame for the Belmont Learning Center.

``As captain of the ship, you have to bear some responsibility,'' said Zacarias, one of 15 former and current district employees accused by Don Mullinax, the district's top investigator, of failing to properly manage Belmont.

``In retrospect, I should have probably asked for more information,'' Zacarias said. ``Where I accept responsibility is every individual who did not inform me of some critical issue.''

Zacarias said he doesn't intend to be idle in retirement. He wants to create literacy centers for needy children and continue his efforts to boost parent involvement.

``The one stakeholder that is not involved is the parents,'' he said. ``The other stakeholders have more say than parents. We have to level the playing field. We have to do a better job of involving the parents.''

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Photo: (color) ``It's time to look at some other configuration like smaller districts.''

- Ruben Zacarias

Retiring LAUSD superintendent