Cortines Opposes L.A. Unified Monitor

Los Angeles interim schools Supt. Ramon C. Cortines said he will appear today at a hearing in Sacramento to oppose a bill that would place the district under the oversight of a legislative committee for five years. If the district did not make measurable improvements within that time, it could face breakup.

The emergency legislation authored by state Sen. Richard Polanco (D-Los Angeles) calls for the appointment of a monitor to report to a newly created Senate-Assembly committee on the district’s progress in improving student achievement, hiring more credentialed teachers and providing students with textbooks and clean, safe classrooms.

Cortines plans to appear before the Senate Education Committee. It was uncertain whether a vote would be taken today.

Polanco initially proposed giving sweeping powers over district personnel and budget matters to the monitor, who would have had authority to veto decisions of the Board of Education. The bill also specified that the monitor be paid at least as much as the new superintendent. The district is in the process of selecting a new chief.

Polanco agreed this week to ease those provisions after encountering intense opposition from Cortines and three labor unions.

The interim superintendent asked Polanco in a letter Friday not to appoint a monitor. Cortines said that the most important task facing the district now is hiring the best possible superintendent and that “the appointment of a state monitor at this time . . . would make that almost impossible.”

In an interview Tuesday, Polanco said he is willing to compromise.

“I don’t view it as the monitor running anything,” the senator said. “I view it as the monitor really being the eyes and ears of the select [Senate-Assembly] committee.”

However, Polanco insisted that the monitor remains a key element of his plan.

He said he anticipates wide support for the measure, which “for the first time really invokes the power of the Legislature” in addressing the district’s problems.

“I don’t view this proposal as a hostile measure,” Polanco said. “It’s a proposal which puts focus as to where we should be.”

According to an analysis of the bill prepared by the Senate Education Committee staff, the legislation calls for the state to establish accountability benchmarks in several areas such as teacher preparation, school facilities, school safety and parent involvement.

The monitor, to be appointed by the state superintendent of instruction, would design intervention strategies to meet those goals and annually evaluate the district’s progress.

Cortines said he welcomes benchmarks but still objects to the form of oversight proposed by Polanco. The educator said the district should be given time to turn itself around based on his reorganization plan, approved by the board last month.

When it takes effect July 1, the date the new superintendent assumes his post, the plan will divide 711,000-student L.A. Unified into 11 subdistricts, each with its own superintendent. The new structure will involve a severe reduction of staff in the central office, which is to switch from a role of command and control to support for the subdistricts.

Cortines said it will take three to five years for the results to become apparent.