Austin Beutner with members of City Year Los Angeles and LA Unified board Vice President Nick Melvoin, left, before Beutner’s introductory news conference at Belmont High School.

*Updated May 2

Austin Beutner is ready to make hard choices to bring about change.

“It starts with culture. LA Unified has to become an institution that looks at each issue with the mindset ‘We can do this’ and is willing to change to achieve that objective,” the new superintendent said Wednesday at his introductory news conference at Belmont High School near LA Unified’s downtown headquarters.

“The district has to be more transparent and accountable to the communities it serves. The choices the district makes about resources need to take into the account the views of the community.”

Beutner was introduced by LAUSD board President Mónica García and described by community leaders as someone “whose soul is committed to the future of children.” Board Vice President Nick Melvoin said the new superintendent “can get things done” and that “he is the right choice for this precarious moment in LA Unified.”

The former investment banker and LA deputy mayor acknowledged he is an “unconventional choice” for the position, after his lack of experience in education came under criticism at Tuesday’s board meeting before the board announced he had been elected in a 5-2 vote.

He vowed to make the “hard choices to unlock the enormous potential in schools across the district,” because “the status quo isn’t good enough. … Change must happen.”

Beutner signaled who his primary audience is as his first words were directed to a group of Belmont students. “Why start this job speaking with students at a school campus? Because you, students, and your future is what matters most.” The students surrounded him with enthusiasm and even created a banner placed in the backdrop reading “NEW Superintendent” and a drawing of a superhero.

He had started his day at three other campuses with board member Richard Vladovic: Leland Street Elementary School, Dodson Middle School, and Harbor Teacher Preparation Academy. 

Belmont was a fitting example of the challenges Beutner will face. Last year only 11 percent of its students were proficient in math and 39 percent in reading. It was even lower for English learners (30 percent) and Latinos (38.7 percent). And Belmont just landed this week on a new list of the most struggling schools in LA Unified that will get additional support next year, possibly even a waiver from having to hire teachers sent from the district. It is one of 106 high schools in the highest-needs category on the new Student Equity Need Index, which ranks schools based on student demographics, the academic status of incoming students, and community indicators such as asthma and gun violence.

So great to start my day with @Monica4LAUSD learning from Belmont High School students first-hand the changes they want to see! pic.twitter.com/lRMLfBpzXj

— Austin Beutner (@AustinLASchools) May 2, 2018

He said he has some innovative ideas to tackle the district’s biggest challenges, including declining enrollment and chronic absences, but he wants to discuss his ideas with the students first.

“Let’s start with having these conversations with students not in Beaudry. Beaudry, where the LAUSD’s headquarters are located, reminds me more of the county jail than it does of a place where the magic happens, and this is where magic happens.”

In finding some common ground with the more than 600,000 students he will serve starting May 14, he said, “Each of you comes to school each day with your own story, your own experiences that inform you and your dream for the future. To help you understand where I’m coming from, I want to share with you my own story.”

He told them his father came to this country as an immigrant as his family fled the Nazis in Germany. He also shared that his mother was a reading teacher and that he attended public schools.

When asked about public school choice and how he will address the growth of charter schools and declining enrollment in the district, he said that his own parents had the choice to be in a community that provided the best options for their children.

“It’s not about charter or not charter, it’s more about making sure that all kids in Los Angeles receive the best education possible.”

• Read more from The 74: Can a Few Simple Letters Home Reduce Chronic Absenteeism? New Research Shows They Can

• Los Angeles Schools Pay a Price for Absent Students: How Rising Chronic Absenteeism Cost LAUSD $45 Million

One of his first steps to bringing in more funding will be to reduce chronic absences, something the task force he co-leads has studied.

He said 80,000 students in the district are missing 15 or more school days and that the district can reduce that by following what school districts in New York and Cleveland have done by using direct mailers to inform parents how many days their children were missing.

If LA Unified did that, “8,000 to 10,000 kids would be better attenders, they’ll learn, and absenteeism matters to the whole classroom because the revenues come back — probably $10 million of revenue for the district as a whole next year, so we can try simple things like that.”

*The name of a school Beutner visited, Harbor Teacher Preparation Academy, has been corrected.

Today’s press conference featuring the newly appointed @LASchools Superintendent of Schools, Austin Beutner, will rebroadcast Sunday, May 6 at 11AM on KLCS. You can also watch anytime on our YouTube channel https://t.co/iHGpOhHLkw #LAUSD

— PBS for Los Angeles (@KLCS) May 2, 2018

Beutner is both an insider and an outsider. He has deep ties in Los Angeles and a demonstrated commitment to civic service. The former investment banker served as first deputy mayor of Los Angeles, then moved across the street from City Hall to the Los Angeles Times as publisher and CEO. He currently co-leads a task force on LA Unified but does not have an education background, yet he brings financial acumen, political savvy, and negotiation skills.

The choice shows that board members are ready to shake up the district, picking Beutner over Interim Superintendent Vivian Ekchian, who, like her predecessor Michelle King, has spent her career in the district as an educator and administrator. It also reflects an urgent need to improve LA’s public schools while staving off weakening finances that could put LA Unified under state control within two years.

Reflecting divisions on the board, the vote was 5-2, with Scott Schmerelson and George McKenna voting against Beutner.

I look forward to working with the school board, parents, employees, labor partners, and the community to build on the progress that has been made at L.A. Unified, to address the challenges we face, and to deliver on our promise to our students.

— Austin Beutner (@AustinLASchools) May 2, 2018

The district released a statement from Beutner:

“It is my distinct honor and privilege to take on the responsibility to lead the LA Unified School District; a complex, diverse organization, full of students bursting with potential. These young women and men are the future of our community, and every policy we adopt and every decision we make must be with the sole focus of doing everything we can to provide them with the best education possible. I look forward to working with the school board, parents, employees, labor partners, and the community to build on the progress that has been made at LA Unified, to address the challenges we face, and to deliver on our promise to our students.”

• Read Austin Beutner’s contract here. 

After announcing the vote, board President Mónica García said in an interview, “While we have different views on the ‘how’, there are seven people who are deeply committed to the people we serve. The opportunity before us as this process has concluded is to roll up our sleeves and get to work. There are so many needs, we’re six weeks away from graduation. LA wants to be the place where we serve all children well. Let’s get to work!”

Nick Melvoin, board vice president, said, “I’m confident that Mr. Beutner along with this board and as a partner of this board can bring some innovative thinking to this. If you always do what you’ve always done, you always get what you always have gotten. The status quo is not good enough for our kids. We don’t have the luxury of waiting.”

Melvoin said Ekchian will return to her previous role as associate superintendent and said in a statement he is “deeply grateful” for her “stable leadership.”

Board member Kelly Gonez said in an email, “Our financial challenge is real, and it has the potential to devastate this district if we don’t take urgent action; Austin Beutner is well prepared to address the fiscal crisis we are facing and put us on a more sustainable path. His limited educational background is a significant issue, and I fully expect him to work with the board and our talented district leaders to fill in those gaps to the extent possible.”

Speakers during Tuesday’s board meeting reflected deep divisions in LA’s education community. Some parents expressed frustration at not being included in the search, while other parents spoke in support of Beutner.

The search was conducted behind closed doors, so candidates were only revealed as they dropped out of the race. The fact that there were only two — former Baltimore Supt. Andres Alonso and Indianapolis Supt. Lewis Ferebee — indicated there may not have been a large pool to pick from in light of LA’s deep challenges and political divisions.

Beutner, 58, a father of four, currently co-leads the LA Unified Advisory Task Force, which was formed last year with community leaders to study and make recommendations on protracted challenges facing the district. Their reports have covered student attendance and chronic absences, increasing transparency and accountability, and the district’s lack of a comprehensive strategy to manage its real estate portfolio.

He was born in New York and raised in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He ran unsuccessfully for mayor of Los Angeles in 2012 and serves on the boards of the Los Angeles Fund for Public Education and as chairman of several other philanthropic partnerships. He worked for the U.S. State Department under the Clinton administration leading a team into Russia to help in the transition from communism to a free-market economy.

He also is founder and chairman of Vision to Learn, a nonprofit that provides free eye exams and glasses to children in low-income communities and this year contracted with LA Unified. In what could have been last-minute jockeying within the district to scuttle Beutner’s chances, the district sent a warning letter, known as a Notice to Cure, to the organization saying it was behind on screening students for eyeglasses. But its executive director refuted the allegations and said the district caused the delay.

Ekchian, 58, received strong support from parents’ committees. She has led the district since last fall in the absence of Michelle King, who is fighting cancer and will officially resign by the end of June. She has led the local school district in the northwest San Fernando Valley, headed the human resources department, and also served as lead contract negotiator. She is a former principal and a teacher.

When he officially starts on May 14, at an annual salary of $350,000, Beutner will immediately be dealing with labor negotiations, a school worker union that has already voted to authorize a strike, declining enrollment that is expected to put the district in the red within three years, and ballooning retirement costs that the district so far has declined to significantly address.

• Read LA School Report’s series of essays on what’s needed in a new superintendent for Los Angeles.

The new superintendent will need to have a strong vision for student achievement and improving school quality, especially for the neediest students.

While students in the district have made academic gains in recent years, far less than half are proficient in math, reading, and writing. Students of color and low-income students continue to lag behind their peers. Last year the number of homeless students at LA Unified grew by 50 percent to over 17,000 — the highest number recorded by the district.

LA Unified serves 473,000 students, plus nearly 160,000 students in 281 charter schools authorized by the district. Enrollment has dropped 30 percent since its peak of 750,000 students in 2004, as residents flee the city’s high rents and families choose independent charter schools. By the 2020-21 school year, the district is expected to have a budget deficit of $380 million, fueled in large part by the district’s unfunded pension liabilities — now up to $15.2 billion. By 2030, nearly half of LA Unified’s budget will be spent on retirees’ healthcare and pensions.

“The financial issues are priorities 1 through 100. Everything, unfortunately, has to be looked at through that lens,” said Mike Trujillo, an LA Unified graduate and longtime Democratic Party strategist in LA who has worked with Beutner for over a decade. “He’s going to get into the minutiae of where every dollar is and make sure every dollar is getting to the neediest kids and the neediest classrooms.”

Beutner will need to make “tackling the fiscal crisis of the district” his priority, “which really puts the progress made in the last couple years in jeopardy if that’s not taken seriously and bold decisions are not made,” said Nadia Diaz Funn, executive director of the Alliance for a Better Community, which serves the Latino community in South and Southeast LA. She said the district has to go under this “incredibly difficult transformation in order to ensure its long-term sustainability.”

“We will partner with him on having more equitable access to high-quality education within our neighborhoods and more resources for higher needs students,” Diaz Funn said.

Maria Brenes, executive director of InnerCity Struggle, cautioned that “the fiscal problem of the district cannot be attempted to be solved on the back of our high-needs students and neighborhoods.” She said she believes the board had to make a decision in light of tremendous obstacles, including the student achievement gap, access to college, and equitable school funding.

“There’s a fiscal issue, there’s an equity issue, there’s an achievement issue. We are here to remind the board and the new superintendent that they have to prioritize the needs of the highest-need students,” Brenes said.

Trujillo said Beutner “has a lifetime of negotiation skills. Observing him at City Hall and the Los Angeles Times, Austin has a knack for bringing in talented folks to ensure the portfolio of education of LAUSD is top notch. Good thing there are really smart people already inside the district that know about curriculum, special education, early education, and instructional protocol. What Austin does is shine a brighter light to make sure it all works out financially.”

Ben Austin, a longtime education advocate who last year founded Kids Coalition, said “Austin has the intelligence, independence, experience, and deep roots in Los Angeles to not only save LAUSD from bankruptcy, but also to fundamentally rethink and reimagine how we deliver public education for the children of the 21st century,” Austin said in an email. “While he has a non-traditional background, the LAUSD must solve non-traditional problems. Now as we open this new chapter in the history of LAUSD public education, parents and students must organize to partner with the new superintendent and hold him accountable to always put our kids first.”

Myrna Castrejón, executive director of Great Public Schools Now, said in a statement, “As a distinguished Angeleno, (Beutner) has a long history of working to improving civic life in Los Angeles, from serving as deputy mayor to advocating for immigrant students through his support of DACA, and bridging philanthropy with the needs of LAUSD students. He is uniquely well-positioned to solve the challenges the district is facing while also helping LA Unified’s many successful programs continue to grow.”

Robin Lake, director of the Center on Reinventing Public Education at the University of Washington Bothell, said Beutner “seems strong on local politics, financial acumen. It’s harder to know whether he has ideas about how to improve schools and instruction. He’ll need a very strong team around him and a great school improvement strategy.”

While some board members had reached out to their communities for input — Kelly Gonez held six community input sessions and conducted an online survey, and Melvoin held five roundtable conversations — the closed search came under repeated attack as speakers came before the board Tuesday.

Lluvia Saenz, mother of three students at Huntington Park Elementary, said she felt angry at the board members for not considering parents’ opinions and said she would have liked Ekchian to fill the position.

“It’s not time for the board to play with the decision of choosing a person who has no experience as an educator. They need to stop playing with our kids’ future,” she said. “Vivian Ekchian was an English learner and has held different positions as an educator in the district. She knows the reality of an LAUSD student.”

Other parent groups expressed support for Beutner.

“Our parents have made their priorities clear to the board. We asked the board for a superintendent who would be willing to make bold changes to reform the district, and we believe Austin Beutner has the vision and experience to get the job done,” Katie Braude, executive director of Speak UP, said in a statement. “He brings tremendous financial expertise at a time when LAUSD is on the brink of bankruptcy. We’re lucky that someone of his caliber is willing to step in at such a critical juncture for LAUSD.”

Seth Litt, executive director of Parent Revolution, another parent advocacy organization, said there was no time to waste.

“Parents across Los Angeles are ready to work with the new superintendent, and with board members, on the urgent task of improving Los Angeles’ lowest-performing schools. Too many children in Los Angeles attend schools that are not meeting their needs. These students are being denied their right to have opportunities to learn.”

Zeyna Faucette, a senior at Hamilton High School who will be attending UCLA in the fall, said by email, “I believe the superintendent needs to listen to the needs of all students; focus on all school communities to ensure that all of us have the same opportunities to flourish and have a college-ready future,” said Faucette, a student in United Way’s Young Civic Leaders Program, which support young people making positive changes in their schools and communities. “It’s time we focus on the needs of the students and not take the easy way out of challenges.”

Julia Macias, a senior at Grover Cleveland Charter High School Humanities Magnet and president at the Superintendent’s Student Advisory Council, said she felt disheartened by the board’s choice because she thinks the board is advocating for students’ voice but it wasn’t included in the decision.

“It really seems that the student voices really didn’t matter to the board. We definitely need more student representation taking a role in this big processes,” she said outside the board meeting. “We need to make sure every student has a quality teacher and a quality education, and I hope to see that from the new superintendent.”

Kathy Kantner, a parent representative of the LAUSD Parent, Community Sunshine Committee and Community Advisory Committee, said in an email, “I hope the Board of Education will clearly communicate why they believe Mr. Beutner is the best choice they could make to lead this district — especially since such a talented, experienced candidate, an educator, has been passed over. I’m hearing the disappointed voices of many stakeholders today. How will Superintendent Beutner work to overcome this divisiveness and work to unify our district for the good of our students and schools?”

Max Arias, executive director of SEIU Local 99, which is preparing for a possible strike, said in an email, “It is our expectation that Mr. Beutner will work with us to avert a strike by recognizing the value of our contributions to student learning.

“As parents of LAUSD students and employees of the school district, we share in Mr. Austin Beutner’s goal of closing the achievement gap and achieving greater equity in our schools … and we expect Mr. Beutner to partner with school workers, parents, students, and our communities to address the many issues impacting our children’s education.”

We are a group of students that recognize our voices and experiences should give us the opportunity to participate in decisions made about our education. We hope you take our perspective into consideration as you undertake your most important duty as school board members representing over half a million young people: choosing the next superintendent.

Historically, LA’s superintendents have a short tenure — in the time we have been in your schools, we have had five superintendents! We are the individuals most impacted by the district’s policies and choices in leadership. We hope this letter will compel the board to choose a superintendent that is bold, creative, resilient, and equity-driven. Moreover, we believe this new leader should care about students of color and provide the resources necessary to ensure that every single student in LAUSD will graduate ready for college and a career.

Most of us have grown up in low-income communities and have attended some of the lowest-performing schools in LAUSD. At Jordan High School, only 32 percent of our peers are on track to attend a four-year university, while at Los Angeles School for Enriched Studies, 83 percent of our peers are on track to attend a university. We must work harder to close achievement gaps. We need a leader that prioritizes opportunities for students such as universal ACT and SAT, qualified and caring counselors, and resources that will help advance college and career readiness for all LAUSD students.

Some of the Young Civic Leaders, at the 2017 Wilmington Book Festival. (Courtesy: United Way of Greater Los Angeles)

Just recently, one of the members of our group was experiencing many hardships. These challenges caused her to fall behind on her schoolwork, so she reached out to her school counselor and was able to connect with mental health support services. She said the experience made her feel “that she wasn’t alone” because of the support she received. She was able to meet her college application deadlines and has received acceptance offers from some of the top schools in the nation.

However, school experiences vary from peer-to-peer. One of our peers recollects that teachers and counselors held an assembly for the entire student body and told students, “If you don’t take part in your education, or don’t ask for help, you’ll end up working at some fast food restaurant or waiting for work outside Home Depot.” This sort of “motivation” is discouraging.

We want a superintendent who will create a positive culture where all our teachers, counselors, and peers feel like they have the support they need to participate fully and effectively in student success. That means staff feel like they have resources to support all of us. Too often, they are forced to weed out the ones they perceive to be the “best” or “most promising.” The highest-achieving of us get “creamed,” while the rest of us have to rely on outside programs, a sibling, or maybe a parent or mentor if they know how to get to college.

We would like to commend the district for all the work that they have achieved thus far. In 2005, only 18 percent of graduates completed their A-G courses. Because of students who came before us, that number has increased to 47 percent in 2016. We strongly believe that in partnership with the superintendent, our teachers, principals, parents, and community members, we can achieve 100 percent of college and career-ready LAUSD graduates.

One of our peers shares, “Education was always a ‘for me’ thing. But it’s not just about my education and if I succeed in life. It is about all these other kids sitting next to me in class. All those people in other schools that I don’t even know about.” In the next few months, we will be leading the charge to Close the Gap between those who simply get a diploma and those who are eligible for college. We want you and the new superintendent to join us in prioritizing the highest-need students in the District! For too long, English Learners, low-income, and Black and Latino students have been ignored when it comes to supportive adults and well-resourced schools. We hope that you choose a leader that can join with us, our parents, our teachers, and our principals to make brave decisions in supporting all, not just some of us!

In solidarity,

The Students of United Way’s Young Civic Leaders Program

Polette Garrido, Hamilton High School

Zeyna Faucette, Hamilton High School

Joe Angle, Hamilton High School

Sharon Sandoval, Ramon C. Cortines School of Visual and Performing Arts

Alejandro Salas, Ramon C. Cortines School of Visual and Performing Arts

Angelina Sam, Ramon C. Cortines School of Visual and Performing Arts

Josue Gomez, Ramon C. Cortines School of Visual and Performing Arts

Julia Sarieva, Ramon C. Cortines School of Visual and Performing Arts

Axel Hernandez, Ramon C. Cortines School of Visual and Performing Arts

Yecenia Perez, Orthopaedic Medical Magnet

Reynaldo Vargas, Orthopaedic Medical Magnet

Cyntia Escalante, Orthopaedic Medical Magnet

Isaac Pichardo, Manual Arts High School

Carlos Rodriguez, Manual Arts High School

Diana Renoj, Torres High School

Christopher Mejia, Torres High School

Marisa Parisi, Torres High School

Michael Joseph Buenagua, Robert F. Kennedy Community Schools

Sharrel Narsico, Robert F. Kennedy Community Schools

Mariel Mendoza, Robert F. Kennedy Community Schools

Joshu Valdivieso, Robert F. Kennedy Community Schools

Fabio Garcia, Robert F. Kennedy Community Schools

Lila O’Connell, Los Angeles Center for Enriched Studies

Raven Lawson, Los Angeles Center for Enriched Studies

Lydia Tucker, Los Angeles Center for Enriched Studies

Eimmy Sanchez, Camino Nuevo High School Miramar

Marie Mendoza, Downtown Magnet High School

Christopher Pena, Academic Leadership Community at Miguel Contreras Learning Complex

Lizbeth Estrada, Carson High School

Ivan Serna, Alliance Environmental Science and Technology High School

For the fifth time in the past 10 years, LAUSD is searching for a new superintendent. The school board’s list of required qualifications likely include:

• Able to drive and execute on an academic improvement vision for more than 640,000 students.

• Able to turn around or close hundreds of low-performing schools.

• Able to head off looming bankruptcy caused by unsustainable pension, labor contracts, and central office costs.

• Able to skillfully manage the politics of an oft-divided school board and community.

The list may as well include, “Able to leap tall buildings in a single bound.”

Should LAUSD’s school board be looking for the superhero who can do all of these things? The pool of people who possess this unique mix of political, financial, and academic vision and skill is small. And most of those people know that the politically elected school board system is designed to eat them up and spit them out, not provide them the cover they need to succeed. In other words, there are few people who can do this job—and even fewer who would want it.

No wonder the average tenure for urban superintendents is about three years. Interviews with some who have taken on this “impossible job” in the past make it clear that superintendents are whipsawed by political demands and unable to mount and sustain the strategies that would create effective solutions for students. Even with a supportive school board, the boldest and most savvy superintendents can at most hope for a two-year window before a new board is voted in by those who oppose the changes. Except for superintendents who are protected by mayors or others whose hold on power is very secure, most superintendents choose between relatively short tenures marked by bold action and longer tenures sustained by caution and accommodation. As one veteran district superintendent said: “We are constantly choosing between initiatives that might work, but would get you fired, and initiatives that are too weak to do much but might survive long enough to make a little bit of difference.”

So what should LA do? The answer is not to search for a new superhero. Instead, the school board should make an impossible job possible by moving decision-making authority (and the associated politics) to the school level. School leaders should be given as much authority as possible to make the right decisions for their school—getting to choose teachers and staff, deciding how to use money and what services they pay for. A few years ago, John Deasy resigned from LAUSD after an extremely controversial district-wide purchase of iPads. Imagine instead if each school had decided which technology would best suit their needs. Deasy might still be there.

Other district leaders have gone to battle with the teachers union over things like district-wide teacher evaluation requirements. Why not let every school set their own approaches to teacher evaluation as long as they are getting results? Even cost savings issues can best be resolved at the school level. When schools control their own funds, they are much less likely to want to pay for central services.

There are challenges to moving authority to the school level. Not every principal has the skills needed today to handle their own budget and curriculum decisions. Recruiting and developing capable school-level leadership takes time, but is a much more easily solvable problem than hiring a superhero superintendent. Most importantly, giving principals the power to lead is the most effective approach to improving schools for urban students.

Managing politics and community preferences are, for good reason, a necessary part of public education. LA’s next superintendent will need the political skills to garner community support and the management skills to oversee the district. They will need to be committed to transparency, educator empowerment, and accountability. But placing the burden of managing all of the political decisions for a community like LAUSD in one person’s hands is a fool’s errand.

LA should take a lesson from Chicago, as pointed out by my colleague, Paul Hill: “The parts came together, not because a person on horseback had imposed a brilliant plan, but because over time educators gained information and the freedom to do sensible things.” The board and the new superintendent should seize this opportunity to develop a cohesive vision for citywide improvement, one that can survive leadership transitions because it is rooted in the community and in the schools themselves.

There is no escaping the fact that the woman or man who next leads LAUSD will have to make tough decisions, but their ability to do that will be stronger if they have a clear mandate for a small number of critical decisions, not a litany of politically laden ones. Superintendents come and go. School board majorities change. And top-down improvement initiatives lack the support to sustain them over time. Let’s stop the endless search for a superhero and recognize that it’s time to let schools lead.

Robin Lake is director of the Center on Reinventing Public Education as well as affiliate faculty at the School of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences at the University of Washington Bothell.

Over the past 25 years, charter schools have become an integral part of Los Angeles’s public education system, with more than 1 in 5 local families choosing a charter public school. As charter schools have grown, LAUSD has expanded its own offerings, providing educators more flexibility and families more choice within the traditional public school system. This shift that has improved student academic outcomes district-wide. However, we know that too many students still don’t have access to the high-quality education they deserve. This represents both a tremendous challenge and an incredible opportunity for the district’s next superintendent.

As the district searches for a new leader, the Los Angeles charter community has engaged in robust discussions about the skills, experience, and values that the next superintendent must possess in order to make high-quality education a rule rather than an exception throughout Los Angeles.

First and foremost, we believe the superintendent must maintain a long-term vision that is defined by a relentless commitment to student academic outcomes, a value we fully embrace by prioritizing academic achievement and advocating for the closure of chronically low-performing charter public schools.

Los Angeles’s next superintendent should be deeply committed to chronically underserved students, who represent the vast majority of students served by LA’s traditional and charter schools. The students in local charter schools are 84 percent students of color, 80 percent are students who qualify for free or reduced lunch, 22 percent are English language learners, and 10 percent are students with disabilities — all of which closely mirror the district’s student demographics.

An effective superintendent will support families in their right to choose the best public school for their children. Because every child has unique learning needs, the next superintendent should embrace all successful public school models that meet those needs, including traditional, magnet, pilot, and charter schools — not just in words, but in policy and action.

There are clear win-wins for the district and charter public schools that a new superintendent should champion to ignite district-wide innovation and increase academic gains.

The district’s new leader can minimize bureaucracy while increasing accountability by working with charter educators and district staff to ensure clear, consistent, transparent oversight of charter schools. Effective oversight would hold charter schools accountable for implementing policies and practices that have a direct impact on student outcomes, and minimize duplicative asks and mid-year policy changes. This shift will allow both educators and authorizer the necessary time and resources to focus on meeting the needs of students.

The superintendent must also ensure that all public school students have stable places to learn, regardless of their school’s model. The district can and must provide quality facilities data, and make that data public, so that decision-making is transparent and fair. The superintendent should encourage sustainable long-term facilities partnerships between district and charter educators. Improved policies can also lead to beneficial investment in public school facilities through state and local bond dollars and other philanthropic resources.

Over the coming months and years, the district will need to innovate and evolve to meet the needs of all students. The next superintendent must have experience leading transformative change. Recognizing that financial and political savvy are essential characteristics for leadership of a multi-billion institution overseen by elected leaders, the next superintendent will need to demonstrate strength and experience in fiscal management and engagement of diverse stakeholders so they can make tough, but necessary decisions that put kids first.

As we all strive to create a high-performing public education system in Los Angeles, the only way forward is partnership. A superintendent who embraces all students, families, and public school models in both policy and practice, and who can reimagine the future of the district, has the opportunity to powerfully transform public education in Los Angeles so that it fully meets the needs of every child. The charter community stands ready and willing to partner with this new leader and the entire district in this important work.

Emilio Pack, CEO of STEM Preparatory Schools, and Cristina de Jesus, CEO and president of Green Dot Public Schools California, are the chair and co-chair of the Los Angeles Advocacy Council (LAAC), whose mission is to transform the public school system so that all Los Angeles students have access to a high-quality public education.

Your choice for LAUSD’s next superintendent will be one of the most important decisions in the history of the district. No one envies the complex choices and tradeoffs you face in the years ahead as you navigate monumental decisions related to fiscal stability and student outcomes. Dwarfing all these issues, however, is the catastrophic risk of leaving so many young Angelenos vulnerable to the tidal wave of change from exponentially advancing digital technologies like artificial intelligence (A.I.), automation, and robotics. The storm is coming, and it will not discriminate.

LAUSD needs to act now to strengthen the connection between school and work so that our students are better prepared for a world defined by a labor force in flux.

A Brave New World

47 percent of current U.S. middle-class jobs are at risk due to automation over the next 20 years, according to an Oxford report. There is no dispute that the world is headed for a massive economic disruption in which whole categories of jobs will be wiped out. The only debate is to what degree.

Consider this list of the Top 20 jobs in Los Angeles, Long Beach, and Santa Ana. (See chart below.) How many of these jobs are immune to advances in A.I. and robotics? How many parents are working in these jobs today? How many LAUSD graduates currently place into these jobs? As jobs — which provide personal fulfillment, economic stability, and often a pathway for upward social mobility — go away, the risk of increased income inequality and mass poverty is downright scary.

LAUSD 2040

A child born today will enter the workforce around 2040. She deserves champions who create learning experiences that more adequately prepare her for the future world of work. It’s our moral obligation to be those champions. Accordingly, we believe the most important criterion for evaluating and selecting the next superintendent needs to be that individual’s vision for LAUSD 2040.

LAUSD 2040 should be a shared vision for a learner-centered public education system in which all children are prepared and excited for their futures, are able to deeply engage in their own communities, their nations, and the world, and are able to fulfill their potential.

LAUSD 2040 must recognize that during the next 20 years, more may change in our employment landscape and the way we work than has happened in the last 2,000 years. It must confront the advances in A.I. and automation, recognize the disruptive impacts on global commerce and labor markets, and deeply evaluate three big questions:

1. For what future are we preparing our students?
2. What skills and behaviors will students need to succeed in this future?
3. What is the purpose of school in this future?

LAUSD 2040 must also identify ways to harness opportunities that emerge from this disruption. It should anticipate the growth of key sectors, such as the imagination economy (i.e. VR, 3D printing, game design), neuroscience and bioengineering, technology ethics and policy, and renewable energy. These new technologies can help create high-paying jobs and positive life outcomes for all, but they will require advanced technical and interpersonal skills. LAUSD has the opportunity to lead the way in preparing students for these exciting industries of tomorrow.

Preparing Young Students for a World of Uncertainty

Today’s learners face an uncertain present and a rapidly changing future that demands far different skills and knowledge than we needed in past decades. In addition to foundational cognitive skills, students will need to increasingly develop emotional intelligence and agency in order to become lifelong learners and creators who can adapt. Having a strong inner self that is resilient, reflective, and able to develop positive connections and relationships will help form a foundation more ready to withstand the forces of change.

Building on this foundation, we believe it will be critical for students to develop the skills to: learn anything, anytime, anywhere; act ethically and empathetically; think entrepreneurially; solve problems; synthesize disparate data; take initiative and self-advocate; acquire professional networks; cultivate inclusive communities; communicate and create; and thrive in ambiguity. LAUSD schools will need to change in order to more deliberately focus on these skills.

Choose Wisely

Let’s not lose sight of the goal. Your job is to truly prepare students for college, career, and life, not just get them through K-12. Thus, each of you, as well as our next superintendent, needs to have a point of view on what LAUSD should look like in 2040. Our collective future depends on how well young people prepare for the challenges and opportunities of 21st-century life.

The next superintendent must confront the realities of the massive technological sea change that will completely remake the world, and in doing so, redefine readiness and articulate an expanded definition of student success. In a future that will see a seismic shift in global labor markets, a 100 percent high school graduation rate can no longer be our North Star.

Avoid the fate of the boiling frog. We ask you to consider three things:

1. Answer the aforementioned three questions together during an upcoming board meeting. For what future are we preparing our students? What skills and behaviors will students need to succeed in this future? What is the purpose of school in this future?
2. Make LAUSD 2040 a cornerstone criterion in evaluating superintendent prospects. While a focus on pressing issues like student attendance, collective bargaining, and fiscal stability is indeed important, know that you can succeed on all these issues and the Titanic may still very well crash and sink. The Age of Automation is our colossal iceberg.
3. Host a convening to surface new ideas that strengthen the connection between school and work. Bring together educators, industry partners, civic leaders, students, and community groups to analyze the future of work and create additional avenues for experiential learning, professional exploration, mentorship, industry signaling, and job recruitment.

As the most diverse and creative big city in America, L.A. is uniquely suited to lead the nation in reimagining school to match with the demands of the future. Those cities that take quick and appropriate action toward implementing a new educational paradigm will be the ones where children prosper and flourish.

Russ Altenburg (@RussAltenburg) is founder/CEO and Margeaux Randolph is Vice President for Leadership Development of Reframe Labs, a nonprofit that supports diverse leaders to design and launch innovative public schools throughout Los Angeles County.

* Updated Feb. 28

The LA Unified school board is moving forward quickly to find a new superintendent and has set a March 14 deadline for applications. 

The board will start reviewing applications after the search firm of Hazard, Young, Attea & Associates has vetted the applicants and expects to make its selection in April. The application, job description, and desired characteristics are listed on their site: https://ecragroup.com/job/superintendent-los-angeles-ca/

The board decided not to commission a large-scale series of forums, surveys, and meetings asking for community input on what’s wanted in a new superintendent, board President Mónica García said Tuesday. The district plans to keep the process as open as possible with a special web page: achieve.lausd.net/nextsuperintendent which has the 2015 survey results from the past search, and the board’s criteria for candidates, as well as a place to provide additional comments about the search.

“We have all been getting input from our various communities every single day,” García said just before going into a special board meeting where they will discuss the search.

LA School Report is publishing a series of articles from parent groups and education leaders detailing the leadership qualities a new superintendent should have. García said the board has been paying attention.

“The process will be confidential because we do believe that is the best way to get the best candidates,” García said.

The last search, when Michelle King was named, was kept confidential. In the past, searches have been more open; one included a debate among the top three candidates. King announced in January she will leave the post by the end of June as she is battling cancer. The search firm agreed to conduct the search at no extra charge because it was within a two-year window.

The board is seeking a leader to run the second-largest school district in the nation that has more than 900 schools and 274 charter schools with more than 640,000 students extending over 720 square miles covering 31 cities. They want someone who will address “financial challenges including liability costs and structural deficits,” “chronic underfunding of California public schools,” and “lead a system of excellence from cradle to career.”

Desired characteristics for the job include being “bold and courageous — unafraid to make hard decisions” and “understand the financial challenges facing LAUSD and be committed to confronting them” as well as know Los Angeles. They also want someone who is a team builder and has “political acumen.”

• Read our series on the leadership LAUSD needs: commentaries from parent groups and education leaders locally and nationwide. 

* This article has been updated to add that the board expects to make its selection in April. 

This is part of a new commentary series where local and national education leaders share their thoughts on a fundamental question: As Los Angeles Unified seeks its next superintendent, what should leadership look like at the top? Read and share the first four pieces and follow our superintendent series for more voices and updates.

One of the most important decisions that any school board makes is choosing a superintendent, a process the LAUSD Board of Education is undertaking now. The board will examine this choice through many different lenses: experience, leadership style, personality, and a skillset matched to the most urgent challenges facing the second-largest district in the nation.

However, one lens that we believe the board should not use is whether a candidate is “pro” charter school or “pro” district school. Dividing candidates into “pro” or “con” regarding charter schools is simplistic, misleading, and ignores what everyone agrees should be the goal of any superintendent: providing students the best education possible.

When we debate which form of public school an educator may or may not favor, we are implicitly valuing what’s good for bureaucracy more than what’s good for students. Board member George McKenna said it best at a recent school board meeting debating this issue: “Our biggest split is on the issue of charter schools, that is the elephant. Is it the belief that our role as board members is to primarily protect and monitor this district, or are we elected to serve all students no matter where they are and it’s OK that they go to the charter schools?”

We couldn’t agree more.

In the past year, we have heard directly from thousands of parents across Los Angeles through focus groups, polls, and five town halls. From the San Fernando Valley to South Los Angeles, we only heard a handful of parents talk about the difference between charter and traditional district schools.

When we conducted a poll of 800 registered Los Angeles voters last summer, nearly 80 percent said that “any parent with a child in an underperforming school should have the option of choosing a high-quality charter public school in their neighborhood.” Parents have a very clear north star: an excellent education that gives their children the chance at a bright future.

The two most critical issues a new superintendent must navigate with clear vision and urgency are the fiscal crisis, primarily driven by spiraling health and pension costs, and a clear plan to address chronic underperformance.

To be sure, LAUSD is not the only district navigating fiscal challenges, but the challenges here are greater, not only in terms of scale but proportionally. LAUSD is well above the average, in part because unlike other districts in the state, it has not adjusted to shifting realities in a timely manner.

To address the challenge of underperformance, the new superintendent should approach the job with the same urgency and focus on solving challenges that will benefit students the quickest, and address improvements with a clear and transparent strategy that helps focus efforts at the school-site level, with interventions that are rooted in a clear understanding of the specific challenges and opportunities within each neighborhood and matching resources to solutions. 

If clear and easy-to-understand performance data show that students are falling behind, take immediate steps to determine why and what needs to change, regardless of school type, and set clear targets and timelines for improvement. If a charter school is not serving its students, close it. If a district school misses the mark for improvement year after year, scale interventions that will help those students first. If there is space in a traditional school and a nearby charter needs room to expand, give the charter space.

If a district school is doing great, replicate it and give it more autonomy. If a campus needs more high-quality teachers, find a way to get the best candidates, whether it’s offering incentives like extra training, recruiting educators in new and creative ways, or partnering with colleges and universities to ensure a steady stream of talented teachers that share the backgrounds and experiences of the students they serve. Help low-performing schools learn from high-performing schools, like the “Promising Practices” forum that Michelle King sponsored when she first became superintendent.

Making these tough and strategic decisions cannot happen in a vacuum, especially in a city as diverse as Los Angeles. Which means the new superintendent will need a team of partners, both formal and informal, to provide guidance on how education will affect the entire city.

Creating such a network isn’t easy, so we believe the right candidate must be familiar with Los Angeles and have a track record of helping Latino students succeed. This doesn’t mean that the next superintendent should be an “insider” instead of an “outsider,” but that they must know enough about LA to hit the ground running and energetic enough to know that they will have to continue seeking partners and building consensus while they’re in the job.

Will these qualities be difficult to find in one person? Undoubtedly. However, there’s one quality that should be easy to determine: a passion for putting students first. If a candidate for superintendent is asked their view on charter schools, we believe the answer should be, “I don’t care what kind of school it is as long as kids are getting a quality education there.” Any other answer is putting the system, or money, or bureaucracy first.

We believe that someone who is pragmatic yet urgent, passionate yet analytical, who respects the good bureaucracy can do but always puts students first, is the educational leader the students of Los Angeles deserve.

William E.B. Siart is chairman of the board of Great Public Schools Now, a nonprofit education organization, and founder of ExEd, an educational nonprofit. Myrna Castrejón is executive director of Great Public Schools Now.

In a new commentary series launching today, local and national education leaders share their thoughts on a fundamental question: What should leadership look like at the top?

The district has changed superintendents nine times in 20 years and is facing severe challenges from declining enrollment, persistently underperforming schools, pension debts, and a looming deficit. One thing that everyone agrees on: LA Unified needs a leader who can navigate these challenges.

Read and share the first four pieces and follow our superintendent series for more voices and updates:

Speak UP’s Katie Braude and Jenny Hontz: A fearless leader has the opportunity to make an enormous difference

Parent Revolution’s Seth Litt: Much more, much better is possible right now

Chiefs for Change’s Mike Magee: LAUSD is missing a leader today and a pipeline for tomorrow

LAUSD’s parent committee volunteers: We need someone who knows the district

Many of us have witnessed decades of “reforms” that have had no significant impact on closing the achievement gap or addressing the systemic flaws at its root. The school board has the opportunity now to dramatically shift course and select a new leader with a bold vision to radically redesign the district and make the kinds of sweeping changes that insiders have so far resisted. And that leader must treat parents as full partners in shaping the policies that directly affect our kids.

The last time the board chose a superintendent, members emphasized consensus and insisted upon a unanimous choice. The new board that was elected last year, however, came in with a clear mandate for change. “Disruption” is the word of the moment, and we believe it’s apt. We need a change agent, and unanimity should not be the board’s primary concern.

Now is the time to seriously downsize and decentralize the district, bringing more local autonomy, equity, and accountability to all district schools. It’s time to expand and replicate schools that are working well for all kids — regardless of model — and make the hard choices to rework, consolidate or close schools that have been persistently failing for many years, despite additional resources provided.

Such changes must be made in a thoughtful way that won’t increase burdens on our city’s most impoverished families. But parents see the clear urgency, and they are not going to stick around to wait for change. We want a new leader with a strong strategic plan and a willingness to take risks to help all kids, turn around underperforming schools, and save LAUSD from insolvency.

We have seen no evidence that such a bold leader will emerge from within the district’s ranks. It’s understandable that people who have worked within a system for their entire careers can become inured to its flaws, defenders of incremental progress, and protective of their longtime colleagues.

But parents are tired of LAUSD’s tone of self-congratulation while so many kids graduate unprepared to succeed in college and careers. There’s a huge disconnect between what we hear from district leaders and the realities parents face on the ground at their kids’ schools. Parents are voting in massive numbers with their feet, and LAUSD has never really bothered to ask us why.

The district is losing 12,000 students a year — not only to charter schools but to nearby districts that many parents believe are more functional and responsive to their concerns. The loss of students equates to lost revenue at a time when costs for pensions and retiree healthcare benefits are rising dramatically.

The result is a massive structural deficit and a fiscal crisis that could lead to widespread class size increases, teacher layoffs and program cuts — or bankruptcy and state takeover. This is no time for tinkering at the margins. It’s no time for more hand-wringing and committees to study the problem. And yet that’s what we’re seeing from district leaders.

The recent healthcare deal negotiated with labor unions, for instance, perpetuates the status quo and demonstrates that LAUSD is unwilling to make the difficult changes needed to put our kids first. As a larger and larger proportion of educational dollars flows outside the classroom, more and more parents flee the system.

So far, LAUSD has failed to learn the lessons from their flight. Parents want change. We want better schools. We want the local autonomy to dismiss teachers who are ineffective and to protect and reward the excellent, hardworking teachers who may not have seniority. Parents want a more responsive system that listens to our views and concerns and then acts. Parents want a seat at the table and authentic power to make decisions for our kids.

Given such enormous challenges, some have asked: Who would take this job? Why would anyone want to preside over the dismantling of a massive bureaucracy amid intransigence from employee unions who have so far refused to face reality? The answer is: Do it for the kids.

We need a leader who won’t worry about his or her next job but will have the courage to do the right thing. A fearless leader has the opportunity to make an enormous difference in the lives of hundreds of thousands of children, the majority of whom are kids of color living in poverty.

As we honor the life of our board member Shirley Ford, we continue to be called to action by her words: “There are still so many children being failed by low-performing schools that it makes me wonder whether black lives and brown lives really matter in our country. Many of the same schools that were failing kids in my neighborhood 20 years ago are still failing yet another generation of children today.”

It’s time to end that legacy of failure. Education is one of the greatest civil rights issues of our time, and we need a champion for the rights of children in charge.

California has the sixth-largest economy in the nation, and it’s a cutting-edge leader in nearly every area — except for education. LAUSD’s new leader has the opportunity to change that. Los Angeles is a progressive city and a hub of experimentation and creativity. There’s a deep and diverse talent base in areas such as the arts and technology. And we have enormous wealth and resources that someone who is open to outside contribution can tap into.

This city has frequently remade itself over the years, and there’s no reason why we cannot remake our schools for the 21^st century. Angelenos are ultimately optimists, and LA parents stand ready to partner with a bold, visionary leader to get the job done. Let’s do it for the kids.

Katie Braude is executive director and Jenny Hontz is communications director of Speak UP, a grassroots parent organization in Los Angeles.

The news that Michelle King is stepping aside as superintendent of Los Angeles Unified due to a serious illness is deeply saddening. During her brief tenure as superintendent, she pushed for access to high-quality schools for all and higher attendance and graduation rates. Moreover, in a nation where only 8 percent of public schools chiefs are nonwhite, and three-quarters of them are men, she brought urgently needed diversity to the ranks of major-district leadership. She will be missed.

But as the wheels turn to find her replacement, here we are again. Los Angeles Unified has had five superintendent turnovers since 2006, when Roy Romer retired after six years on the job. The district needs bold and sustained leadership to address some of the tough challenges the community faces. Sustained leadership by highly effective superintendents who are focused intently on the needs of children greatly improves student outcomes. America’s state and district education systems must get away from haphazard replacement searches each time a superintendent or state chief steps down. Instead, education agencies need to develop pipelines of well-prepared and diverse leaders who can carry a vision forward.

So much is at stake in Los Angeles. While students in the district have made academic gains in recent years, far less than half are proficient in math, reading, and writing. Students of color and low-income students continue to lag behind their peers, as measured by California’s end-of-year assessments. More than 17,000 students are homeless, and the school system faces declining enrollment. And, as King tried to address, for too long adults have pitted charter and district public schools against one another instead of trying to see how they can learn from each other. Los Angeles needs a leader who will engage deeply on these issues and put students’ needs at the center of decision-making — someone who can lead a community-wide conversation about equitable access to quality schools and learning opportunities, and provide equitable funding to support them.

Parents know their child’s education is the foundation on which a successful future is built. Yet today, there are many policies and practices in education that are holding schools back. This is particularly a problem for students of color and low-income children, who make up the vast majority of LA Unified schools. Superintendent turnover doesn’t help, and in urban districts, that happens on average about every three years.

At Chiefs for Change, we bring together district leaders and state superintendents who are committed to making bold changes aimed at giving all children a great education. Our members collaborate and mentor emerging leaders, and they exemplify the type of leader LA Unified needs.

This approach is well understood in sports. When the Rams needed a new coach, they looked to the coaching trees of Super Bowl winners Jon Gruden and Mike Shanahan to find Sean McVay, who quickly turned around the team’s fortunes. Leading businesses have learned the same lesson, whether at Starbucks or Apple.   

But this isn’t how it works in education. While states and districts, including LA Unified, are doing important work putting in place leadership pathways for teachers and aspiring principals, system leadership is largely left to chance. But at Chiefs for Change, the Future Chiefs program pairs emerging leaders with those on the job for coaching and hands-on experience so that they are prepared to take on district- and state-level roles.

This has helped prepare leaders to hit the ground running, from New Orleans to the rustbelt community of Lorain, Ohio, where Future Chief Cohort 2 member David Hardy Jr. recently stepped into a superintendent’s job. Chiefs for Change member Desmond Blackburn, superintendent in Brevard County, Fla., helped provide on-the-ground support for Hardy in his first weeks in the new role, and both leaders say they gained so much from the experience. These are the types of leaders LA Unified should look to as examples in the search for its next chief.

Three-fourths of Future Chiefs are people of color and 50 percent are women. That’s not an accident. America’s schools must explicitly build diverse leadership pipelines. Diversity is proven to strengthen organizations, and lifting the inexcusably small numbers of leaders who are women and people of color matters enormously in a nation where more than half of students in public schools are non-white. Students benefit when adults working in and running their schools also are people of color, as evident in higher achievement levels and greater expectations placed on the students.

During recent discussions in Massachusetts over who would lead that state’s education system, state Board of Education member Amanda Fernandez said this after seeing her young daughter watch candidate and Future Chief Cohort 1 member Angélica Infante-Green, a Hispanic woman, on television: “I could see that she related to and understood the importance of the lived experience of Angelica.” Fernandez added that for her daughter, who wants to go into education someday, and other minority children, it is so important to see people of color in leadership roles.

LA Unified now has an opportunity to bring in a school district leader who can be a role model for students, much like King was, and who can create strong and sustained leadership to a system that is very much in need of both.

Michael Magee is the CEO of Chiefs for Change, a nonprofit that supports school district superintendents and state chiefs of education dedicated to enacting education reforms that put students’ needs at the forefront of decision making.

Shirley never wavered from speaking the direct truth about our schools and how well they serve our students, especially students of color and students living in poverty. She spoke this truth no matter how unpopular it might be at the moment and no matter whose feathers got ruffled. The next LAUSD superintendent needs to be a fanatical truth teller, in ways that make us all uncomfortable.

Here are some of the uncomfortable truths:

On California’s new school rating system, the California School Dashboard, schools don’t get a single rating like on the old Academic Performance Index. So bear with a short explainer.

Schools get separate ratings on English Language Arts and math (for schools with grades 3-8) and graduation rate and college-career (for high schools). All schools get ratings on suspension rates and English learner progress. These ratings are given for the whole school and for groups of students, like students with disabilities or African-American students.

There are five rating levels which, going from worst to best are red, orange, yellow, green, and blue. Another way to think about it could be this:

Red=F, orange=D, yellow=C, green=B, and blue=A.

So here they are:

• 52 percent of LAUSD’s schools earned a D or F in English language arts.

• 50 percent earned a D or F in math.

• There are 234 LAUSD schools that earned a D or F in both English and math.

• There are 34 schools that earned an F in both English and math.

Here are a few more facts about LA Unified schools:

• 69 percent of schools rated for African-American students earned a D or F in BOTH English and math.

• 47 percent of schools rated for Latino students earned a D or F in BOTH English and math.

• 53 percent of schools rated for English learners earned a D or F in BOTH English and math.

• 94 percent of schools rated for students with disabilities earned a D or F in BOTH English and math.

And while the district touts its 84 percent graduation rate, college or career readiness data tell a disturbing story:

• 40 percent of all students are graduating college or career ready.

• 39 percent of Latino students are graduating college or career ready.

• 30 percent of African-American students are graduating college or career ready.

• 17 percent of English learners are graduating college or career ready.

• 12 percent of students with disabilities are graduating college or career ready.

You can find more of our data analysis here.

The data back up what many families have been saying for years. But unfortunately, it’s far too common for people with power to dismiss what they hear from families from underserved communities. Families are told that they misunderstand their own experience, or that it’s just them, or that things have already gotten better. Often, families are told that their experience is the fault of an individual bad actor, since it’s much easier to replace a principal than it is to dismantle inequitable systems and reprioritize students in system-wide decision-making.

As a leader, Shirley didn’t just believe in the power of parents. She believed parents.

For the last five years, as California’s Academic Performance Index was suspended and the state endlessly tinkered with its new rating system, parents were left on their own. But now, in the dashboard’s second year, as opaque as the tool is, the facts are there for parents to prove that their experiences are real. They deserve a district leader who will face these hard facts, and face what those facts mean to the hundreds of thousands of students attending schools that fail to educate them. And they deserve someone who will get to it right away.

Parents have been waiting for too long, some for generations. They deserve a plan for LAUSD’s lowest-performing schools. Not a plan that removes a principal or paints a library, but a policy-based plan that addresses systemic inequities, including equitable access to effective, well-trained teachers and funding prioritization to the highest needs and lowest-performing schools and students. Parents want a plan that allows for school site innovation and shared leadership between educators and families. They want that autonomy paired with transparent accountability and oversight for schools, principals, and teachers. Parents want a commitment from LAUSD’s leadership that these schools will not just improve but excel, by date certain, and they want to know what will happen if they don’t. The parent-leaders who spent the last two years advocating for school improvement in California’s ESSA plan and watched the state board of education abdicate almost all responsibility know that now is the time for LAUSD to step up.

If some parts of this require hard decisions, parents expect district leadership to make those decisions. Parents want real decision-making power and would certainly not find many of those “hard” decisions all that difficult to make on behalf their children’s interests.

If parts of the plan to improve LAUSD’s many abysmal schools require a higher level of per-pupil funding, LAUSD’s next leader will find parents ready to fight on their side in Sacramento, as long as that money is attached to a fundamental shift in the way that LAUSD prioritizes its spending. However, parents know that much more, much better is possible right now, even without an overall increase in funding.  They know that while excellent schools are too few, they do exist. They see a great school, with too few seats available, right down the block from a terrible school, and they ask why we allow some kids to get so much and others to get nothing at all.

That’s a tough question to ask and an even tougher question to answer, but LAUSD’s next leader needs to keep asking it loudly and addressing the answers boldly until the question doesn’t need to be asked again.

Losing a truly special leader like Shirley also reminded me of another quality that the district’s next leader will need to bring to bear — love. As Shirley fought cancer, I was amazed to see the community of educators and advocates that rallied to her side to return the love, support, and fierce advocacy that she had given, for years, to children. It reminded me of so many moments in my career as an educator where I’ve seen the people who work in schools, motivated by love, do extraordinary, life-changing things for students. Too often, we lose sight of that. We fall into a false narrative that we must either believe in the potential of our students, parents, and educators or scream from the rooftops in outrage at how far short we are falling of that potential.

Our new superintendent must be able to do both of these things at once. He or she must speak plainly and act with urgency to address the realities and immensity of our failure. But he or she must also be able to harness the incredible potential here, from the dedication of our educators to the fierce energy of the parents who won’t stop demanding better for their children. A leader who can do that may just achieve what this city has never done: provide an excellent public education to all students regardless of race, ethnicity, learning need, or family income.

Seth Litt is executive director of Parent Revolution, an organization that works to support public school families to use their choices and their voices to improve education for their children and children in their communities. 

As volunteers who serve on these central committees, at the local district level, and in school-site governance, we know that parents seek to be heard, valued, and included as equal partners in decisions that impact their children’s education. Now, as it launches a search for a new superintendent, the Board of Education has a unique opportunity to demonstrate that its ability to engage parents spans beyond boardroom meetings and is inclusive of the parent voice in the selection of the new LAUSD chief executive.

As insiders who have taken the time to learn about the highly politicized and complex world of policies and regulations that are LAUSD, we know the superintendent must understand how to navigate this world in order to innovate from within while tapping the district’s vast institutional knowledge. As reformers and advocates for true transparency and accountability, we believe the board must select a superintendent who can tackle the district’s existing challenges courageously and in collaboration with its various stakeholders. These challenges include the high number of vulnerable students failing to meet state academic benchmarks, declining enrollment, projected fiscal deficits, and ballooning pension obligations.

The notion that a “disruptor” with little knowledge of or experience with this district can fix its problems is magical thinking. Disruption has been tried before and failed. The candidate best positioned to lead is one who is intimately familiar with LAUSD. Here is what we’re looking for in an LAUSD superintendent:

1) A leader who will last. There has, in fact, been far too much leadership disruption in recent years in the superintendent’s office and on the Board of Education. As a result, every few years competing visions and priorities for the district take hold, then fade away. The ongoing leadership churn isn’t good for students, staff, or families. Our superintendent must show experience and demonstrated staying power in our educational system. An insider, aligned with the current school board, is best able to push for systemic change where it’s needed.

2) Our superintendent must maintain a laser-like focus on the district’s fiscal health while pursuing higher rates of graduation and attendance, ensuring safe and welcoming school environments, boosting early literacy, and improving overall instruction. However, overcoming obstacles to progress requires more than clever marketing techniques. It means understanding root causes, which are specific to our district, and implementing results-oriented strategies. Progress must be real and sustained.

3) Confronting the looming pension crisis is critical. A solution must be found, but a problem 30 years in the making won’t be resolved overnight. The current iteration of the school board, in collaboration with a new superintendent, can push further than ever before. A superintendent with experience in labor relations would bring a valuable perspective in the negotiation of salaries, benefits, working conditions, and more.

4) The new LAUSD superintendent must maximize fiscal and human resources. Placing highly qualified teachers at the district’s lowest-performing schools can improve student academic outcomes, while strengthening teacher supports and evaluations can drive real change. Additionally, once the school board resolves its divided stance on charter schools, the superintendent will need to articulate consistent policies that ensure high expectations for all schools, regardless of model.

5) Declining enrollment is a concern. Parents decide where to enroll their children, and they demand schools that deliver quality instruction. Yet for too long the needs of parents have been ignored. The prospective superintendent must have a record of being accessible to, and soliciting input from, parents and students. A candidate who can elevate the parent and student voice would be an asset.

6) The superintendent must lead a network comprised of local business and other community partners who can help to build a strong school district, while offering students internships, training for parents and staff, and other valuable opportunities.

7) We need an excellent communicator. During a crisis, school communities require clear communication and decisive follow-through. Our superintendent must be someone we can trust to show true leadership when it’s needed most.

8) Finally, agitating for change from within can at times be uncomfortable, and the politics of education divisive, but an insider who has come up through this system would, we believe, hold a significant advantage.

As LAUSD parents who are clear-eyed about where changes in our school system are long overdue, and as central committee members who have spent years learning the inner workings of the district, we believe the ideal candidate is LAUSD Interim Superintendent Vivian Ekchian.

A teacher, principal, and administrator, Mrs. Ekchian has managed Human Resources and served as lead contract negotiator. As a local district superintendent, she gathered input from parents to help improve school cultures while working with teachers and administrators to innovate in the classroom. Using data and research, she launched unique programs. She has institutional knowledge and relevant experience. She is an insider with the creativity, energy, communication skills, ability, and drive to lead the LAUSD as an agent of change.

Dr. Simantob, Ms. Kantner, Ms. Aleman, and Mr. Robak are parents involved at their children’s schools and who serve on district parent committees. The views expressed here are their own.

• Farnaz Simantob: Ph.D., psychologist in private practice; community representative for parent engagement at Gaspar de Portola Middle School; LAUSD parent
• Kathy Kantner: LCSW, parent representative, Parent and Community Sunshine Committee; member and former executive board, Community Advisory Committee for Special Education.
• Evelyn Aleman: MPP, executive board, Parent Advisory Committee; parent representative, School Site Council, Ernest Lawrence Middle School.
• Paul Robak: member and former executive board, Parent Advisory Committee; executive board, Community Advisory Committee for Special Education.

]]> https://www.laschoolreport.com/superintendent-searches-for-large-districts-tend-to-look-outside/ Fri, 22 Jan 2016 19:55:14 +0000 http://laschoolreport.com/?p=38326

Hank Gmitro, who helped in the superintendent search

While superintendent searches for large school districts typically end with outsiders getting the job, the president of the firm working with LA Unified said the insider chosen, Michelle King, a district veteran of 30 years, was a commendable match.

“We spent more time than usual to come up with a profile of the characteristics that the community wanted, and I think the school board found someone who matched that list very well,” said Hank Gmitro, president of Hazard, Young, Attea & Associates of Rosemont, Ill. “They were very thoughtful and thorough in the potential candidates, and I believe they found the strongest candidate possible.”

In reviewing the process, Gmitro said his firm has now placed 45 superintendents in the nation’s 100 largest school districts. The search in LA Unified started with about 100 applications, the most of any search conducted by his firm, before the board narrowed the list to 25, then to a handful of finalists.

Although the process was similar to most other searches, Gmitro said, the scope was immense. In smaller districts two of their staff could interview the staff and community and develop the Leadership Profile in a few days. This time, it required six people working a full two weeks, and then time to compile thousands of surveys in five different languages.

“The profile took a longer time to develop and make, but it was useful during the interviews,” Gmitro said.

In retrospect, picking King seemed like a no-brainer, but Gmitro said the school board was determined to find as many qualified candidates as possible and making sure the best person was chosen — even if that candidate came from within.

Gmitro estimated that about 60 percent of searches for larger school districts lead to an outsider. But, he added, if a district knows who they’re going to pick internally, it generally doesn’t go through a formal search process, which is what happened at LA Unified.

“Working with them was enjoyable,” Gmitro said about the seven diverse and opinionated school board members. “Yes, they each have their strong opinions, but they were very professional and listened to each other a lot about their thought process.”

It was essentially only Gmitro and two other staff members along with the school board who knew who the candidates were. Typically, Gmitro walked a candidate into a meeting and let the school board members conduct the interview. Then, he would spend about 45 minutes helping the school board assess their initial thoughts about the candidates.

“I would record what their first impressions were, the strengths and questions that the board members had,” Gmitro said. “I thought the board was very professional.”

And they were tireless, he said. Often discussions started in the mornings and continued through early evening, with a discussion afterward. Many of the sessions went into weekends and during the winter holiday break.

As diverse as the school board is, Gmitro said, “It was important to them to listen to each other a lot and hear what the factors were in their decision making. It was important to hear what mattered to each other. They saw that all their opinions were grounded in what was best for the district.”

It didn’t help when media, particularly the Los Angeles Times, speculated on the potential candidates, he said, adding, “Much of the speculation was not accurate anyway. I heard from some individuals, that it only caused some anxiety for potential candidates and the people in their districts. I respected the media outlets that didn’t play into the speculation; there was no purpose to it.”

Board President Steve Zimmer confirmed that the outside speculation was mostly wrong and caused more problems for him than it did for finding the right person for the job. He concluded that the Times’ lists of potential candidates ultimately didn’t hurt the process although the identity of one finalist was not among any the Times mentioned.

“It comes with the territory, and I realize that people really want to know,” Gmitro said about media speculation. “But it is the board’s mandate to pick the right person, and they had to do it in private. The speculation only created difficulty for the people who were named and their communities.”

Hazard Young cited a cost of $160,000 for the entire search, and about $1,000 a day for more days than expected. Gmitro said the search went slightly over the expected time schedule, but his firm did not charge the district any more money.

LAUSD school board President Steve Zimmer introduces Michelle King as the district’s new superintendent.

Michelle King, the new LA Unified superintendent, is a district “lifer,” having worked all of her professional career in the district as a teacher, principal, magnet coordinator and top administrator. She also is a product of LA Unified, having attended Palisades High School.

King, 54, served as senior deputy superintendent of school operations under former Superintendent John Deasy from 2011 to 2014, and was given the title chief deputy superintendent of schools when Ramon Cortines took over shortly after Deasy resigned. In both roles she was effectively the No. 2 administrator for the district.

Cortines retired in December, and the board named King acting superintendent.

According to LAUSD, King began her career with the district in 1984 as a science and health teacher at Porter Middle School in Granada Hills before serving as magnet coordinator at Orville Wright Math, Science and Aerospace Magnet Middle School in Westchester and principal of Hamilton High School in West L.A.

As an administrator, she has worked in numerous roles, including head of Student Health and Human Services, Local District 3 superintendent and chief of staff to the superintendent. King holds a bachelor’s degree from UCLA and a master’s from Pepperdine University. She is currently pursuing a doctorate in education at USC.

As deputy superintendent, King served short periods as acting superintendent, especially when she worked under Deasy, according to the Los Angeles Times. In April 2014, she also organized the district’s early emergency response when a bus carrying students on a college visit crashed in Orland, killing 10, including one LA Unified student. Several district students were also injured in the crash.

She also appeared at the district’s final press conference last month to announce that schools would repoen after a threat of violence closed down the entire district for a day.

As speculation began to swirl in September of 2014 that Deasy’s tenure may be coming to an end, King turned some heads when she forwarded a letter to all seven school board members that said she would be willing to take the reins should the board move to fire Deasy. Deasy ended up resigning several weeks later and the board opted to bring in Cortines as interim superintendent, but one senior official told LA School Report they were taken aback by the letter’s unexpected delivery.

Cortines kept King on as his deputy, although he was at times critical of Deasy’s leadership decisions and transferred or demoted several of his predecessors top officials.  In August, board President Steve Zimmer gave King a strong vote of confidence, calling her a “top candidate” to replace Cortines.

The school board members began a closed session at 9 a.m. and returned at 2:15 p.m. to say they will resume the search discussions on Monday, Jan. 11 at 4 p.m., with the board’s regular monthly meeting scheduled for the next day.

School board president Steve Zimmer said after the adjournment that the delay has nothing to do with the announcement by San Francisco school Superintendent Richard Carranza that he is not seeking the job. Zimmer said he could not confirm nor deny that Carranza was in consideration and said the process is confidential.

“I respect the work that Mr. Carranza has done in his district, and he is certainly a great superintendent, and he wrote the letter that he thought was appropriate for his board,” Zimmer said.

Meanwhile, Zimmer said the board is on track to getting an appointment for LAUSD by the end of the month. He said he believes the board is taking the “appropriate amount of time” and that they have “diverse candidates.”

“It is truly one of the great honors and privileges to get to the right decision; it is very hard work,” Zimmer said. “There is not one moment in which the weight of this decision and those who are affected by it, have not been present in all of us in the room.”

The finish line is in view. In all likelihood, by this time next week, LA Unified will have its next superintendent.

Just who that will be remains uncertain to the world beyond the seven board members and a few district officials. The process has been moving along at a relatively brisk pace, considering the enormity of the job, and to the board’s credit, there have been no leaks.

But it’s not that difficult to speculate on the kind off superintendent this board wants to lead the district: In short, the person selected will have qualifications, background and political savvy as close to Ramon Cortines and as far from John Deasy as possible.

More than anything, this board does not want a superintendent with a strong, independent vision or aggressive agenda: Cortines won the board’s love by anticipating where the majority of support lies on a given issue, then acting on it. He also offered wise counsel, reflecting his decades of work in administration.

But as in any other high-profile election —  and that is what this is, with board members who view public education through vastly different prisms — the winning candidate will not satisfy every constituent group on every important issue.

More than likely, the new superintendent will come from a mid-sized to large school district that has been run effectively and without the drama usually present here as it plays out in opposing philosophical views about charter schools and the ever-present challenge to satisfy the district’s largest labor partners.

Given the size of LA Unified as measured by its budget, student population, facilities and needs, there is likely not a Super-superintendent in the wings. The choice will be a mortal, with more strengths than weaknesses, but weaknesses nonetheless; more of a collaborator than a decider, more a steady doubles hitter than a home run threat who strikes out as often as clears the bases.

If that is, indeed, the ideal candidate, and more than one candidate remains under consideration, the final choice in a city as diverse as Los Angeles could be determined by demographics: Since 1937, LA Unified boards have tended to choose white men, with an occasional black (David Brewer) and Latino (Ruben Zacarias, Cortines). What they have never chosen is a woman.

The guess here is that any of the remaining candidates would be acceptable to the board, and the person selected will be the one judged to have the highest ratio of assets to liabilities, gender notwithstanding. And the only element of skin that will matter is not the color but the thickness, for the criticism sure to follow.

The board’s conversation is scheduled to continue in another closed session tomorrow —  the seventh devoted to the selection — and an announcement would follow if a vote by the members produces a replacement for the retired Ramon Cortines.

While there is some expectation that a new superintendent could be named tomorrow, it’s more likely that the new superintendent would be announced at some point during the board’s regularly monthly meeting on Jan. 12. Meanwhile, Michelle King, a deputy to Cortines, is serving as an interim.

Whoever is selected would become the district’s 16th different leader since 1937, bearing in mind that Cortines has served three times. All of them have been men.

The closed session items included the possibility of naming an acting superintendent now that Ramon Cortines is finishing off vacation days prior to retirement. But that apparently didn’t happen.

The board plans to resume meeting at 8:30 a.m. on Saturday in closed session. Any announcement would follow it.

The closed session agenda includes “Unrepresented Employee: Superintendent or Acting/Interim Superintendent of Schools,” an item that would seem to make sense, given the time of year and pace of the search process.

In recent weeks, the board has been narrowing the list of candidates to a few and conducting final vetting. While it’s possible the search could reach a conclusion this month, with an announcement of the new district leader as early as next week, it would now seem more likely that by naming a place-holder, the board eases pressure on itself and puts the announcement off until early January.

It would also leave the district in safe hands as the winter break approaches. After tomorrow, classroom instruction closes down for three weeks, and the district’s administrative offices for two.

If the plan is, indeed, to name an interim, the most likely candidate is Michelle King, who was chief deputy to Cortines. King had raised her hand last year to fill in as superintendent after the resignation of John Deasy. Cortines’s quick return made the gesture unnecessary.

Telling, too, was King’s brief appearance at the microphone during final news conference on Tuesday when the district announced that schools would reopen the next day, following a clean sweep of campuses after an email threat of violence.

As she spoke, Cortines stood quietly in a crowd of officials behind her.