Search for a chief is on
LAUSD board decides to interview two firms to aid in the selection of a superintendent.
If Sunday’s event was any indication, the process for picking a new leader for the nation’s second-largest school system will be long and painstaking.
At the end of a private retreat in San Pedro, the L.A. Board of Education could decide only that it would interview two executive search firms, but also made clear that other companies still were in the running.
The board is under pressure to select a schools chief by the end of this year, when current Supt. Ramon C. Cortines, 83, has said he would like to retire.
The superintendent is widely regarded as the most pivotal individual in a large urban school system, charged with managing dayto-day operations as well as providing leadership in planning, budgeting and school-improvement strategies.
The rare Sunday meeting was set up mostly as a closed-door discussion on the qualities and qualifications needed for a new leader. That portion lasted four and a half hours. The board discussed the search firms in a 20-minute open session.
Five companies applied for the job; two will be interviewed, in public, as early as Tuesday’s regular board meeting.
The board has set aside $250,000 plus expenses to pay a search firm.
The two companies meeting with early favor are La Quinta-based Leadership Associates and Hazard, Young, Attea & Associates of Rosemont, Ill. The board initially, and swiftly, settled on Hazard. But the inclusion of Leadership prompted disagreement and the com-
pany got a go-ahead with a narrow four-vote majority.
“I know them as a group very well,” said board member Richard Vladovic. “They are based in Southern California. Every one of them has been a superintendent.... They have a lot of experience. I think they’re pretty thorough.”
Board member Monica Ratliff wasn’t impressed.
“I did not see in their list of documents a list of successes,” Ratliff said. “They don’t give a plan. … What was their proposal other than some basic information about who they are?”
In its written proposal to L.A. Unified, Leadership Associates cited a team that included three former California superintendents of the year, as judged by peers.
In its submission, Hazard listed work across the country, but also included former local superintendents Darline Robles and Maria Ott to highlight its local experience.
The other firms are Hamilton, Rabinovitz & Associates of Carmel; McPherson & Jacobson of Omaha; and Ray and Associates of Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
Hamilton has worked with L.A. Unified before. Its proposal recounted some of those efforts, including its involvement in two previous superintendent searches.
Cortines took part in most of Sunday’s closed session.
Some board members said the retreat was a welcome chance to begin what will be a crucial part of their job this fall.
“We had a chance to talk,” Vladovic said, adding that the board discussed how Cortines had handled the job, “and talked a lot with Ray about how he’s doing. I feel very good.”
“I think the board was successful today in organizing its intentions,” board member Monica Garcia said.
The listed address for the meeting, at the Point Fermin Outdoor Education Center in San Pedro, took visitors to a district-owned complex that includes a mammal-viewing area. But the Board of Education was not there — nor were there instructions on how to locate them.
Board members had migrated up the hill, a winding drive away, to a location with which they apparently were familiar. Two members of the public and two reporters found the location, which was marked with a green sheet of paper on a fence and a small poster on a stand.
The number of school police officers who attended — at least four — outnumbered the members of the public with sufficient interest and perseverance.
School board President Steve Zimmer said the public would have ample opportunity for input over the course of the lengthy selection process.
The board needed to pick a search firm no later than Sept. 15 and preferably sooner, he added.
“This was an important beginning to our process,” Zimmer said.