LA Board Of Education Chooses School Operators

Los Angeles - After an often-vitriolic debate punctuated by one board member's accusations of political favoritism, the Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Education today selected operators for a variety of campuses under the district's Public School Choice program.

The program has drawn the ire of some groups, most notably the teachers' union, United Teachers Los Angeles, which has derided the program as a giveaway of public schools and public money at a time when thousands of teachers are receiving layoff notices.

As the board labored through Superintendent Ramon Cortines' recommendations for operators of 13 campuses, tensions often ran high -- particularly between board member Marguerite LaMotte and board President Monica Garcia.

LaMotte took issue with Garcia's support for charter school operators taking over various campuses, hinting that she was doing the bidding of Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, a backer of charter schools. At one point, LaMotte chastised Garcia and other board members for rejecting recommendations by Cortines in favor of charter-school operators.

"He's been in the schools. He's worked with the principals. He's been in and out," LaMotte said. "So what's the purpose of this if we're not going to listen to the man who has been in and out of these schools working with the staff who feels that he knows the best thing? You need to get this political mess out of your heads."

LaMotte's comments were clearly directed at a majority faction of the board supported by Villaraigosa.

At the end of the meeting, however, Garcia insisted that the board's decisions meant that "children won."

She also noted that "conversation among adults can include differences of opinion."

The Public School Choice program allows outside groups to apply for the chance to operate selected LAUSD campuses. The schools up for grabs during today's session were Clay, Mann and Muir middle schools; Central Regional Elementary School .14; South Region Elementary School .6; Central Region Middle School .7; Central Region High School .13; Central Region High School .16; East L.A. Star Academy; South Region High School .2; South Region High School .4; Valley Region High School .4; and Valley Region High School .5.

In the end, the board chose a variety of operators, ranging from charter schools to pilot programs and local school district groups. In some cases, no operator was chosen.

Cortines made no recommendation for the operation of East L.A. Star Academy, with the board asking for additional submissions from interested parties. Cortines had recommended that the PREP at HMMS (Pride Responsibility Excellence Preparation at Horace Mann Middle School) operate Mann Middle School, but at Garcia's urging, the board voted to reconstitute the whole school, meaning all employees will have to re-apply for their jobs.

Under the board's vote, the PREP at HMMS would work with the district after the school is reconstituted.

The board also voted to reconstitute Muir Middle School, and again at Garcia's urging, work with MLA Partner Schools once the school is reorganized -- even though Cortines had rejected MLA's bid to operate the campus.

The board heard about three hours of public comment before it even began discussing the issue.

Parents of charter-school students, school leaders and supporters lined up in the pre-dawn hours outside the district's headquarters for a chance to speak during the meeting.

During the meeting, LaMotte criticized the daytime timing of the meeting, saying it precluded teachers and principals from attending.

"We're having a meeting at a time that only charter people can be here in the audience, and it's not fair," she said. "Who speaks for the teachers? Nobody out here speaks for the teachers."

Villaraigosa said the vote means "the lives of more than 20,000 students and their families changed for the better."

"The school board's vote on Public School Choice was another step towards improving access to a variety of quality public education options for students and parents in Los Angeles," Villaraigosa said.

"Public School Choice has already proven to be an innovative and ambitious program that cuts through an abundance of red tape when it comes to hitting the restart button on our failing schools and building successful new schools from the ground up."