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Friday, Mar 29, 2024

School Reformer

GENETHIA HAYES WASTED LITTLE TIME CARRYING OUT HER AGENDA AFTER BEING ELECTED TO THE lausd BOARD, LEADING THE CONTROVERSIAL DRIVE TO OUST SUPERINTENDENT ZACARIAS When she was campaigning for the First District seat on the Los Angeles Unified School District Board, Genethia Hayes said she wanted to correct what she saw as extensive mismanagement. Hayes wasted little time carrying out her reform pledge. She successfully maneuvered to be voted president of the seven-member board. Then, in a closed-door meeting, she helped persuade three fellow board members to strip Superintendent Ruben Zacarias of day-to-day control over the district and give those operational powers to Howard Miller, who three weeks earlier had been named facilities manager. The decision infuriated Latino leaders. Meanwhile, Hayes and the board have yet to reach a final decision on whether to continue or abandon the $200 million Belmont Learning Center project. The fiasco surrounding revelations of extensive methane and oil contamination on the site has been one of the primary reasons behind the recent tumult at LAUSD headquarters. A board vote is tentatively set for next month. Question: What is your assessment of where things stand right now with the district? Answer: We have now put the district in “park.” That’s what this has been all about, stopping the district from running further out of control. It was much worse than I anticipated when I ran for election. It was dysfunctional and disconnected. You had people who were making multimillion-dollar decisions on real estate who were educators without real estate experience. And in all these years, no one has ever done an audit to find out what the various departments do and how it all fits together. If we did an audit, I’m sure you would find that some people could not even answer the question of what they do and who they report to. And that’s why we felt it was imperative to bring in someone to oversee all this. Look, I am the chief executive of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, a non-profit corporation. I don’t oversee every single one of our employees; I have someone who is chief operating officer whose only job is to do this and report to me. I am responsible for the overall vision and making sure that the operational end carries out this vision. And that’s the way it should be at the LAUSD. Q: So bringing in Howard Miller as chief operating officer was really your idea? A: Yes. As painful as it is, when you find that there is so much dysfunction, you must look at the leadership. You must create accountability. And that’s what we did. Q: Were you surprised by the uproar that your decision created? A: The one thing I didn’t anticipate was the backlash to our decision when finally you make a decisive move toward real change and real restructuring and rooting out what needs to be rooted out. I was surprised by the depth of anger that was expressed. Q: Expressed by whom? The Latino community? A: Among the Latino leadership. I’m not sure that anger was there in the Latino population, and I will continue to say that until I see more than 150 people at a hearing and 30 demonstrating outside the night of the hearing. Up to now, nobody has ever put people on buses and brought them down to district headquarters to shriek about the fact that their kids are not being well educated. And now, all of a sudden, when we are doing the one thing that maybe will crack this thing wide open, all of these people are out there saying not that the district isn’t being well run, but “How dare you do this to this person?” Q: Are you saying this is suspect? A: Well, I think it is suspect. I think a lot of this is orchestrated, quite frankly. What’s so terribly painful for me is that this (Latino) community is manipulated for agendas that have nothing to do with the wellbeing of their children. And ultimately, the community will lose if their children are not well educated. Those especially hurt will be the new immigrants who have come to this country in search of a better life. I think (state Sen. Richard) Polanco ought to say whether his agenda is about Polanco or is it about the 70 percent of the students in the district who are Latino. I tell you, there is a real disconnect there. Is this their welfare that he’s thinking about? Let’s be real clear that we’re all sophisticated enough to realize that this is about Assembly seats, Senate seats, about redistricting and about the census and who keeps their power and who doesn’t keep their power. It’s about what happens with (Councilmen Alex) Padilla and (Nick) Pacheco and (state Assemblyman Gil) Cedillo, and the younger leadership in the Latino community. Q: Sounds like you’re not even in a position yet to start evaluating administrators. A: Right now, we’re in a climate where I don’t think excellence is applauded and saluted. It is more based on relationships. I believe there are lots of people (in the district) who are in places because someone helped them get there, whether they are competent for that position or not. Now you are asking these people to turn around and evaluate their friends. It’s also my understanding that individual board members would get involved in which principal would go where and which principal could be touched and which principal couldn’t be touched. This is what I think happened with Dr. Zacarias, 31 years in an institution. You make a lot of friends, and you don’t want to hurt your friends. Q: So what’s the solution? A: I think we’re going to have to do some clearing out at the very top levels. I don’t think that these people are intentionally meaning to do things that destroy and damage the institution. I just think it’s the culture of the place, and it’s why the three board members who are newcomers have created so much confusion. One of the things that the other board members said when I wanted to be president was, “You need a learning curve.” My response was, “I don’t want a learning curve. I don’t want to be acculturated to this district.” That’s the problem with the district: Everyone has to learn how they do business. I wanted (school district officials) to be acculturated to the way I want to do business. Q: You have said that Belmont should not be built. How do you see the Belmont situation playing out? A: I think that the board members need to spend a lot more time talking to the Belmont community. That community needs to know that we are committed to them having a school before we build any other school in the district, within the next three to four years. Even if it means having to give up 450 (N. Grand Ave., current LAUSD headquarters). I think that’s what has created some of the rub in the Belmont community: They believe that if we don’t complete Belmont, there will be another 10 years waiting on a school. We are going to build their school before any other school. They have been waiting for 20 years and it’s not their fault that the district made a mess of Belmont. I don’t think they know that, and I don’t think they have heard anybody say that. Q: But do you think they will believe you are ready to give up 450 North Grand? A: I would be the biggest advocate of that if it were the only way to get a school there in the next three or four years. I would steam-roll anybody who told me we were not going to give up 450 if that was the only viable site. We would just have to move ourselves out of there and let it be turned back into a school. And we’ve got to do something about that mess we have at the Ambassador (Hotel site). The back 11 acres should be a middle school for that community. Nobody is talking about this. This would also relieve some of the overcrowding. I know that Councilman (Nate) Holden would be on board for the back portion of that property. We’ve got to get all the board members on board with the realization that this needs to be resolved as quickly as possible. Q: So what happens if the board decides to abandon Belmont? Do you try to sell the site off? A: Yes. Maybe we could sell it to someone who wants to use it for open space or to someone who is in a better position financially to deal with the mitigation issues. But there is one potential problem: If we decide to abandon the site, I believe we have to give $60 million back to the state. On the other hand, given what we now know about the site, it would take eight to 10 years to get it ready for students. And in the meantime, the community there is going to watch other schools go up in other parts of the city. You would still have a firestorm politically. These people will have had to wait a full 30 years for a new school. Q: Do you have any future political aspirations? A: I ran against a two-term incumbent, but I wasn’t out of anybody’s shop. I was absolutely apolitical. I’m not a big player in the Democratic Party or any of the black political leadership. That’s what makes me so dangerous. I came out of the blue. That’s what they are all so afraid of, that once the school system is on the way to being fixed, whose job am I going to go after? I’m not really a good politician, so I don’t think I would be good at this or that I care enough about other issues besides education. Genethia Hayes Position: President of the board Organization: Los Angeles Unified School District Born: Chicago, 1945 Education: Master’s degree in education, Pepperdine, 1972; MBA, Cal State San Jose, 1976 Most Admired Person: Mother, LAUSD teacher Cynthia Hudley Turning Point in Career: In fourth year at LAUSD, realized district was missing opportunities to educate black children Hobbies: Reading and travel Personal: Married, one daughter

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