NEW SUPERINTENDENT OR JUST AN ATTENDANT
CARSON HIGH SCHOOL TRAILBLAZER STAFF EDITORIAL (STUDENT NEWSPAPER FROM MYHIGHSCHOOLJOURNALISM.ORG | HTTP://BIT.LY/EETTKW
Friday, January 28, 2011 LAUSD, the second largest school district in the nation, needs help improving. A new superintendent might just do the trick.
Come April 15th, the Los Angeles Unified School District’s Ramon C. Cortines, 78, will be retiring his post as superintendent to John Deasy.
Cortines’ successor was announced on January 11th. However, the decision-making sparked up some disapproval from certain unions and one LAUSD Board member. That member, Steve Zimmer, abstained in the 6-0 vote believing that, though capable, Deasy was hired too easily—he had no competition! Under normal circumstances, the district would conduct a public, nationwide search for the next superintendent, something the United Teachers of Los Angeles believed should have happened. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, taken with Deasy, had a large influence over his appointment but Deasy, who joined LAUSD in July of 2010 as deputy superintendent, was long expected to be superintendent-in-waiting. There was also the issue that LAUSD is already money tight as it is and a search would be both unnecessary and time-consuming.
Despite the lack of competition, Deasy’s capabilities won over the District Board, the Los Angeles mayor, and us. In his years of experience, the man was the leader of three different school districts including the Santa Monica – Malibu Unified School District worthy of note. It was there he was among the first to break up large campuses