Last Friday, many elementary principals wore white - with no ties or jackets. People who spoke before the board or wrote to board members expressed anger when they learned that the decision to go with Beutner had been made privately before their voices could be heard.Īt Thursday’s large rally, attacking Beutner was a theme.Ĭhants prepared for the day included “Hey Beutner, you can’t hide! We can see your greedy side,” and “Money for kids and education, not for billionaire profit-making.”īeutner’s selection also inspired a rare job action last week by administrators, who are known for fealty to the chain of command. More than a week after that first vote, the board voted 5 to 2 to approve Beutner’s contract. He has denied wrongdoing and has resisted public pressure to resign.
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Rodriguez faces a criminal trial and felony charges for alleged campaign-finance violations, and some critics believe the board majority wanted to act quickly before circumstances might make him step down. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times ) It was 4 to 3 - meaning that every pro-Beutner vote was crucial, including that of Ref Rodriguez, who is part of the four-member charter-backed board majority. The initial board vote to negotiate exclusively with Beutner was not announced. Some also question the way the new superintendent was hired.
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Times, spent the last year leading an outside task force that studies the district intensively, starting with the premise that “the status quo is not good enough.”īut the task force did not make recommendations about how to solve the district’s biggest problems, and Beutner has yet to state specific plans - which has stoked the anxiety of those who distrust him. “We all share the same goal - improving the education and lives of our students.”īut this early resistance adds to the daunting challenges Beutner faces, including the district’s lagging academic achievement and the fast-growing burden of pension and healthcare costs as declining enrollment limits the amount of state funding coming in.īeutner, who was a deputy mayor of L.A. “Change is never easy and rarely comfortable,” he said in a statement to The Times this week. He has said that he hopes to win over those who think he can’t do the job. His board supporters have made it clear that they chose a superintendent with business savvy with the expectation that he will rapidly make major changes.īeutner has not responded to the barbs from unions and other critics. They insist that closing schools and cutting district programs will hurt students.Ĭharter school supporters, in contrast, believe that these privately operated, publicly funded schools - freed from bureaucratic interference and rules - can rescue district children who are slipping behind academically.īeutner’s supporters insist he will work hard for traditional schools, and he has said nothing to suggest otherwise. Many question whether the district, which is facing a potential financial crisis, can keep all its traditional public schools open. Unified has dropped from 42,000 to 31,000 since 2007, according to the school system. The board majority was elected with the financial support of charter school backers, and Beutner’s candidacy had behind-the-scenes backing from some of them.īeutner arrives at a time when the number of charter schools - which mostly are nonunion - continues to grow and district enrollment continues to plummet, in part because of that competition. Union leaders - and many in the rank and file - believe Beutner and the school board majority that selected him represent an existential threat to their jobs and even their employer, the Los Angeles Unified School District.
“The board is saying that billionaires who made their money blowing institutions up and making money off it know best - not the education professionals who have dedicated our careers to working with students.”Ĭaputo-Pearl and other union leaders hope to energize their members and apply pressure to long-stalled contract negotiations, but what’s at stake goes far beyond the next contract. “Beutner is a billionaire investment banker with zero qualifications,” local teachers union President Alex Caputo-Pearl told members in a phone alert urging them to participate in a Thursday afternoon rally in Grand Park. They’ve made it clear that they will not give the new superintendent the traditional honeymoon period, and they are bashing him for his wealth and lack of experience running either a school or a school district. In the less than two weeks since Austin Beutner took charge of Los Angeles schools, unions representing teachers and administrators have staged a job action and a protest.