Bold Strokes from the Superintendent

Finally, a local public servant who understands the power of symbolism.

Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent Bill Anton met with frustrated parents and teachers, and he listened. With all the talk about the sacrifices they were expected to make in the wake of a $317-million school-district deficit, they pointed out, how about some pain-sharing in the top-heavy administration?

So Anton killed two birds with one stone: He announced a major reorganization of the district’s administration, bringing management away from downtown and closer to schools; and he took a 10% pay cut, or about $16,000 out of his $161,390 salary.

Now admittedly, even with the cut, Anton will still make more than $145,000 a year. The money saved from Anton’s self-imposed salary cut won’t buy anything, because the savings will be applied to the huge deficit. But if it could buy something, as one hopes it eventually might, perhaps it will buy some hope. L.A. schools could use more of that.

Two top Anton aides, Deputy Superintendent Sid Thompson and lawyer Richard Mason, also took 10% pay cuts. “It’s a killer,” Thompson told a reporter. “But if the leader did it, then hey, I’m with him.”

Behind Anton’s folksy and self-effacing demeanor is also a shrewd bargainer. As the district readies to enter negotiations with employee unions representing almost 60,000 teachers, principals, clerks and others, Anton is clearly setting a tone that suggests that everyone must sacrifice if the district is to stay solvent during the state’s most severe budget crisis. It’s doubtful that unions will respond too positively to Anton’s gesture--after all, 10% from the top administrator’s salary is hardly the pain equivalent to a 10% cut from an average teacher’s salary of $44,555.

But tone and symbolism are important. Two key unions representing teachers of the Los Angeles Community College District recently agreed to forgo salary increases for a year. Ultimately, however, Helen Bernstein, the union president representing L.A. Unified teachers, is right when she says that asking teachers to take it in the paycheck is no cure for the budget crisis. That’s why Anton’s reorganization of the district administration, in the long run, is more significant.

By cutting at least 155 of the district’s top- and middle-management jobs at the 800-employee central office, Anton will save about $10 million and redeploy education talent to where it is most needed--the classroom. Starting in July, the reorganization would shift some key authority over schools from district headquarters to local management teams. Some of those whose management jobs are being eliminated could end up back as principals or teachers--that is, working with children instead of coordinating meetings and writing reports.

Bill Anton is onto something here.