Imagine if the Santa Ana Unified School District had actually hired a guy like Ramon C. Cortines, the new senior deputy superintendent over at the Los Angeles Unified School District. I think he was actually in the running for the job that was handed to Jane Russo, the former assistant to ex SAUSD Superintendent Al Mijares.
Check out what Cortines told the L.A. Times about his priorities at LAUSD:
- Dealing with its alarmingly high dropout rate should be a higher priority than test scores for the Los Angeles Unified School District, Ramon C. Cortines said in his first interview since being named senior deputy superintendent Tuesday.
- Because students who drop out often are low achievers, he warned, keeping them in school could well impede — at least initially — a rise in test scores.
- Indicating that he planned to shake up things, Cortines, 75, said he also would revisit the phonics-based reading program he helped install eight years ago, work to shrink and decentralize the district’s much-criticized bureaucracy, improve science and arts instruction and increase student access to college-prep classes.
- And he pledged greater openness, saying the district needed to acknowledge its failures as the prelude to addressing them. “People in the district are afraid if it is bad news,” Cortines said. “I’m not afraid. If we don’t know what the facts are, how can we prescriptively design an instruction program that meets the needs of the kids?”
- And, according to another L.A. Times article, Cortines actually cut his own pay! He insisted on taking a lower salary that that which he was initially offered. He did so out of respect for the dire straits that LAUSD is in, as they have to cut over $400 million from their budget.
Wow! How much would the kids at SAUSD benefit from having a leader at the help touting those kinds of priorities? Instead we are saddled with the overpaid, undereducated and under experienced Russo. And of course we are making no progress at all.
I am told that our real dropout rate is likely over 60% at SAUSD. Imagine what that will do to our city over time? There is a reason why we cannot get a handle on gang violence in our city.
In Los Angeles, the Mayor, Antonio Villaraigosa, pushed for the hiring of Cortines, who was one of his advisers. In Santa Ana, the Mayor, Miguel Pulido, is trying to a slate of worthless incumbents, Rob Richardson and Jose Hernandez, as well as a guy who lives in Floral Park, Mark McLaughlin. All three of them are trying to answer SAUSD’s problems by raising our property taxes with another school bond. NONE of them are talking about the sort of issues that Cortines is raising over at LAUSD. None of them is worth a damn in my opinion.
Talk about a lost opportunity. We could have had Cortines at the SAUSD. Instead the LAST thing you will ever hear our school board talk about is dropouts. And you sure won’t hear them discuss decentralizing bureaucracy, improving art and science programs, or being more open. SAUSD, like the Santa Ana City Hall, remains a closed, ineffective and fraudulent local government.
Talk at the top doesn’t educate kids – it’s the parents responsibility and job. Schools only assist them with structured methods and guidance.
The kids don’t fail, they’re all capable – it’s the parents who are failing to do their job.
“Talk about a lost opportunity. We could have had Cortines at the SAUSD.”
If he would implement any of his policies in Santa Ana you would call him racist because he would have to crackdown on the Mexicans.
The only problem with hiring a real manager like Cortines is he would spend his first year firing his entire administrative staff and trying to find decent, honest, and qualified people.
“Talk about a lost opportunity. We could have had Cortines at the SAUSD.”
Art,
Why do you insist upon on promoting such hogwash?
I agree we need to clean the SAUSD from top to bottom, however there was never a chance for the district to get Ramon Cortines.
Yes we need someone of his caliber, but please stop misleading folks into thinking he would even consider the job with SAUSD.
He is a close ally of Antonio’s and that is why he is there.
Intriguing post.
Don’t know if Cortines was a SAUSD candidate for Superindent, but it’s no secret that Noji/Richardson implemented the “non-Spanish speaking” qualification when seeking a new Supt. That “accommodation” was tilted in Russo’s favor.
It’s staggering when school board members FAIL to accommodate the students and parents it serves. And then have the audacity to claim they serve its customers. What a load of pure grade bull.
Kick the bumbs OUT – Noji, Richardson & Hernandez OUT!