The Los Angeles Board of Education has rejected Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's request to take part in choosing the city's next superintendent of schools.
"It is disappointing from my standpoint that there doesn't seem to be any opportunity on this issue for partnership," said Ramon C. Cortines, the mayor's top education advisor.
"The mayor and I understand that the board has the authority to select the superintendent." But, he added, it is proper for Villaraigosa to "have a role" in light of legislation signed into law last month that will give him substantial authority over Los Angeles schools. The law is scheduled to take effect in January.
Villaraigosa had asked to see the full list of superintendent candidates and to interview all finalists so that he can give his views to the school board.
The board's stance seemingly cements a standoff as the school district prepares to make its choice and the mayor prepares for a trade mission to Asia.
The board had previously offered to arrange for the mayor to meet the next schools chief before he or she is introduced to the public.
More than that, board President Marlene Canter said, would have been inappropriate. The school board, not the mayor, is currently charged with choosing a superintendent.
"He wants to interview all the candidates and do the same thing that the board does," she said. "This is our responsibility. This is what the law says the board should do and we will deliver."
If the selection had come after Jan. 1, the new law would have allowed Villaraigosa to reject the board's choice for superintendent. The board has vowed to challenge the law's constitutionality in court.
Canter held private conversations with the mayor's office last week, and conveyed the board's final decision to Cortines on Wednesday morning in the lobby of the downtown Marriott hotel. Also present was Ed Hamilton, the head of the firm that has conducted the confidential search.
The offer was unacceptable to the mayor, Cortines told Canter.
In the hotel lobby, Cortines and Canter also discussed possible compromises. At one point, Hamilton suggested that the mayor could interview finalists on the condition that he support the board's ultimate choice, Cortines said.
Cortines relayed these new suggestions to Villaraigosa, but the mayor rejected them as well.
