The finalists for the job of Los Angeles schools chief include a retired Navy vice admiral and a former district insider who became a superintendent elsewhere, rounding out an eclectic mix of five candidates.
Separately, a coalition led by school district officials filed a lawsuit Tuesday challenging legislation giving Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa substantial authority over the Los Angeles Unified School District.
One of the newly disclosed finalists for the superintendent post is David L. Brewer III, who retired from the Navy this year. The other is Maria Ott, a former senior Los Angeles schools administrator who runs the Rowland Unified School District. Sources close to the selection process confirmed both names.
The emergence of Brewer and Ott and the announcement of the lawsuit came as the Board of Education met behind closed doors to discuss who will replace outgoing Supt. Roy Romer. The board has tried to keep the selection secret, even as the mayor has demanded, unsuccessfully, a voice in who will lead the district.
As of Tuesday morning, the school board had interviewed four of five finalists selected by a search committee. The school board can pick from these five as well as from candidates who did not make the cut or turn to others outside the official applicant pool.
Last week, The Times learned that the other three finalists are Tom Vander Ark, executive director for education initiatives at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; Carlos A. Garcia, the former head of the Clark County, Nev., school district; and former Occidental College President Ted Mitchell, who heads a nonprofit firm that funds charter schools. Mitchell said he has withdrawn from consideration.
One or more board members also reportedly expressed interest in state Education Secretary Alan Bersin, former superintendent of San Diego Unified, although his name was not forwarded by the selection panel.
A veteran of the Los Angeles Unified School District, Ott worked for five years as a deputy superintendent. She worked closely with Romer as a liaison to the board and the district's local administrative hubs. She left in July to head Rowland Unified, a district of 18,000 students from several cities in eastern L.A. County.
Ott did not return several calls and e-mail requests for comment.
