New L.A. Unified board chief takes office, lists major goals - Monica Garcia unveils an eight-part plan that would focus on hiking graduation rates.

Garcia, 39, joined the board just last year, but she is the senior member of the new majority bloc, which is closely associated with Villaraigosa. Some members of the board disclosed that her selection had been worked out behind the scenes. The board presidency comes with extra staff and a bully pulpit.

Outgoing President Marlene Canter was part of the prior board majority that had thwarted Villaraigosa's school-intervention plan in court.

During a midday meeting at Los Angeles Unified School District headquarters, Canter herself jumped in to nominate Garcia, even before the item came up, as if to demonstrate that she was ready to put political battles in the past. The vote was 7 to 0.

Acceptance speech at the ready, Garcia spoke of a "new social compact" that would "represent the demand for academic achievement, educational equity, responsibility, accountability and transparency."

Unveiled for a meeting next Tuesday were eight deeply detailed Garcia-sponsored motions that, if approved, would constitute strict marching orders for Supt. David L. Brewer.

The motions seek a "comprehensive report within 30 days which defines the key metrics for measuring district performance," and 60 days is the time frame for specifics about shrinking crowded schools districtwide. An extensive recruitment and training effort for all classes of employees would be due Oct. 1.

Brewer would have 120 days to analyze parent involvement and develop needed improvements, 120 days for a plan to get all students to graduate, 150 days for a principal leadership program, and six months to refashion instruction for English learners.

The message underlying the announcement of the motions was "the urgency the new board was bringing," Garcia said in a later interview. It was also "a communication with the superintendent that our role is to govern and his role is to implement, and the intent to focus the work on increasing graduation rates -- that's the big one."

Brewer, who signed a four-year contract last fall, politely resisted being hemmed in: "The spirit of all those resolutions are good, but we also have to understand that there is policy and there is execution, and we have to be very careful we don't cross those lines." He added, "We will be submitting some amendments."