If the mayor's schools don't meet their goals, the district could dissolve the agreement. The partnership, in turn, working with L.A. Unified, could remove underperforming principals.
And most incumbent principals didn't wait around; new principals have started at seven of the eight schools that open today. (Two year-round schools began July 1.)
The new principals have been on the job only since Aug. 18, making for a particularly challenging start to the school year at Markham, where 26 of 89 teachers also are new, most with one to four years of experience.
Markham, in particular, is coming off an especially difficult year. In spring, Assistant Principal Steve Thomas Rooney was arrested on suspicion of molesting two students. Parents later learned he'd been suspected of having sex with a minor during a previous school assignment.
And just as the mayor's team began its work at Markham, City Atty. Rocky Delgadillo shelved a popular school-safety initiative that was widely credited with improving the campus climate, the Rooney episode notwithstanding. The partnership wanted the program to remain, but Delgadillo's office said its limited resources should serve schools not benefiting from the mayor's fundraising prowess.
In his comments Tuesday, Villaraigosa spoke of $3 million secured for his schools from the "district bureaucracy." This re-assignment of funds is part of a larger effort to benefit all 20 iDesign schools that grew out of grants from the Gates Foundation and the Dell Foundation.
For the partnership specifically, Villaraigosa's team has landed much more than $50 million in long-term commitments.
"Some of this is going to take money," Villaraigosa said. "And we've got to find it. And that's going to be my job."
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howard.blume@latimes.com
