Compton Unified School District

Diahanne McKinley stepped off the scale and shook her head in disbelief. She tried again, this time removing a head wrap -- every ounce counts, she said. But again, the number was not good. So she shifted her weight from side to side and stepped on the scale one more time, observing the digital numbers aglow below her. "I'm not happy," said the 53-year-old, fanning her eyes to stop the tears. "I'm working out four to five times a day -- morning, noon and night. I only lost one pound."

After several months of intense lobbying, new rules have been proposed governing the so-called parent trigger process that allows parents to challenge the operation of low-performing public schools. The draft regulations, which will be considered by the state Board of Education this week, are neither as restrictive as some had feared nor as restrictive as they should be to ensure that the process occurs in a fair and open way. Although the proposed rules are a big step forward, several issues still need to be addressed.

We have our concerns about the implementation of California's so-called parent trigger process, which allows parents at certain low-performing schools to force radical change via petition. But that doesn't mean we support attempts to evade the law, as the Compton Unified School District has done by inventing ludicrous excuses for rejecting a petition to turn McKinley Elementary School over to a charter operator. There was a typographical error. A title was missing. Sometimes one parent signed the petition while the other parent's signature was in the school's registration records.

Right now California's so-called parent trigger law, which allows parents at low-performing schools to force a change in their school's institutional structure via petition, is stuck in a sort of limbo. The one petition that has been delivered, at McKinley Elementary School in Compton, is delayed by legal wrangling. Meanwhile, the state Board of Education is going back and forth on how to implement the law and a legislator has introduced a bill that could render the trigger toothless. Blame the legislation that created the trigger.

It was interesting to read your article titled "Inner-City Teachers: Well, It Isn't the Paycheck." (Times, Nov. 5). It was a positive piece reflecting the dedication of teachers in the Compton Unified School District. I am proud of those teachers and they deserve to be commended. My rhetorical question is why did the title say "Inner-City" teachers, as opposed to "Compton" teachers? If it had been a negative article, you can bet that it would have used the word Compton. In any event, I am on my way to personally compliment the Compton teachers you cited for their commitment to their profession.

Over the next three fiscal years, the Compton Unified School District plans to spend about $13 million on renovating schools, a state administrator said Friday. Administrator Dhyan Lal said the program, dubbed "Operation Revitalization," begins Monday and will continue through fiscal year 1998-99.

Trustees of the Compton Unified School District have passed a resolution stating their opposition to attempts by neighboring cities to change the name of Compton Boulevard, saying the underlying motivation for the change must be questioned as a "thinly disguised form of racism and anti-minority sentiment." Hawthorne, Gardena, Lawndale and Paramount are trying to change the street name within their city boundaries. The Paramount City Council already has renamed the stretch of Compton Boulevard that runs through its city.

The Southern Section said Wednesday it has started an inquiry into whether any rules were broken in the numerous transfers of talented boys basketball players who have played at perennial CIF power Compton Dominguez High. "We have received a request from the CIF Southern Section, and the request is under consideration at this time," Compton Unified School District spokeswoman Christine Sanchez said.

The state Public Employment Relations Board will seek a court injunction next week to halt a teachers' strike that Compton Unified School District officials contend has irreparably harmed its 27,000 students. The board, which oversees collective bargaining involving the state's public employee unions, previously deadlocked 2 to 2 on the district's request for support in seeking a court order. The tie was broken by the unrelated resignation last week of Nancy Burt.

The struggle for equal educational opportunity is the great civil rights imperative of our time. It pits those who demand a decent education against an educational establishment that often blithely ignores them. The victims are overwhelmingly poor minorities, and the clash is nowhere more important than here in Los Angeles. Next week, I look forward to profiling some of the heroes of this struggle, the inspiring young women and men brought together by Teach for America; first, however, a look at the defenders of a corrupt status quo and the lengths to which they will resort to defend their position at the expense of poor children, most of them black or Latino.

We have our concerns about the implementation of California's so-called parent trigger process, which allows parents at certain low-performing schools to force radical change via petition. But that doesn't mean we support attempts to evade the law, as the Compton Unified School District has done by inventing ludicrous excuses for rejecting a petition to turn McKinley Elementary School over to a charter operator. There was a typographical error. A title was missing. Sometimes one parent signed the petition while the other parent's signature was in the school's registration records.

Determined to become Compton's first elected Latino representative at City Hall, Elias "Elijah" Acevedo ran for city clerk in 2001 and 2005. He also ran for City Council last year. He lost all three elections. "It's going to happen sooner or later," Acevedo, 36, said of his belief that a Latino will eventually win office. "President Obama made a big milestone. I think a Latino could do the same in Compton. I hope it will be soon, very soon. " Although Compton has gone from a predominantly African American community to a city that is two-thirds Latino over the last two decades, no Latino candidate has ever been elected to the City Council or any other city office.

The board of the Compton Unified School District has voted to fire the district superintendent over her use of district credit cards for personal purchases. Kaye E. Burnside had been on administrative leave since late May. The board's 4-2 vote Tuesday night to fire her came after a district-commissioned investigation into her credit card use. The investigation found that Burnside had made about $14,000 in personal charges on the district card and did not reimburse the district for several thousand dollars' worth.

The Los Angeles County district attorney's office announced in court Wednesday that it will not seek a retrial of former Compton Dominguez High School boys' basketball coach Russell Otis on a felony charge of meeting a minor for a lewd purpose. A Compton jury last month deadlocked 10 to 2 in favor of convicting Otis on the charge, which would have left the ex-coach facing up to a three-year prison sentence. Prosecutors alleged that Otis had met a former member of his 2008 CIF Southern Section-championship team at the player's home and offered the then-16-year-old boy $1,500 in cash if he'd let the coach sexually arouse him. The two holdout jurors said there wasn't enough evidence presented to prove Otis actually visited the boy's home.

Diahanne McKinley stepped off the scale and shook her head in disbelief. She tried again, this time removing a head wrap -- every ounce counts, she said. But again, the number was not good. So she shifted her weight from side to side and stepped on the scale one more time, observing the digital numbers aglow below her. "I'm not happy," said the 53-year-old, fanning her eyes to stop the tears. "I'm working out four to five times a day -- morning, noon and night. I only lost one pound."

Supt. Ted D. Kimbrough of Compton has been named California Superintendent of the Year by the American Assn. of School Administrators. Kimbrough, 52, has led the Compton Unified School District for five years. He is being honored for his work in eliminating the district's continuation schools and helping problem students back into mainstream classes. He also has instituted various programs to improve communication between the district and its employees.

Legislators this week rejected a proposal to return the Compton Unified School District to local control. Despite an eleventh-hour push by the bill's sponsor, Assemblyman Carl Washington (D-Paramount), the Assembly's Education Committee voted 8 to 4 late Wednesday evening to kill the plan. The state took control of the district in 1993, when school officials reported a $20-million shortfall. The district is expected to return to local control eventually.

Russell Otis, who directed Dominguez High School in Compton to five state boys' basketball championships, was convicted Tuesday of misdemeanor child molesting, a crime that, withstanding appeals, would bar him from coaching or teaching minors. The 47-year-old Otis, sitting stern-faced as the verdicts were read, was acquitted of committing felony theft and forgery by depositing a $15,000 Nike check written to the Compton Unified School District into his personal bank account. After 11 days of deliberations, the Los Angeles County Superior Court jury in Compton deadlocked 10 to 2 in favor of conviction on a felony charge of meeting a minor for lewd purposes.

A jury will begin deliberations Monday in the case of Russell Otis, the former basketball coach at Dominguez High School in Compton who is accused of stealing $15,000 in school funds and making sexual advances on a former 16-year-old player. Otis could be sent to prison and forever barred from coaching in high school if he is convicted. Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Pat Connolly delivered the case to the six-man, six-woman jury after closing statements Friday. Otis, 47, is charged with making unwanted sexual advances last year on the Dominguez student and for alleged theft and forgery in 2007.