School Administrators

A popular former principal of Locke High School filed a lawsuit Monday accusing the Los Angeles Unified School District and its top officials of illegally firing him last year after he threw his support behind a plan to turn over the troubled campus to a charter school operator. Frank Wells said he lost his job because of comments he made criticizing the district and supporting the charter petition of Green Dot Public Schools.

Jose L. Banda, 51, was named superintendent of the Anaheim School District on Monday. Banda replaces Sandra Barry, who announced earlier this year that she would retire after eight years with the district so she could donate a kidney to her son. Banda will begin his job in the 19,200-student district in July. He has a degree from Cal State Bakersfield and a master's in education leadership from Chapman University. Banda is a deputy superintendent in Oceanside and has 28 years of experience in education.

The dean of students at a South Los Angeles school was arrested Thursday for allegedly concealing evidence that one of his colleagues, former Assistant Principal Steve Thomas Rooney, had a sexual relationship with a student. Alan Hubbard, 49, was charged with two felony counts of being an accessory after the fact to a crime and dissuading a witness, according to the Los Angeles County district attorney's office.

Mildred Garcia never thought she had much of a future, especially in academia. When she was 12, Garcia's father died and she moved into a New York City housing project with her mother and six siblings. As a teenager, she worked part-time factory jobs. Two friends died young, one from AIDS and the other from a drug overdose. "But I held to values taught by my parents," Garcia recalled in a voice edged with a pronounced New York accent.

Perla Guzman didn't want to go to Locke High School after her older brother was beaten up on the way to his fifth period algebra class. She was even more doubtful her freshman year when she discovered a girl passed out in a bathroom stall who had tried to get high by inhaling air freshener. "But then I thought, 'If my brother can go through this, then I can go through it,' " she said. "I can do what he did." In some ways, Guzman may have done even more.

In hopes of making it easier and more inviting for people to register to vote, California Secretary of State Debra Bowen released a new registration card Wednesday with simpler language, shorter sentences and larger print. "California's old voter registration card looked more like an imposing tax form instead of a simple invitation to participate in democracy," Bowen said. "The new card is inviting, it's intuitive, and most of all, it's a visual reminder that registering to vote is quick and easy."

The city's economic development director has been placed on administrative leave, officials said Wednesday. Stanley Smalewitz was removed from his post Aug. 7 by interim City Administrator Paul Emery and is under personnel review by the city human resources department, said city spokeswoman Laurie Payne. Payne would not elaborate on the nature of the confidential review, which she said is in its early stages. Smalewitz began work as Huntington Beach's economic development head in October 2005.

Robert D. Grey, a former high-ranking administrator at UC Davis and UC Riverside, was named Monday as the interim provost of the 10-campus UC system. That position is considered to be the chief academic officer and second in command after President Mark G. Yudof. Grey, 68, will take on the new job while a search is underway for a permanent provost to replace Wyatt R. Hume, who recently left UC and will become provost of United Arab Emirates University.

A California appeals court has upheld a Superior Court ruling that Orange Unified School District board member Steve Rocco and others must pay $37,000 in legal fees stemming from a dismissed lawsuit against the district. Rocco was joined by Richard McKee, president of the California First Amendment Coalition, and the nonprofit group Californians Aware in suing the district in 2006 after Rocco's fellow trustees censured him for belittling a school principal during a public board meeting.

St. Louis is looking for its eighth school superintendent since 2003. Kansas City, Mo., is on its 25th superintendent in 39 years. Despite good salaries and plenty of perks, a recent study found that the average urban superintendent nationwide stays on the job only about three years -- which educators say isn't enough time to enact meaningful, long-lasting reform. "Would you buy Coca-Cola if they changed CEOs every year?" asked Diana Bourisaw, who left as St.