I Hope Our New Superintendent Is Smart Enough To See Past This

Summary

The LAUSD's elaborate preparations for Superintendent Alberto Carvalho's school visits, including temporary improvements that were discarded post-visit, raise concerns about the authenticity of his exposure to the district's true conditions.

Abstract

During his first week as the new Superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), Alberto Carvalho embarked on orchestrated tours of school sites. These visits were meticulously prepared, with the district's bureaucrats ensuring that the schools were presented in an unrealistically positive light, including superficial enhancements that were removed shortly after Carvalho's departure. This dog and pony show, reminiscent of corporate office tours, has been criticized by parents and community members who feel that the resources could be better spent and that the superintendent should witness the actual state of the schools. The selection of schools for Carvalho's itinerary also sparked controversy, as schools with ongoing issues, such as Pio Pico, were overlooked in favor of those like GALA, which is set to replace Pio Pico. The article suggests that Carvalho, with his experience from Miami-Dade County Public School District, should be aware of such bureaucratic tactics and encourages him to make unannounced visits to gain a true understanding of the district's needs.

Opinions

The author believes that the preparations for Carvalho's visits, such as watering grass nonstop and replacing furniture only to discard it afterward, are a waste of resources and a misrepresentation of the schools' everyday conditions.
Parents and community members are offended by the temporary improvements, which they see as an insult to students and a disregard for taxpayer money.
There is a sentiment that the schools chosen for Carvalho's tour were selected to avoid addressing real issues, such as the closure of Pio Pico, and to present a favorable image of the district.
The article implies that Carvalho, given his background, should be savvy enough to see through the orchestrated visits and should take initiative to make impromptu visits to schools to get an unvarnished view of the district.
The author suggests that the LAUSD bureaucracy is more focused on managing perceptions than addressing the actual needs of the schools and students.

Carefully orchestrated visits to school sites are not going to give Alberto Carvalho the information he needs to successfully run the LAUSD.

The LAUSD’s new Superintendent Alberto Carvalho visits a classroom.

“how can he truly help if he doesn’t see the reality.”

- LAUSD Parent on Parents Supporting Teachers

Whenever an executive from my employer’s corporate office schedules a tour of our facility, an email is sent out to ensure that the plant is cleaned up appropriately. I have never understood the value in this as the interested party is not seeing how the plant operates, only that the employees know what condition it is supposed to be kept.

At least in this example, there is no downside to the action. While some resources may be diverted from production, the plant is being brought up to the condition that it should be in, even when a VIP is not visiting. The same cannot be said for how LAUSD’s army of bureaucrats prepared for visits to school sites by the new Superintendent, Alberto Carvalho, during his first week on the job.

According to a report from one school that was on Carvalho’s itinerary, “They watered the grass nonstop for a week, mopped the floors of the rooms he was gonna be in, they put new tables in those rooms too then removed them the next day.” Another parent responded that “They decorated it all nice for him to come and removed it the next day! They literally put down bark to make it look nice and threw it in trash bags after he left!”

Courtesy of Rachael Rodriguez

To temporarily replace tables for a visit by the Superintendent is insulting to the students who spend every day in that classroom. The fact that they would put in temporary landscaping for a visit and discard it after the Superintendent left should offend every taxpayer whose money was literally thrown away.

It is also interesting to note which schools were selected for the itinerary. While the community at Pio Pico has been trying to get representatives from the district to discuss the scheduled closure of their campus, this school was not visited by the incoming Superintendent. Instead, he visited GALA, the school that will take its place on the campus. This reinforced the feelings at Pio Pico that their voices did not matter as they were being pushed from their campus with zero transparency.

Did Carvalho know that he was being given nothing more than a dog and pony show as he was shown around the district? His previous employer was the Miami-Dade County Public School District, which is the fourth largest school district in the country, so he must be aware of how bureaucracies work. With this knowledge, he should know that the only way to get the information he needs is to make unscheduled, unannounced visits without the district’s bureaucrats handling exactly what he will see and who he will speak with.

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Carl Petersen is a parent advocate for students with special education needs and public education. He is an elected member of the Northridge East Neighborhood Council and serves as the Education Chair. As a Green Party candidate in LAUSD’s District 2 School Board race, he was endorsed by Network for Public Education (NPE) Action. Dr. Diane Ravitch has called him “a valiant fighter for public schools in Los Angeles.” For links to his blogs, please visit www.ChangeTheLAUSD.com. Opinions are his own.

Dog and Pony Show

I Hope Our New Superintendent Is Smart Enough To See Past This

Carefully orchestrated visits to school sites are not going to give Alberto Carvalho the information he needs to successfully run the LAUSD.