Panel Urges Appointing of Schools Supt.

Saying that Orange County’s $50-million-a-year education system has “no clear-cut accountability,” a special citizens’ study group on Thursday called for an appointed, rather than an elected, county superintendent of schools.

The Blue Ribbon Commission urged a countywide vote, most likely in 1988, on whether the schools superintendent should continue to be elected or should be appointed by the five-member elected county Board of Education.

In a related move Thursday, the 1986-87 Orange County Grand Jury issued a report calling on the incumbent elected members of the county Board of Education to exercise more power in relation to the elected superintendent of schools.

Both reports renewed two decades of debate and controversy, much of it by previous grand juries, about how the top official in county education should be chosen and what power the job should have.

Central to the controversy is who should control the county Department of Education. Present law appears to give the elected county superintendent total administrative authority over the department, with the elected board having only indirect power by its control of the $50-million annual budget.

Agency Has 800 Employees

Although the agency is little known to most people, the county Department of Education is one of the bigger arms of local government, with about 800 employees. The department provides schools for youthful offenders in custody and for many handicapped students, oversees the payroll and budgets of the 28 local school districts in the county, and offers workshops and other services to teachers.

Past grand juries have charged that the county department needlessly duplicates the work of local school districts and thus should be abolished. Others have called for the county superintendent to be appointed by the elected county Board of Education and thus be more responsive to the board’s policy making.

The two reports issued Thursday were not personally critical of Robert Peterson, who has been Orange County’s elected superintendent of schools for the past 21 years.

Peterson said Thursday that no matter what is recommended by reports or grand juries, Orange County voters will never relinquish the right to elect the county schools chief.

“I heartily endorse having the citizens name their county superintendent (of schools) and state superintendent (of public instruction) by ballot,” Peterson said. He added that he believes appointment of a superintendent “tends to be elitist.”

Mayor Jess F. Perez of the City of Orange, chairman of the Blue Ribbon Commission, stressed that members were looking at the post of county superintendent and not the personality of the current jobholder. “We all have good relations with Bob Peterson, and he cooperated fully with our commission,” Perez said.

But Perez said the seven-member commission was unanimous in its recommendation. The key sentence in the commission’s voluminous report says: “The Blue Ribbon Commission members have unanimously concluded that an appointed superintendent of schools would best meet the educational needs of Orange County.”

The Blue Ribbon Commission was named in December by the county Board of Education and specifically told to study the question of whether the county superintendent should be elected or appointed.

Presented Report

The commission presented its final report Thursday morning to the county board. Highlights of the report include the findings:

- “No clear-cut accountability exists under the present system.”

- “The current decision-making process reflects unclear lines of authority and overlapping areas of jurisdiction.”

- “Two elected entities, the superintendent and the Board of Education, negate one another’s effectiveness in formulating and evaluating goals.”

- “The pool of candidates for the superintendency is limited by the electoral system.”

- “As the school population grows and diversifies, and the technological sophistication of education increases, a superintendent needs proven managerial expertise, vision and an understanding of current educational issues. An elected (county education) board could recruit such a superintendent and specify appropriate qualifications.”

There are 28 local school districts, such as Santa Ana Unified and Irvine Unified, in Orange County, all governed by locally elected boards of education. Those boards in turn hire superintendents to administer the districts. If these superintendents and boards disagree, the superintendents can be fired.

By contrast, the elected county superintendent of schools is accountable for his job only to the electorate.

Peterson, in an interview Thursday, said this independence is good for education and for the voters. “I would have never been appointed as a county superintendent of schools if we had had an appointed system,” said Peterson, who was an elementary school principal in Santa Ana before first being elected county schools chief.

Peterson noted that state Supt. of Public Instruction Bill Honig also is elected, not appointed. If Honig had been appointed by the governor, Peterson said, he would have “been muzzled” a long time ago--a reference to the current friction between Gov. George Deukmejian and Honig over state spending for schools.

Rejected Proposal

Peterson pointed out that Orange County voters in 1978 overwhelmingly rejected a proposal to switch to appointing a county superintendent of schools. “No county has ever voted to change,” he added. Five of the state’s 58 counties have appointed county superintendents of schools, but those counties (Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco, Santa Clara and Sacramento counties) obtained that power through county charters.

The Blue Ribbon Commission report urged the current county Board of Education to find a citizens group “to spearhead a ballot initiative” that would call for another countywide vote on whether the schools superintendent should be elected or appointed.

Perez, in an interview, said the commission did not recommend a time frame for such an election. “I would think 1988 would be more likely than November of this year (for a vote on the question),” he said.

Within hours after the Blue Ribbon Commission report became public, the incumbent grand jury also issued its statement about the county superintendent of schools and county Board of Education. Grand Juror Joan R. McSunas of Corona del Mar said the grand jury was aware that the Blue Ribbon Commission report would be coming out Thursday and decided to issue its report the same day.

The grand jury report recommended that the county Board of Education “retain independent legal counsel to define clearly its responsibilities, duties and powers and those of the county superintendent.” McSunas, in an interview, said the grand jury believes that the county Board of Education may have more legal powers than it now uses.

County Board of Education member Francis Hoffman, in an interview, said the grand jury recommendation is something he has been urging all along. “I have long said that we should take a more active role rather than seeking an appointed superintendent,” Hoffman said.

Repeated Opposition

Hoffman reiterated his opposition to pursuing a countywide vote on how the superintendent is named, saying he is convinced that voters would never approve a change.

But Elizabeth Parker, board president, said the commission recommendations deserve careful study. “One thing we must consider is where we are going in the future,” she said.

Parker said the board will discuss the Blue Ribbon Commission report on April 23 but probably will not vote on it. The board will vote on the overall issue “before June, I hope; probably sometime in May,” she said.

The grand jury report on Thursday, in addition to urging a stronger role for the county Board of Education, also recommended that clear-cut goals and objectives be set by the board and the Department of Education.

“We didn’t get into the elected-or-appointed superintendent question because last year’s grand jury took that up,” McSunas said.

The 1985-86 grand jury questioned the wisdom of having an elected county superintendent of schools. That grand jury also recommended that a study be made by a Blue Ribbon Commission. It was that recommendation which resulted in the study and report issued Thursday.