Jaime Aquino, the instructional chief for Los Angeles Unified and Superintendent John Deasy’s top adviser, resigned Friday, saying the school board’s recent efforts to stall key reform initiatives have left him unable to do his job.
His resignation from the $250,000-a-year position as deputy superintendent of instruction is effective Dec. 31.
“It’s the right thing for me to do,” Aquino said Friday afternoon, shortly after concluding what he described as a tearful meeting with local superintendents and other members of his staff.
“I’m not leaving to pursue other interests, and I have not secured another job. My heart is completely broken. But the current climate doesn’t allow me to lead an agenda that is in the best interest of kids.”
Aquino said he believes the momentum of Deasy’s “student-centered agenda” has been hampered in the months since South Bay representative Richard Vladovic was chosen to head the school board.
“Vladovic has said that the role of the board is to set policy, but that’s not what I see happening,” Aquino said. “The board is going beyond the role of policy-making into day-to-day decision-making.”
Deasy said other members of his leadership team have similar concerns about their ability to continue implementing reforms that have led to improved student test scores and higher graduation rates.
“There are others on my team who are in a similar position, and we’re trying to work through that,” Deasy said.
He declined to comment on his own future as superintendent of the nation’s second-largest school district.
Aquino’s resignation is the first sign that the team Deasy assembled to turn around a struggling district is caving under the pressure of new membership and leadership on the school board.
Deasy supporter Nury Martinez gave up her San Fernando Valley seat in the spring and was succeeded by former teacher Monica Ratliff, who has voiced support for the superintendent but hasn’t consistently backed his plans.
In July, the board chose Vladovic as its president, ending the six-year tenure of Monica Garcia, a reform advocate and Deasy’s staunchest supporter on the board. Vladovic moved immediately to strengthen the board’s role in setting district priorities rather than following the superintendent’s lead.
Vladovic said he was shocked and saddened by Aquino’s decision to resign. “I think he’s done a real fine job,” he said in a phone interview, just moments after learning from Deasy that Aquino will be leaving. “Having worked with many curriculum experts, I can say that he’s at the top of the field and at the top of his game.”
Aquino’s decision to resign came three days after a frustrating eight-hour meeting in which the school board postponed a decision on how to spend $113 million in state money to prepare the district for Common Core, the new English and math standards taking effect in 2014. The budget issue was postponed until a special meeting next Tuesday; at the time, Aquino worried that any delay could derail the district’s ability to get teachers trained in time to implement the new curriculum.
Vladovic said he had the same reservations as Aquino about postponing this week’s vote on the Common Core budget, but he had hoped to work out a compromise at next Tuesday’s meeting.
Aquino proposed spending nearly $25 million to elevate 122 teachers to leadership positions, working with principals and other educators to develop lessons aligned to the new standards. But some board members were leery of the plan, citing a failed teacher-coaching program from a decade ago, while others worried about deployment of the teaching specialists.
“I was blown off my chair and didn’t see it coming,” Vladovic said of Aquino’s decision to quit.
He also addressed his personal relationship with Aquino, whom he shouted at during an incident last year.
“We worked that out, and it’s long past,” Vladovic said. “I’m comfortable with his leadership and have said so at board meetings.”
Vladovic also said he wished he’d been able to talk with Aquino before he resigned and would want to speak to any other top administrator who might be weighing their future with the district.
Other board members also expressed their dismay at Aquino’s departure.
“I really loved working with him,” said Tamar Galatzan, a reform advocate who represents the West San Fernando Valley. “Under his leadership, test scores have gone up and we’ve brought a lot of innovation and good practices into our educational produce. I’ll really miss him.”
Garcia praised Aquino as “enormously talented and a critical part of the district’s growth in instruction,” and said she had asked him to reconsider his decision.
Board Vice President Steve Zimmer noted Aquino’s leadership in improving instruction, particularly for the district’s English-learners.
“His expertise, his experience and his urgency to move this district forward will be a loss for the district, for the teachers and for kids,” said Zimmer, whose district stretches from the Valley to the Westside and Hollywood.
Zimmer also said he understood Aquino’s concerns about the shifting dynamics within the district hierarchy.
“The changes in climate have to do with the levels of collaboration between the board and the administration,” he said. “If I thought that everyone wasn’t trying to work in the best interests of kids, I would have a hard time continuing as well.”
