Garcia comes on strong

[Peter Farruggio <pfarr@cal.berkeley.edu>]

I don't see any teaching experience in his history.  Where does he 
stand on pedagogical issues?  NCLB?  Teaching to the test?  Scripted 
phonics?  Bilingual education and teaching in Spanish?  Teacher bashing?
etc?



SAN FRANCISCO
Garcia comes on strong



New schools chief favors race factor in placing students

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/06/14/BAGNGQEO1B25.DTL
Jill Tucker, Chronicle Staff Writer

Thursday, June 14, 2007

San Francisco's new school superintendent hadn't even signed his 
employment contract before diving into district controversy, saying 
he strongly supports bringing race back as a factor in the student 
assignment system.

Carlos Garcia said he believes using race can help integrate schools, 
a position shared by the majority of the school board's seven members.

"I think we see eye to eye on that," Garcia said. "I think all of us 
want to have a world that's not segregated."

The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to rule soon on whether using race 
to assign students to schools is legal.

Garcia, who spent five years in Las Vegas as superintendent of the 
Clark County school system, doesn't officially take the helm in San 
Francisco for a month, but it was clear at his debut Wednesday that 
he will not shy away from speaking his mind.

In front of a standing-room-only audience inside the San Francisco 
school board chambers, he told the crowd what kind of schools 
superintendent he planned to be.

"I warned the board that my job is not to work for adults," Garcia 
said, his lip quivering and his voice filled with emotion. "My job is 
to work for children."

He described himself a fiscal conservative, saying that he wants to 
show the community that the district is "squeaky clean" when it comes 
to spending the money it does have. If he can do that, the community, 
for example, will be more inclined to support a proposed parcel tax 
on next year's ballot.

It was Garcia's first moment in the local school spotlight after the 
board approved his employment contract Tuesday evening, which 
includes a $255,000 salary and host of other benefits.

It took 10 elected officials -- including Mayor Gavin Newsom, seven 
board members and two supervisors -- nearly an hour Wednesday to 
welcome and introduce Garcia.

Board member Eric Mar called him a "street fighter," someone who will 
challenge students and fight inequity.

Board member Jane Kim remembered what someone from his former 
district in Las Vegas said about him. "If you don't want change, you 
don't want Carlos," she recalled.

After the press conference, when the television lights were turned 
off and the crowd dispersed, Garcia sat in the quiet chambers and 
said his first order of business as San Francisco's superintendent 
will be to listen.

"I really want to spend time talking to different people, business 
groups, youth groups," he told The Chronicle. "I really want to shut 
up and listen."

He said people are likely to see him in the Mission District, in 
Chinatown and in Hunters Point talking to people.

But declining enrollment will also be among the top issues on 
Garcia's to-do list.

"If we create successful schools, it would be like the 'Field of 
Dreams'," Garcia said during the press conference. "Build it and they 
will come."

Later, he said, a comprehensive analysis is needed to show why there 
are fewer students every year.

He also sees private school enrollment -- an estimated 30 percent of 
San Francisco's school-age children -- as out of whack compared with 
the national average of 10 percent.

"How do we get them back?" he said.

Garcia said he wants to ensure all the schools are quality schools -- 
schools that allow children to go from the barrio to the San 
Francisco school's chief as he did.

Garcia was born in Chicago, but his family migrated back to Mexico 
when he was an infant. They returned to California when he was 5. He 
started kindergarten as an English learner.

He said he started boxing when he was 7. "Not because I liked 
boxing," he said, but because his Los Angeles neighborhood of 
Wilmington was a rough place.

He went on to college, earning a bachelor's degree from Claremont 
Men's College and a master's degree from Claremont Graduate School.

He doesn't hold a doctorate.

He has been married to his wife Gail for 28 years. They have a 
25-year-old son and a 23-year-old daughter, as well as a small dog 
named Sami, whose pictures find a place in Garcia's wallet along with 
those of his children.

Shortly after the press conference, Garcia signed the three-year 
contract, which will also give him a $30,000 signing bonus and an 
$8,000 annual car allowance. He will begin receiving a $2,500 monthly 
housing allowance on July 1, 2008, if the district does not acquire a 
superintendent's residence in the interim.

He will also receive annual lump-sum payments to a retirement account 
if he stays more than two years.

The board voted 6-1 to approve the contract Tuesday, with Kim-Shree 
Maufas voting against Garcia.

At Wednesday's press conference, she promised to be among the first 
to work with him.

Following the event, she explained her vote, saying she had 
unanswered questions about his past in Las Vegas, specifically 
criticism from some in the African American community who said they 
felt they weren't included under his leadership.

"We have that already," Maufas said. "I don't want more of it."

She said she wanted more time to understand the criticism, but the 
majority on the board wanted to take the vote. She said if she had 
that time, she might have supported him.

"I'll never know," she added.

Garcia will officially take the district's helm on July 16.

----------
Carlos Garcia

-- Age: 55

-- Born: Chicago; raised in Wilmington neighborhood of Los Angeles.

-- Family: Wife Gail; son Ferrari and daughter Asia.

-- Education: Bachelor's degree in political science from Claremont 
Men's College; master's degree in education, Claremont Graduate School.

-- Relevant experience: Five years as Clark County, Nev., 
superintendent; three years as the Fresno Unified superintendent; 
three years as Sanger Unified superintendent; three years as 
principal of San Francisco's Horace Mann Middle School.

E-mail Jill Tucker at <mailto:jtucker@sfchronicle.com>jtucker@sfchronicle.com.