LOS ANGELES _ Austin Beutner, a philanthropist and former investment banker, on Tuesday was named superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District, the nation's second-largest school system.
His selection, by a 5-2 vote, was the biggest move yet by a Los Angeles school board majority elected with major support from charter school advocates.
Board members George McKenna and Scott Schmerlson voted no.
The board approved a three-year contract, giving Beutner a base annual salary of $350,000, as well as a driver and security.
The decision came after lengthy public testimony, most of it in support of the other remaining finalist, interim Superintendent Vivian Ekchian, who is well known within the school system.
Beutner, 58, has no background leading a school or school district. Less than 2 { years ago, a school board with a very different balance of power named Michelle King, a former teacher who rose through the district throughout her career, to L.A. Unified's top job.
King announced in January that she had cancer and would retire. She had been on medical leave, with no details made public since September.
Ekchian, like King, has spent her entire career in the district. King had chosen Ekchian to fill in for her when she went on medical leave, and the board supported keeping Ekchian in place temporarily when King made the leave permanent.
The assignment for Beutner will be much the same as it was for King: confront a long-term budget deficit that could lead to financial crisis and improve the district's lagging academic performance.
But Beutner's approach will probably be different.
A primary focus of King's mission, as established by the board majority of that time, had been to increase enrollment by trying to win students back from charter schools and, when possible, impede the further expansion of charter schools.
Charters are privately operated public schools that compete with the school system for students and the funds they bring in. Their rapid growth has been a major factor in the district's financial woes because the vast majority of state and federal funding is based on enrollment.
Beutner and members of the board majority seem unlikely to continue targeting charter schools as part of the problem. On the contrary, they are widely expected to take steps to encourage their growth as part of a range of schooling options for families.
That means the district has to look to other ways to increase revenue _ a goal held in common with the prior board _ and may try to reduce district spending by shrinking the traditional school system. Savings could come through employee layoffs, closing campuses and freezing or reducing salaries and benefit expenses.
Had King remained healthy, she might have had to face taking some of these same steps eventually because she was unable to stem the enrollment decline, but Beutner appears to be arriving ready to act.
Beutner's resume makes for an odd fit to traditionalists, but some board members believe his financial acumen makes him exactly the right leader for the moment. Beutner also has demonstrated a longstanding concern for students and has a deep history of civic involvement.
He's had two direct and recent interactions with L.A. Unified. The first is through the nonprofit he founded, Vision to Learn, which provides glasses to low-income students. The second is through an outside task force, which he co-chairs, that has so far made suggestions for improving student attendance, getting more revenue out of district-owned real estate and operating more transparently.
Now it is Beutner himself who will get to pursue these recommendations. He also may have to untangle a disagreement between L.A. Unified and Vision to Learn over who is responsible for delays in the nonprofit's contracted services this year.
Beutner's supporters say he has the right skills and motivation.
"I have been in nonprofit work for more than 35 years and just recently retired, and working with Austin has been one the most pleasurable experiences of my life," said Jan Sobel, who headed the Boys & Girls Club of the West Valley and sits on the advisory board of Vision to Learn. "He is a great organizational leader, always keeping his mission and vision in the forefront of everything he does, hires the right people in the right jobs, motivates everyone to keep moving forward and is gracious and kind at the same time."
Ekchian's supporters asserted that her diverse background within the district made her almost uniquely qualified to be superintendent, and that she had performed well after King appointed her to fill in last year.
A stream of speakers, mainly district parents, made that point in English and Spanish during the public portion of Tuesday's meeting.
"Everything was already up your sleeve," parent Luz Maria Montoya said in Spanish. "I wasted my gasoline."
After the announcement, board member Scott Schmerelson released a statement suggesting that their concerns had substance.
"I apologize to the dedicated parents and constituents who have been advocating for a voice in the superintendent selection process," Schmerelson said in a statement. "I am especially addressing those who have been expressing their frustration with the lack of transparency during the last 10 days, when every member of the Board knew that a decision had already been made while pretending to be maintaining an open mind toward all the candidates who were deemed finalists. These 10 days have been extremely painful for me personally."
Schmerelson said Beutner got the job in a 4-3 vote on April 20. He said the meeting Tuesday, when the announcement was made, was about approving the new superintendent's three-year contract.
Like other skeptics, Schmerelson challenged Beutner's lack of a background in education. He also accused the board majority of refusing "to exercise due diligence regarding Mr. Beutner's lengthy and tangled business affairs."
At Tuesday's meeting, before the vote was announced, five former school board members criticized the apparent pending choice. Former board member Jeff Horton called Beutner a "dilettante" who "moved from position to position with no particular history of success."
Beutner also had supporters in the room, but they tended to speak more indirectly, not mentioning Beutner's name, but talking of the need for sweeping change as well as bold and courageous leadership. Beutner had made no formal announcement of his candidacy or that he had the job, and his supporters took their cues from him in not mentioning him in their public comments to the board.
Two other finalists for the job, former Baltimore Superintendent Andres Alonso and Indianapolis Superintendent Lewis Ferebee, withdrew from consideration.
Beutner's recent record in the public and private sector is marked by brief stays in important jobs.
In 2010, Beutner became first deputy mayor of L.A. under Antonio Villaraigosa, overseeing business and job development. He was part of the Villaraigosa administration for about a year, also filling in as interim director of the Department of Water and Power.
He ran for mayor in 2012 when Villaraigosa termed out, but his campaign never caught on and he dropped out early.
In 2014, Beutner co-chaired the 2020 Commission, which made recommendations for the future of Los Angeles. He then became publisher and chief executive of the Los Angeles Times, but was fired after a year over disagreements about the newspaper's direction.
