Board Eases Hiring Rules for Principals : Policy: The action clears the way for selection of the popular choice at Sun Valley Middle School, Manny Rangel.

Clearing the way for Sun Valley Middle School to hire a new principal, the Los Angeles Board of Education agreed Thursday to give schools operating under the district’s reform programs greater latitude in selecting administrators.

The board, on a 6-0 vote, loosened district hiring guidelines by allowing nearly 300 schools to hire principals regardless of whether they have passed a required administrative exam.

The board last week postponed acting on the new hiring guidelines after groups representing principals and other middle managers complained that they had been left out of the process.

Eli Brent, president of the Associated Administrators of Los Angeles, said Thursday that while he now supports the policy, he still has some reservations. “We want to protect the merit system as much as possible,” he said.

Board members said they believe the LEARN schools, which are intended to give parents and teachers more power, should be allowed to select their own leaders. But several members cautioned campuses against turning the selection process into popularity contests.

“I strongly urge all of our schools . . . to really look at the list of qualified people who have taken the examination,” said board member George Kiriyama, a former adult school principal. “Look at their strengths and weaknesses. I’d hate for anyone who’s taken the examination to just die on the list” of qualified candidates.

The board action circumvents problems at Sun Valley and Wilson High schools, where faculty and parents chose assistant principals who had not taken the exam for the top jobs. The district had blocked those selections, leaving Sun Valley without a principal for nearly four months.

While the issue was being resolved, the district named an administrator to temporarily run the school. The school’s popular choice was Assistant Principal Manny Rangel.

Under the new guidelines, the schools may hire principals who haven’t yet taken the administrative exam once the faculty and parents submit an explanation of how that candidate will improve student achievement, among other things.

Previously, the superintendent could appoint administrators who had not taken the exam under a special board rule. Schools Supt. Sid Thompson, himself, was hired as a school principal under that rule.

Under the new policy, administrators promoted by the superintendent without the exam never need to take it. Administrators hired by LEARN schools still must take the exam to remain in their job permanently.

That discrepancy puzzled teachers’ union leaders and board member Julie Korenstein, who questioned why only some principals will be required to take the exam.

But district officials said districtwide promotions would follow a uniform standard, but local promotions may not.

United Teachers-Los Angeles President Helen Bernstein said that the faculty at Sun Valley, particularly, have spent too much time on this issue and that she is pleased that teachers and parents there can now turn their attention to curriculum and other issues.

“So many people had to put so much energy into something that could have been done months ago,” Bernstein said. “Change is real difficult and there are a lot of rules. But this could have been done in an afternoon.”