New Schools Chief Brings an Eye for the Bottom Line

On the off chance that every parent here doesn’t attend Tate Parker’s first school board meeting Tuesday, there will be one or two other opportunities to meet the new superintendent during the next year.

He has promised to visit every classroom at every school in the district. He will drop by neighborhood coffee klatches and PTA meetings. That’s not to mention football games and choral concerts. And don’t forget gatherings of the Rotary Club and Chamber of Commerce.

“As an administrator, my style is to involve the people in the trenches in the decision-making process that affects them,” said Parker, 56, who has just finished a stint as superintendent for the Murrieta Unified School District in southwest Riverside County.

“I’d say I’m very open and accessible,” he said. “I want to hear from the people who are doing the work. I want to hear from parents. I want to hear from students. I want to hear from the community. So my door is basically always open.”

And if keeping lines of communication clear means working an 80-hour week, so be it.

Parker, who is putting in his first day as schools chief today, has been billed as a peacemaking fiscal conservative for the quarrelsome Simi Valley Unified School District, whose budget is $151 million.

Parker, a lanky, single father of two grown children, accepted a $108,000-annual salary plus the usual perks to steer this school district through June 2000. He will also receive a $4,000 tax-sheltered annuity and up to $5,000 in expenses for his move from San Diego to Simi Valley.

After five years in the 9,100-student Murrieta district, it was only logical that Parker move on to a bigger school system, said Ellen Larson, head of Murrieta’s PTA Council. But he will be missed.

“He’s really open as far as community involvement,” said Larson, who has known Parker for the length of his tenure. “You’re getting a wonderful superintendent who knows what he’s doing. You’re lucky.”

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While praising Parker for his commitment to parental and community involvement in education, some Murrieta teachers say they are glad to see the superintendent leave.

Murrieta Teachers Assn. President Greg Ireland called Parker a “visionary,” but notes that some union members are less than pleased with Parker’s fiscal conservatism.

“I know there are people who are thrilled to see him go,” Ireland said. “But, as an association, we don’t know what we’re getting in his place. Some of us have mixed emotions.”

Ensnarled in a messy contract dispute since spring, Murrieta’s 370 teachers and the school district are at an impasse and require the services of a state mediator.

“Any time you have contract negotiations that are difficult, you are going to have a tendency to blame one person,” Ireland said. “Whether that’s right or wrong, I don’t know.”

Ever on the lookout for deficit spending, Parker has already eyed the massive budget for the 18,896-student Simi Valley district.

“I’m concerned to see that 87% of the school district’s budget is devoted to salaries and benefits” for teachers and administrators, he said.

Privately, some Simi Valley teachers say statements such as that worry them. After all, barely a year has passed since teachers here were picketing schools and protesting the school district’s intransigence on salary negotiations.

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Parker also frets about the fiscal ramifications of the class-size reduction program, which Simi Valley has implemented in three grades.

In the Riverside County school system, Parker and trustees also took some flak for shrinking classes for first-graders only, in the name of fiscal responsibility.

After all, Parker said, the program--in which the state pays school districts $650 for every primary-grade student in a class of 20 or fewer--is not fully funded.

“I have concerns about the long-term budget impact over the next three to five years of class-size reduction, in the absence of state actions to increase the funding,” he said. “I strongly favor class-size reduction. On the other hand, I don’t want to preside over the fiscal demise of the district.”

Dig him or doubt him, this much is certain: The avid sailor with degrees in German literature, education and administration will have plenty to do in Simi Valley.

“I think there are a lot of issues he will have to deal with right away--this is a busy school district,” said Robert Purvis, a former Simi Valley superintendent who left retirement to lead the district for the last six months. “I don’t think there’s going to be a one-year honeymoon period where he has no issues to face.”

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Before Parker has a chance to decorate his district office, he can expect to deal with one of the diciest issues in Simi Valley’s schools: whether to continue the expensive and popular class-size reduction program next school year, and whether to move sixth-graders from elementary to middle schools to make space for the smaller classes.

Within months, Parker and trustees will be looking at a district boundary study. They will be overseeing development of the district’s fledgling performing arts and technology magnet high school, Santa Susana. They will also be monitoring the construction of the long-awaited Wood Ranch elementary school, scheduled to open in fall 1998.

Parker will further take part in contract negotiations and work with trustees not always known for their tact or diplomacy.

The last permanent superintendent, Mary Beth Wolford, left Simi Valley six months early after scattered skirmishes with board members. Since then, two new trustees have arrived and all have vowed to restore harmony.

If past performance is any predictor, Parker is well-prepared to handle any challenges Simi Valley may present, said Judy Rosen, one of Murrieta’s trustees.

After taking the Murrieta helm in 1991, Parker oversaw the implementation of a zero-tolerance drug policy, the creation of a PTA council and the construction of an award-winning parent center that offers day care, English as a Second Language classes and parenting seminars, Rosen said.

All the while, Murrieta’s school population was mushrooming as funds lagged.

“In 1987, we had one elementary school and 500 students,” Rosen said. “Today, we’re a district with 9,000 students, five elementaries, two middle schools, a comprehensive high school and an alternative high school.”

When Riverside area voters shot down five of six proposed school bonds during the last decade, the superintendent and trustees improvised: They plunked down portable classrooms, refusing to go into the red.

“When hard decisions had to be made, he would certainly do that,” she said.

Parker will have at least a brief respite before handling his first hard issues in Simi Valley. Tuesday’s agenda is relatively light.

Because the makeup of the Simi Valley school board has changed dramatically in recent years, trustee Carla Kurachi said she anticipates a bit of a learning curve for Parker.

“There is always an adjustment period when new people come in,” Kurachi said. “We have a new superintendent and two new board members, so, sure, there will be an adjustment period.”