Carlos Garcia: A man of the people

Terry Webster

Monday, April 3, 2000 | noon

FRESNO, Calif. -- A Mexican band playing violins, guitars and trumpets began the celebration to honor a hometown hero.

Musicians strolled past an audience of 600, the gold buttons on their dark green bolero jackets gleaming in the California sunshine. Members of a farmers' union slowly waved red flags.

Fresno Unified Schools Superintendent Carlos Garcia shook hands and hugged people, his eyes scanning the crowd dotted with note-taking reporters, television cameras and photographers.

Such media attention, he had noted a day earlier, is "getting to be overkill."

The stream of phone calls and visits from the media has been constant since the Clark County School Board announced last week it wants Garcia to lead the school district, the country's eighth largest.

But despite the attention on Garcia, the celebration was not for him. It was not his day to be Fresno's hero, although there are those who believe it might have happened -- some day.

The festivities Friday honored the late Cesar Chavez, the famous leader of the United Farm Workers of America, a man whose name is written in bold letters on the side of a new adult-education center in Fresno.

"I see this building as a temple of hope, of hope for the future and for bringing equality to all people on this planet," Garcia said, stressing the importance of parents getting an education and "get out there and vote for their children."

The adult-education center is just one of the successes during Garcia's three-year reign.

But by many accounts, including Garcia's, a good portion of the work he began in Fresno has yet to come to fruition.

"Did I improve everything I wanted to? Absolutely not," he said. "I believe I would have had to stay another two to five years to really get there."

His critics and supporters alike will be watching to see if he does reach his goals -- this time in Clark County.

Although Garcia, 48, appears to have the job nailed, the contract still has to be negotiated and signed, and the Clark County School Board has to approve his appointment. The matter is scheduled for Thursday. Garcia is asking for a four-year contract with a salary of $200,000. Including benefits, his compensation would approach $270,000 a year.

If he lands the position, Garcia will replace Brian Cram, who retires in July.

"He has the potential," Fresno Superintendent Pete Mehas said. An education official at county and state levels for nearly 40 years, Mehas said he has seen hundreds of superintendents come and go.

The best superintendents have a set of values, the ability to articulate them and, most importantly, the ability to set them in motion, he said.

"That's where a lot of them fall short," Mehas said. "And I've seen superintendents who have all three fall apart after they have taken a few hits."

Mehas believes Garcia could become one of the best.

"But only time will tell," he said. "I do believe it would have happened if he would have stayed here. He has the vision, the energy and the passion."

After just a few hours of interviews in Clark County, the School Board and Superintendent Selection Process Committee were using the same words to describe Garcia.

While he may be bringing those qualities to Clark County, Garcia feels he also is leaving an equally important legacy in Fresno. He cringes when people say he's running out on them.

"I was brought up to leave things better than the way I found them," he said. "I can generally say I'm leaving Fresno better than the way I found it."

Under Garcia's tenure in Fresno, teachers received good raises. An accountability model to improve all levels of school performance was designed and implemented. Key administrative positions were reorganized. Stagnant student achievement levels rose slightly. The Center for Advanced Research and Technology, once just a concept, opens its doors this fall.

"All of our academic standards are in place," Garcia said. "We didn't have standards in every subject before."

Still there are doubters in Las Vegas asking whether Garcia can effectively play in the this city's political arena or improve grim dropout rates and test scores. They question how well his experience in a 79,000-student school district will translate into the much-larger Clark County School District of 217,000 students.

And he has at least one doubter in Fresno: Bill Riddlesprigger, his most vocal critic on the school board.

"I was surprised Clark County is considering him," Riddlesprigger said. "There has been a problem here with him getting ahead of the board. If he felt he had the support of the public, he didn't feel the board was that important."

Garcia, who grew up in the ghettos of Los Angeles, finds it ironic that his toughness is being questioned.

"What can someone call me that I haven't been already called?" he said.

A conformist, perhaps?

A self-described radical, Garcia once staged a walkout at the high school he attended.

"The school was literally falling apart," he recalled. "Bricks were falling out of the walls. We didn't have enough books."

His efforts paid off. Within a couple of years, vast improvements were made.

"I just don't fit the stereotype of a superintendent," Garcia said in his Fresno office, playing with an "Inspector Gadget" toy. "And I think that's a good thing."

On a shelf, an electronic jalapeno toy named Carlos began wiggling, then broke into song.

"It's motion activated," Garcia explained. "It never fails. Every time I'm in a serious meeting, that thing goes off."

Garcia may be a fun-loving guy, but he has serious intentions for Clark County.

"If I didn't think I could do it, I wouldn't take the job," he said. "People always ask me if being a superintendent is a tough job. It's tough. But I'm tough. At least you can't get killed doing this."

That wasn't the case for Garcia when he was growing up.

"I watched people ruin their lives with drugs and crime," Garcia said. "People around me were always doing it."

Garcia managed to stay out of trouble.

It wasn't easy. But Garcia has made a habit of tackling difficult tasks head-on. Take, for example, the reorganization of seven key positions in Fresno, he said.

"There's nothing nice about sitting down with someone face to face and saying, 'This is not the position for you,' " Garcia said, adding that most people are shocked to learn they are performing below expectations.

"People can be doing a terrible job, yet for some strange reason, they think they're doing a super job," he said. "But I think I did this in a manner that saved a lot of people's dignity and gave everybody an opportunity."

With the opportunity came an ultimatum: Prove your performance within a year, or you're out.

"I heard it loud and clear from different sources that there is too much fat in the Clark County School District," Garcia said. "I don't know that. But I'll have to find out."

Garcia said he doesn't want to arrive in Las Vegas with too many preconceived ideas. But the ideas keep coming, anyway.

Already he is thinking of school designs. He would like to bring the design of Sunnyside High School, the first new high school built in Fresno in more than 30 years, to Clark County. Sunnyside features a sprawling sandstone structure with red tile roofing, a welcome contrast to Garcia's impression of Las Vegas schools.

"Clark County schools have the feel of a prison," he said.

John Marinovich, principal of Sunnyside High School, said Clark County should consider itself lucky if Garcia comes on board.

"He speaks right from the heart," Marinovich said. "He says thing that many people might feel, but don't come right out and say it. I think your community was captivated by that. He is very much a risk taker. Sometimes you might get a bloody nose, but he is willing to take that risk. He's willing to look at things differently to better meet the needs of kids."

If Garcia arrives on Clark County's doorstep, it's also likely he will bring with him a new version of his accountability plan

"One of the biggest things I like to talk about is improving the district as a service provider," Garcia said. "Districts exist for what is going on in the classroom. That's what we're all about. And we have to get people passionately involved."

A data-driven plan, the accountability model identifies areas of weakness and how to improve them.

Just days before the Clark County School Board votes on his appointment, Garcia talks as if it's a done deal. But school and city officials in Fresno were still referring to him as "our superintendent."

Fresno board members have mixed feelings about Garcia's impending exit.

"I guess it would never be a good time for him to leave," President David Wright said. "I've had a good working relationship with him. I'm very happy with the work he has done."

Member Manuel Nunez said -- and he swore he wasn't joking -- that Clark County should pay for Fresno's superintendent search should Garcia come to Nevada.

Prior to being Fresno Unified's superintendent, Garcia played the same role at Sanger Unified, a district of about 7,800 students 20 miles east of Fresno.

"I think he did a great job here," said Lloyd Kuhn, assistant superintendent for business services in Sanger. "He reconstituted one of the schools, which basically means he started it all over again. It absolutely turned out for the better."

Rounding out Garcia's resume are a variety of principal and teaching positions, including a principal stint at a San Francisco middle school that, according to the resume, was named an outstanding school in the United States.

Larry Moore, president of Fresno's teacher's union, called Garcia accessible.

"He always returns calls and always does what he says he is going to do," Moore said.

Moore criticized Garcia, though, for allowing one of the elementary schools to become a charter school.

"In my opinion, he gave it away," Moore said.

Garcia said it's difficult for him to walk away from the Fresno district.

"I've really enjoyed it here," he said. "That's what makes this so hard. There are a lot of great people. I liked it. I laughed a lot."

Terry Webster covers education for the Sun. She can be reached at (702) 259-4091 or by e-mail at terry@lasvegassun.com.

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