Garcia leaving mixed legacy

Friday, July 1, 2005 | 11:21 a.m.

When Carlos Arturo Garcia rides off into the sunset today after five years as superintendent of the Clark County School District, he'll be behind the wheel of his new silver Audi TT sports car.

So, how much did it cost? That's nobody's business. Neither are the terms of his new job as vice president of urban markets for education services giant McGraw-Hill Cos., where his salary is rumored to be more than double the $212,242 he earned as superintendent.

Garcia admits one of the biggest perks to his new life in the private sector is the right to keep his personal finances to himself.

And it's one of the reasons the license plate of his new car reads "libre" -- the Spanish word for "free."

He said the significance of the change in his life hit him during the string of Clark County commencements he attended in June, as he watched hundreds of high school seniors walk the stage.

"I realized after 30 years in public education I'm finally going to graduate," Garcia said. "I'm 53 years old and I finally get my diploma."

Garcia leaves behind a district that has grown by more than 50,000 students and 51 campuses since his arrival. Nearly 20 percent of the district's current students have limited proficiency in English, compared with 13 percent in 2000. The percentage of low-income families in the district has grown, along with the special education student population.

What hasn't changed much is the performance of Clark County students on standardized tests, with scores hovering near or just below the national average. The average score by a Clark County student on the SAT last year was 500 on the verbal section, compared with 508 nationally. The average score by district students on the math section of the test was 509, nine points lower than the national average. The district's verbal and math scores were down two and six points respectively from the year Garcia arrived.

The average composite score for Clark County students on the ACT exam last year was 21, compared with 20.9 nationally. That's just slightly below the 21.2 average score posted by district students in the 2000-01 academic year.

To Garcia, the fact that the district hasn't lost significant ground is enough reason to celebrate.

"One out of every five of our students has limited ability to speak English and thanks to (the federal) No Child Left Behind (Act) we have to start testing them after one year in this country," Garcia said. "If our test scores stay even, given that kind of a challenge, it's actually a giant step forward."

The district's dropout rate is up slightly since Garcia's arrival, from 6.9 percent for the 2000-01 academic year to 7.6 percent for 2003-04.

According to the Nevada Education Department's figures, the district's graduation rate was 71.7 percent in 2003, up from 66.1 percent three years earlier. The district, which unlike the state counts adult diplomas and adjusted diplomas for special education students in its total graduation count, put its graduation rate at 84.2 percent in 2004.

Garcia said he expects the dropout rate to decline and the graduation rate to continue to improve as the district's push toward more career and vocational programs for high schoolers moves forward. Reaching those goals will take not only time but money, patience and the full involvement of students and their families, Garcia said.

While Garcia had occasional skirmishes with School Board members, especially Shirley Barber, his initiatives generally were supported by the board. School Board President Larry Mason said Garcia's influence may not be recognized for several more years when his programs have not only taken root but bloomed.

"He got this district on the road to some truly visionary goals," Mason said. "He's a progressive individual and not afraid of a good fight. I'm going to miss that."

There have been some controversies, such as Garcia's decision last year to give two key deputies 10-percent raises and his continued involvement in hiring replacements for two regional superintendents even after he announced his resignation.

Some of the criticism of Garcia seemed to stem from the public's discomfort with policy governance, a trademarked management system adopted by the School Board four years ago.

Critics complained that the School Board yielded too much authority to its superintendent. But under the terms of policy governance the superintendent is supposed to serve as chief executive, with the School Board as trustees representing the interests of the "stakeholders."

"People tell us over and over the district should be run like a business, and when we finally start to do that people don't like it," Garcia said. "Policy government eliminates the micro-management and without it I think we'd be totally dysfunctional. But the public needs to have a better understanding of how it all works so there aren't any surprises down the road."

Garcia has seen several of his pet projects come to fruition and several districtwide programs have earned praise:

"Carlos was a good forward-thinking superintendent for Clark County," said Gov. Kenny Guinn, who was superintendent from 1969 to 1978.

Garcia "did a good job of maintaining the bond program necessary to keep up with the growth, but once you get the bricks and mortar part done, you've then got to go to Carson City and make sure you have the funding to hire the thousands of new teachers you need every year to fill those new classrooms. Carlos did that," Guinn said.

Garcia also was a unifying force for educators statewide, said Jim Hager, former superintendent of the Washoe County School District, who currently teaches at UNLV.

"He's been an awfully good addition to the state of Nevada," Hager said. "He worked well with all of the other superintendents. With him leading the charge we became a real force during the legislative sessions."

Hager, who runs the School of Education's superintendents' academy, a leadership program for upper-level school administrators, said while he hasn't ruled out applying for Garcia's job he currently has no plans to do so. Whoever steps into Garcia's shoes will be responsible "for the best-run large urban school system in the country," Hager said.

Louis Overstreet, executive director of the Urban Chamber of Commerce, had a different view of Garcia's job performance, however, calling it "less than adequate" and "unsatisfactory." But Overstreet said Garcia had done well in raising the bar for middle school math classes.

Where Garcia felt short, Overstreet said, was in hiring and promoting minorities, particularly blacks.

"When I think what he could have done to really promote diversity and multi-cultural education, it's depressing," Overstreet said.

John Jasonek, executive director of the Clark County Education Association, said Garcia did the best he could in often choppy waters.

"Changing this school district is like trying to turn the Titanic," Jasonek said. "For the amount of time that he was here, he started some good programs that need to be followed through. That's why we don't want some outsider coming in with with new programs and new ideas. These guys never stick around more than five years and ultimately its the children and the teachers who pay the price for new leadership."

Labor relations for the district's bargaining groups have never been more stable than they have been under Garcia's leadership, Jasonek said. All three of the major unions, representing teachers, administrators and support employees, have agreed to multi-year contracts without having to go through arbitration.

While the reorganization of the district met with some initial resistance, it appears to be winning community support. D.J. Stutz, president of the Nevada PTA, said she believed it was "an excellent beginning" in making school administrators more accessible to parents.

While his last day on the district payroll is July 13, Garcia's final day on the job is today. He's taking two weeks accrued vacation time. He starts his new job at McGraw-Hill on July 18.

Agustin Orci, deputy superintendent of instruction, and Walt Rulffes, deputy superintendent of operations, have been appointed by the School Board to share Garcia's job responsibilities during the search for a new superintendent.

Garcia is excited by the challenges his corporate career will pose but he also knows he'll miss the world of public education, from the classroom visits to the bureaucratic red tape and even the sometimes interminable School Board meetings.

"It's nice to leave a job when you still love what you're doing," Garcia said. "I can honestly say there wasn't a single day in 30 years when I thought, 'Do I have to go to work?' "