Ramon Curtis Cortines (born July 22, 1932)[1] is a retired American educator who was the Superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District in Los Angeles, California from January 1, 2009 to April 16, 2011.
Cortines was born in San Antonio, Texas.[2] He briefly served as Superintendent of Schools in LA in 2000 and has headed a total of five school districts nationally.[3] Cortines had also served in the U.S. Army from 1953-1955.[4]
Cortines is a former Superintendent of Schools in the California cities of San Francisco, San Jose and Pasadena, along with being a former New York City Schools Chancellor. He was appointed to lead the New York City Schools in September 1993 by the former New York City Board of Education, serving during the last months of the administration of Mayor David Dinkins and during the first years of the administration of Mayor Rudy Giuliani. Cortines and Giuliani feuded for much of their shared tenure, with Giuliani being critical of Cortines' running of the schools.[5] Cortines stepped down from the chancellorship in October 1995, going into the private sector.
Following his tenure in New York, Cortines served as a Senior Advisor to the U.S. Secretary of Education during the tenure of former Education Secretary Richard Riley.[6] Before accepting the chancellorship, Cortines had been nominated to serve as Assistant Secretary of Education for Intergovernmental Affairs by President Bill Clinton, but he withdrew his nomination before his was confirmed by the U.S. Senate. Cortines served as LA's interim Superintendent for several months in 2000, before former Colorado Gov. Roy Romer assumed the position.
From 2006 to 2008, Cortines served as LA's Deputy Mayor for Education, Youth and Families in the Cabinet of Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. As deputy mayor, Cortines oversaw education policy for the mayor, was his liaison to the school district, along with overseeing various agencies and policies impact children and families, including parks and recreation. Cortines left this position to become Senior Deputy Superintendent of Schools. Cortines has also worked, if not continues to work, as a consultant for Eli Broad Foundation, the William & Flora Hewlett Foundation, the James Irvine Foundation, and the Institute for Learning at the University of Pittsburgh.[7][8]
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While at LAUSD, Superintendent Ramon C. Cortines had dual jobs as a board member from the Scholastic board and as Superintendent of LAUSD.[9] LA Times reported that he was paid $150,000 while serving at the Scholastic board in addition to $250,000 as Superintendent of LAUSD. Cortines defended his tenure at Scholastic and claimed he avoided any issue that involved the educational publishing company. Cortines resigned from the Scholastic board on February, 18, 2010.
A notable controversy occurred when Ramon Cortines, six months after becoming the Superintendent of LAUSD, proposed to reduce funding for the Office of Inspector General (OIG) by 75%.[10] During this time, LAUSD was under a significant budget shortfall. The Inspector General of OIG, Jerry Thornton (retired FBI agent), came to a compromise with Ramon Cortines to reduce OIG budgeting by 25% instead. Subsequently, Cortines and the LAUSD Board members refused to extend Jerry Thornton’s contract.[11] Jerry Thornton was known to produce many audit and investigative reports that showed misuse of funds, lack of financial controls and many conflict of interest charges against senior district management. Notable reports include excessive consultant costs at the districts construction program,[12] over $20 billion, largest in the country, as well as millions in excessive and unwarranted consultant charges against the Office of Environmental Health and Safety.[13] Cortines eventually suspended and replaced many of the senior staff mentioned in Jerry Thornton’s audits. Jerry Thorton left on June 30, 2010. Cortines selected, and the Board approved, Jess Womack, former deputy general counsel for the LAUSD construction program, as interim Inspector General. Interim Jess Womack continued OIG investigations of LAUSD senior management. A notable one was released four months after Jerry Thornton’s departure, which found “irregularities in $65 million worth of consultant contracts.”[14] This includes costs that exceed pre-approved amounts by 50% and additional contracts worth $31 million without school board approval, specifically against James Sohn, Chief of Facilities, whom Cortines had hired to replace the prior Chief, Guy Mehula. Cortines responded to this by canceling $3.7 million in consultant contracts cited in the report, but left open the possibility these consultants and contracts would return.[15]
Ramon Cortines retired on April 16, 2011 from the Los Angeles Unified School District.
Television personality and British chef Jamie Oliver came to Los Angeles in order to start a food revolution by studying school lunches and introducing healthy and tasty food alternatives. Cortines denied Oliver permission to film on LAUSD schools. Jamie Oliver found a loophole against Cortines' ban by filming parts in West Adams Preparatory High School, a partnership school run by MLA Partner Schools, with orders from Cortines that he would not be allowed in the school kitchen but could be allowed everywhere else. After filming at West Adam Preparatory High School, Jamie Oliver moved to Manual Arts Senior High, another MLA Partner School, but was denied a filming permit by Ramon Cortines unless he could guarantee that LAUSD would look good on television.[16]
In an April 2011 interview with the Associated Press, Oliver contrasted Cortines's opposition with the support he had enjoyed from public officials during the show's original seasons in the UK, going all the way up to Prime Minister Tony Blair: "I'm really disappointed that I couldn't get in there at all. I'm disappointed that as public servants, they feel they have the right to not be transparent."[17] Later in an appearance on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, he suggested a possible cause, saying "there’s elements of backhandedness or certain things that shouldn’t be going on as far as procurement is concerned", likely a reference to the cash rebates paid directly to the school district by large manufacturers of frozen, processed, and packaged foods.[18] Cortines claimed that he denied Oliver due to possible disruption to students and reality television's need to create drama for ratings.
Jamie Oliver's second season's first episode aired on April 13, 2011.
| Academic offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Harvey Garner (Interim) |
Schools Chancellor of New York City 1993 - 1995 |
Succeeded by Rudy Crew |
| Preceded by Ruben Zacarias |
Interim Superintendent of Schools of Los Angeles, California 2000 |
Succeeded by Roy Romer |
| Preceded by New Position |
Deputy Mayor of Los Angeles, CA for Education, Youth and Families 2006 - 2008 |
Succeeded by Miriam Long |
| Preceded by David L. Brewer III |
Superintendent of Schools of Los Angeles, California January 1, 2009 - April 16, 2011 |
Succeeded by John Deasy |