New Chief of Arcadia District Favors More School Autonomy

Terry M. Towner, the 51-year-old Los Gatos educator who will take over as superintendent of the Arcadia Unified School District on July 1, calls students “clients” and wants to allow individual schools greater freedom in making budget and program decisions.

“I think we’re going to be giving more autonomy and authority to each school to run its program,” said Towner, in a telephone interview from Los Gatos, near San Jose, where he is the superintendent of the 3,000-student Los Gatos-Saratoga Joint Union High School District.

Towner, whose appointment to the $91,000-a-year post ends a four-month national search, replaces Stephen A. Goldstone, who left Arcadia in September to become superintendent of the Chino Unified School District.

Arcadia, an upscale school district with 7,800 students, presents a variety of challenges for Towner, who spent his adolescent years in the San Gabriel Valley and attended Pasadena High School.

Although Arcadia students regularly score high on standardized tests, the district, like many in the San Gabriel Valley, is grappling with demographic changes, as well as with gang activity that officials hope to stem before it escalates. Last fall, in an attempt to discourage gang attire, the Arcadia school board outlawed the wearing of baseball caps.

One of the biggest issues facing Arcadia educators is whether the state will allow Sierra Madre to secede from the Pasadena school district and join Arcadia. A group of parents have petitioned for the move, citing Pasadena’s low scores on standardized tests and claiming that the district has too many gangs and too much on-campus violence. Their request, which was denied by Los Angeles County education officials last year, is expected to go before the State Board of Education this spring.

On the secession debate, Towner, while admitting he hasn’t fully studied the issue, said he tends to favor allowing Sierra Madre to join Arcadia Unified.

“If we have room and interest then I think it deserves a serious look,” Towner said.

“Philosophically, I feel that parents have the right to send their kids to the best education they can get,” he added.

The new superintendent also believes that parents and teachers should have a stronger say in what happens at their local schools. He believes that giving parents and teachers more authority and responsibility leads them to strive for excellence. And he said he wants to create a climate that rewards individual initiative and talent instead of stifling it.

Towner calls it the business approach to education.

“I talk about our students as clients because they deserve all the attention that any client should get. Programs should be centered around student success.”

Towner said another priority in his new job will be to improve labor relations by ending the adversarial tone that has permeated collective bargaining in the past. He said he hopes to establish a more trusting relationship by involving district employees in decision-making from the beginning.

Towner is now working as a consultant for Arcadia Unified while still running the Los Gatos high school district.

Prior to going to Los Gatos in 1985, he was assistant superintendent of the Novato Unified School District in Marin County. He has also served as director of secondary education in the Conejo Valley Unified School District and principal of Ventura High School.

Towner, who has a master’s degree in Latin American and Asian history from Cal State Los Angeles and a Ph.D. in education from the University of Southern California, said he expects that his familiarity with Asian and Latino cultures will help him in his new job.

Arcadia’s student body is 54% white, 36.4% Asian, Pacific Islander and Filipino, 8.8% Latino and .8% black.

“I think I have an understanding of Asian and Latin culture and a sensitivity to it,” he said.