First of two parts
[img]1551|left|Dave LaRose||no_popup[/img]School District Supt. Dave LaRose said this afternoon that when he addressed Wednesday’s meeting of the Culver City Democratic Club on the school bond known as Measure CC “my message was the same as with anyone I would speak with.
“I want to communicate the process that has led us to where we are. The phrase I use is that ‘clarity precedes competence.’”
Diplomatically, that is a splendid choice to emphasize since the ostensible reason for delaying the previous bond attempt nine months ago was lack of clarity.
“Just being clear on our current reality, where we are and how we went through an assessment to know what our needs were – that is what I want to communicate to audiences,” Mr. LaRose said.
After the dust storm of perhaps narrow but muscular opposition to carrying out last summer’s campaign, what is Mr. LaRose’s reading of the community temperature 53 days out from a voting decision on June 3?
“Here is what I am grateful for,” he said. “I believe there is clarity in the community about the need. I mentioned that at the Democratic Club.”
Different in Positive Ways As Mr. LaRose continued his sturdy narrative during the winddown of his second school term in Culver City, the notion occurred of how different he is from his predecessors.
Can anyone imagine the three most recent supers in this century publicly planting their feet with the confidence, comfortableness, certitude and absolute accessibility of Mr. LaRose?
Wherever he goes across Culver City, he is as relaxed as if were shmoozing in his parents’ kitchen while his mother cooked dinner.
No honeymoon was needed, beginning with the midsummer morning he landed here from Washington state. He went to work as if he had grown up here, nabbing a broom, a mop, a dustpan and a bucket of fresh water to sop up the messes that met him at the door.
Nary a single trumpeted note was sounded. As if he were laboring on the assembly line of a GM plant in an obscure community, he began unraveling and re-directing the School District out of a gathering disaster – the transfer of Culver Park High continuation students from their historic home to a backyard campout that would have embarrassed a homeless man.
As with all other tasks, Mr. LaRose did it quietly while fanfare was on vacation. Almost magically, before most of the community knew he had started, he made the Culver Park campus darned near desirable — without cameras, microphones or nosey people at his shoulders.
With that work ethic, he is likely to bring the bond measure safely home, too.
When School Board President Laura Chardiet and her troupe of volunteers fan out all across Culver City tomorrow – meeting at Carlson Park at 9:30 – to sell Measure CC, Mr. LaRose is expected to be there, too.
(To be continued)
