Two College District Incumbents Battle to Avoid June Runoffs

Two incumbent board members of the troubled Los Angeles Community College District were battling Tuesday to avoid a June runoff against challengers who have attacked the trustees for ignoring the steady deterioration of the two-year colleges.

Meanwhile, in the West San Fernando Valley, a June runoff will be needed to pick a new representative on the Los Angeles school board. Conservative professor David Armor and high school history teacher Elizabeth Ginsburg appeared likely to be contenders to fill the seat being vacated by conservative Tom Bartman.

The two school board incumbents--Roberta Weintraub in the East Valley and Alan Gershman in West Los Angeles--appeared headed for easy victories against relatively unknown challengers.

In partial returns, veteran college trustee Arthur Bronson, 68, was pushed hard by Richard Ferraro, a former Los Angeles school board member and longtime foe of school busing.

“The students are really fed up with this board. They want a change,” said Ferraro, a conservative who served 14 years on the Los Angeles school board.

Since 1981, the nine Los Angeles colleges have lost about one-third of their students.

A second college board incumbent, Lindsay Conner, 29, also could face a June runoff election to gain his second term on the board.

The third incumbent--Wallace Albertson--had a solid lead and appeared headed for a primary election win over her only foe, UCLA education professor Julia Wrigley.

The Los Angeles area’s nine-campus community college system has been plagued with a variety of troubles over the past three years--a new student fee, plunging enrollment, cutbacks in classes and a fouled-up financial aid system.

The board of trustees has blamed most of the problems on the state, which since 1978, has essentially controlled the funding of the two-year colleges. In 1983, the Legislature, after a prolonged and bitter debate, imposed the first mandatory fee of $50 per semester.

The trustees aligned themselves with the Democratic leadership in opposition to the fee. They also have complained that the state has not given the community colleges a fair financing increase, when compared to the four-year universities and secondary schools.

But despite the colleges’ troubles, Ferraro, 60, was the only well-known local politician to enter the race. During his 14 years on the Los Angeles Board of Education, Ferraro was a staunch foe of mandatory busing and advocated a back-to-basics approach to education.

Ferraro and the other challengers won applause at several college forums by denouncing the board for its “business-as-usual” approach during a period of crisis. The Los Angeles Collegiate Council, a forum of college leaders, endorsed Ferraro and Julia Wrigley against two of the incumbents.

By contrast, the Los Angeles school board has been trouble-free of late. Thanks to the state school reform law of 1983, the city school district’s budget has risen from $1.8 billion to $2.4 billion over the last two years, leaving enough to raise teachers’ salaries and to restore a sixth period of instruction in the high schools.

Weintraub, 49, has pushed for harsher penalties for students who bring drugs or weapons to school. She had also joined with Bartman to resist school closings in the San Fernando Valley, a campaign that met success only recently when the district revealed that it expected to gain an extra 70,000 students over the next five years.

Gershman, 45, has been a low-key member of the board during his first term, but one who often held a swing vote on controversial motions. He disappointed the board’s liberal faction by voting against several school closings and by opposing a move to change the district’s integration formula.

Although some Westside teacher activists had expressed irritation with Gershman in recent years, neither they nor the United Teachers of Los Angeles fielded a candidate to oppose him.

Also contributing to Los Angeles election coverage were Roxane Arnold, Stephen Braun, Steven R. Churm, Alan Citron, Janet Clayton, Rich Connell, Alma Cook, Cathleen Decker, David Ferrell, Jean Halstrom, Patricia Lopez, T. W. McGarry, Victor Merina, Pamela Moreland, Lynn O’Shaughnessy, Cecilia Rasmussen, Joel Sappell, Richard Simon, Nancy Skelton, Jill Stewart and Ted Vollmer.