SCHOOL ELECTIONS : In San Gabriel : Unions Target 2 Incumbents

The San Gabriel teachers union, which declared in June that it had “no confidence” in the superintendent of the San Gabriel School District, is now trying to replace two of the three incumbents running in the Nov. 5 school board election.

The teachers have charged board members Eleanor K. Andrews and Allan P. Donnelly with poor communication with teachers and parents--the same concern they directed at the superintendent, Thomas W. Sullivan.

Both the San Gabriel Teachers Assn., which represents 160 employees, and the Teamsters union, which represents 60 non-teaching workers, are taking active roles in the school board races. Union activities have raised interest in the district elections, which in the past have often returned incumbents to office with little or no opposition.

The San Gabriel School District has six elementary schools and an intermediate school. Total enrollment is 3,015.

Six Candidates

In one race, six candidates, including three incumbents, are seeking three seats. The incumbents are Andrews, a housewife and community volunteer, Donnelly, an attorney, and Dominic Shambra, an administrator with the Los Angeles Unified School District. The challengers are Marilyn L. Cooper, data processing manager for a bank, Linda L. Jorgensen, a manufacturers’ representative, and Ronald R. St. John, an attorney.

In a separate race, Robert F. Gray, a former school board member, is running against Kathryn R. Blankinship, a substitute teacher. They are seeking to serve the tow years remaining in the term of Joseph Muha, who retired last summer.

The high school program for San Gabriel students is operated separately by the Alhambra School District, which does not have an election scheduled.

In San Gabriel, both the teachers union and the Teamsters have endorsed Shambra, Cooper and Jorgensen. Sharron Rains, president of the teachers union, said her group will contribute manpower and money, though the monetary amount is uncertain.

Bill Piercy, business agent for the Teamsters local that represents school workers, said his union has identified 450 Teamsters who live in San Gabriel and will urge them to vote for the union-backed candidates. Piercy said the employees were upset by delays in starting a promised job reclassification study, and that the $3,500 needed to pay for the study is being taken from money set aside for salary adjustments.

The Teamsters are supporting Blankinship for the two-year term, but the teachers have made no endorsement in that race.

The teachers union stirred controversy in June by announcing that it had “no confidence” in Supt. Sullivan. The superintendent said the teachers made that charge only to bolster their position in contract negotiations. Similar complaints about Sullivan and the district administration were made by a group of parents who were upset over the proposed transfer of a popular teacher.

Sullivan, in his 10th year as superintendent, said the teacher transfer was canceled through the district grievance process. He said the specific allegations against him were either baseless or involved petty matters.

Communication Complaints

But Shambra, the school board president, said the complaints against the administration by parents and teachers have made it clear that “we haven’t had the kind of communication we should.”

Shambra, 46, has been on the board for 13 years, and has three grown sons.

Some opponents have pointed out that none of the incumbents running for reelection have children in district schools, which serve students from kindergarten through the eighth grade. Shambra said having children in school may be an asset, but is not a requirement, and that experience also counts.

Like many of the candidates, Shambra said that quality of the district’s schools is high. “We have a pretty good education system, even during a time when funding has been short,” he said.

On Board 10 Years

Andrews, who has been on the board for 10 years, said the complaints represented the culmination of many small grievances. She, too, conceded that there have been failures in communication, and that responsibility rests with the board as well as the administration.

“We have to do a better job,” she said. Andrews said she always makes it a point to arrive at board meetings half an hour early to be available to hear about any problems and noted that she and the other board members are “all in the phone book.”

Andrews, 50, is the mother of three children, all of whom graduated from San Gabriel schools.

Donnelly, 41, said he cannot disclose personnel matters that the board has discussed in closed session, but he is concerned about the way the district is being run. “I think the management of the district has some problems,” he said.

Donnelly, who is seeking his third four-year term, has two children, the youngest 15. Although his children are no longer in district schools, Donnelly said, “I’m not all that removed from what’s going on.” He said the important issue is not whether one has children in the schools but the quality of one’s judgment.

Secured $250,000

As an example of his achievements on the board, he said that in 1982 he and another board member went to Sacramento and helped secure $250,000 in revenue that otherwise would have been lost because of a transfer of territory to another district.

Cooper, 35, was a math teacher at San Gabriel High School from 1970 to 1977 before switching to a career in data processing. The mother of three children, including two in district schools, Cooper said she thinks her experience in business and teaching would be a major asset in serving on the school board.

She is running on a four-point platform that calls for public input before major decisions are made, development of a fiscal plan that takes into account such problems as aging school buildings and a teacher shortage, expansion of innovative programs and the use of creative personnel policies that invite employees to suggest better ways of doing things.

Jorgensen, 35, the mother of two girls, 8 and 12 years of age, in district schools, said she thinks it is significant that none of the incumbents seeking reelection have children in the schools. Nor, she said, do they visit schools regularly.

“In talking with teachers, aides and parents, they don’t feel there is enough communication,” she said.

She also said the district is slow to address problems. For example, she said, it took her a year and a half to get the district’s approval to head a committee to develop a disaster preparedness plan for the schools even though, she said, the plan is badly needed.

Jorgensen recently took a job representing a company that makes cookies for Girl Scout troops to sell for fund-raising. She said she will represent the company in its dealings with Girl Scout councils in California and the Southwest.

St. John, 29, an attorney, said he thinks there is “to much distance between the school board and administration and parents and teachers.” One way to improve communication, he said, would be to open school board meetings by inviting the public to comment as items are brought up on the agenda, not just at the start of meetings.

St. John does not have any children enrolled in district schools but has three foster children under 5 years of age. He is with the law firm of Barton, Klugman & Oetting with offices in Los Angeles and Newport Beach.

In the other race, Blankinship, 36, said she has heard parents and school employees voice complaints on matters ranging from expenditures to staff transfers, but she said she believes many of the problems can be easily corrected. Blankinship teaches parent education classes at Pasadena City College on a substitute basis.

Blankinship, who has two sons in district schools, said it is important for board members to have children in district schools so that they are “not too far removed from what’s happening.”

Gray, 75, cites his long experience in education as the strength of his candidacy. He taught at Mark Keppel and Alhambra high schools, served as principal of Alhambra High School and was assistant superintendent and personnel director in the Alhambra School District. Currently, he is a consultant to the Assn. of California School Administrators.

Gray served on the San Gabriel school board from 1948 to 1954 and from 1975 to 1979.

He is running again, he said, because of his general interest in education, not because of any one issue.