Candidates Seek to Reach Out and Touch Voters : School Board Hopefuls Put Selves on Call

Got a gripe about the Los Angeles Unified School District and want to talk it over with a school board candidate?

Just pick up the telephone.

Five of the seven candidates for the West San Fernando Valley seat on the Los Angeles Board of Education have tried to prove their accessibility by making public their private telephone numbers.

Three candidates--Douglas Wolf, Barbara Romey and Mark Isler--list their private home and office telephone numbers on their campaign literature and have encouraged voters to call them.

Julie Korenstein has listed the telephone number of her campaign headquarters twice, once in large, bold print, on a campaign mailer.

And, at a recent candidates’ forum, Bunny Field announced to a crowd of 200 that her home telephone number is published in the telephone directory.

It is unusual for candidates to open their private lives in this manner. But in the contest for the West Valley school board seat in the April 14 election, giving out private telephone numbers is just one method candidates are employing to demonstrate their availability to constituents.

To many West Valley residents, policy decisions that affect their schools are made far away by people who have little knowledge of or connection with the area. Some West Valley schools are as much as 30 miles from the district’s downtown headquarters, adding to parents’ feelings that they are remote from the seat of power.

Telephone numbers are one way for the candidates to show voters that they can be reached at a moment’s notice. And all seven contestants also have longer-range proposals on how they would remedy the West Valley’s feeling of isolation.

Wolf, a Woodland Hills lawyer, pledged to form an advisory board of teachers, students, parents, community activists and business persons to guide him on district policy issues, saying the panel would represent a cross section of opinions within the district.

Meetings at Schools Proposed

George St. Johns, a former aide to state Sen. Ed Davis (R-Valencia), proposed to hold regular meetings at schools at which parents, teachers, community members and administrators could speak to a board member. St. Johns also said he would work to hold one meeting of the full board of education each month in one of the seven districts so residents could see the board in action without having to go downtown.

Romey, an accountant who was active with groups opposed to expansion of the number of year-round schools, said she would hold public meetings in the district on the first Monday of each month, at which West Valley residents could talk to her.

Marilynn Mayer Neville, a parochial-school teacher, characterizes her candidacy as a protest against school board policies, especially the board’s unanimous backing of high school health clinics that would, among other services, dispense contraceptives.

Neville said she would play a watchdog role on the board, keeping constituents informed through columns she would offer to local newspapers.

Korenstein, who coordinates a student community service volunteer program at Chatsworth High School, said she would make regular visits to campuses within the district to hear the concerns of parents, students, teachers and administrators.

Isler, a former public school teacher who now operates his own business, said that, if elected, he would continue handing out his business telephone number as one way for constituents to reach him.

Field, a political fund-raiser, said she would visit schools, be active in community events and stay in touch with a wide variety of groups in the district.

Since publishing their private telephone numbers, the candidates said, they have received several calls a day. Sometimes callers reach an answering machine, but usually the caller talks to the candidate.

“The people are very thoughtful in their comments,” said Isler. “And they’re really surprised that they actually reached the candidate.”