4 Supported by Unions Win School Post Voting

Julie Korenstein, a Chatsworth High School administrator who was backed by the teachers’ union, won the right to represent the West San Fernando Valley on the Los Angeles school board Tuesday, defeating her more conservative opponent, Barbara Romey.

And in the election to fill three at-large seats on the board of the Los Angeles Community College District, the three candidates endorsed by the faculty union--attorney Wallace Knox, librarian Julia L. Wu and USC administrator David Lopez-Lee--won their runoff contests.

Wu’s surprisingly strong showing against incumbent Marguerite Archie-Hudson suggested that the union’s endorsement carried considerable weight in a low-turnout election. Archie-Hudson had enjoyed the support of the teachers’ union, the American Federation of Teachers College Guild, in previous elections, but the AFT decided to back Wu this time because Archie-Hudson had voted in favor of teacher layoffs last year.

Archie-Hudson was the second incumbent to go down to defeat in this year’s Los Angeles community college elections. Incumbent Monroe Richman did not even make it into the runoff, finishing third in the April primary to Knox and community college instructor Patricia Hollingsworth.

Moderate Approach

Knox, a longtime Democratic activist who adopted a moderate stance in the campaign concerning the community college administration, prevailed over Hollingsworth, a political newcomer who called for the immediate ouster of the system’s chancellor, Leslie Koltai.

In the third community college race, Lopez-Lee defeated Richard E. Ferraro, a conservative who served for 14 years on the Los Angeles school board.

As returns in the school board race were being tallied, Korenstein said she wants to immediately begin working with state schools Supt. Bill Honig to persuade Gov. George Deukmejian to transfer about $700 million in state revenues to public schools instead of returning the money to taxpayers.

“With that money, we can buy books, improve dropout prevention programs and really do a lot of amazing things,” Korenstein said.

In the last days of the school board race, Romey, 40, and Korenstein, 43, the top two finishers in the primary, hurled stinging personal attacks at each other.

Romey, an outspoken conservative and veteran of the Valley’s anti-busing wars, sent out a mailer to 38,000 Jewish households reminding voters of Korenstein’s support for Jesse Jackson’s 1984 presidential campaign--and suggesting that Korenstein was therefore linked to certain other Jackson supporters, such as Nation of Islam minister Louis Farrakhan, whose anti-Semitic remarks generated controversy in the 1984 campaign.

The strategy behind the mailer, according to Romey campaign manager Paul Clarke, was to stress that Romey is Jewish and to attract votes that might otherwise go to Korenstein, who also is Jewish.

Meanwhile, Korenstein, irate at the Romey mailer, countered with a piece that called her opponent a “liar” because of a Romey mailer sent shortly before the primary that supposedly broke a clean-campaign pledge.

Korenstein also charged that Romey was not an accountant and does not hold a four-year college bachelor’s degree.

Romey replied that she never claimed to be a college graduate or a certified public accountant. But she has worked for accounting firms, she said.

Otherwise, the two women agreed on several key issues. For example, they both favored the reopening of elementary schools closed in the west San Fernando Valley because of low enrollments. Both opposed year-around schools and favored a pilot program to establish school-based health clinics.

Korenstein was endorsed by the teachers’ union, United Teachers-Los Angeles, and Romey tried to counter her opponent’s union backing by forcefully coming out against the threatened strike by UTLA. But the salary agreement reached last week by the school board and the teachers reduced the significance of that issue.

College Board Races

The three districtwide races for the Los Angeles Community Colleges Board of Trustees mostly focused on the system’s weakened financial posture and on a person whose name did not appear on Tuesday’s ballot--Chancellor Koltai.

Three of the six community colleges candidates--Hollingsworth, Wu and Ferraro--pledged to vote to dismiss Koltai, 55, from the post he has held since 1972. They blamed him for a “bloated, top-heavy” administrative staff, the deficits that have continually plagued the nine-campus district in recent years and poor morale among instructors.

Knox, Archie-Hudson and Lopez-Lee were less strident in their comments concerning Koltai, whose $103,000-a-year contract expires next year. They said they would urge a thorough review of his performance and of the district’s finances before making any final decision.

Koltai, a Hungarian emigre who would like to keep his job until retirement in 1991, has been credited in recent months with lobbying Deukmejian for more funds for the state’s two-year colleges. That lobbying, according to insiders, resulted in an additional $140 million statewide and about $4 million for the Los Angeles community colleges.

Teachers’ Guild Role

The AFT College Guild has played a large role in the campaign.

In April, it contributed money and volunteers in efforts to defeat incumbents Archie-Hudson and Richman because of their votes last year in favor of teacher layoffs.

Archie-Hudson, despite the union’s opposition, nearly won reelection with 49.1% of the vote. A third incumbent who was supported by the AFT, Harold Garvin, was easily reelected in the primary.