Inglewood Candidates Rally Against Politics

While some political candidates run against taxes and others run against government, the candidates in Tuesday’s Inglewood school board special election are running against politics.

All four candidates say they oppose the prevalence of political influence and ambition on the often contentious five-member board that runs the Inglewood Unified School District.

The hopefuls include two previously unsuccessful school board candidates, Larry Aubry, a Los Angeles County human relations consultant, and William (Bill) Gill, a construction inspector for Long Beach. The others are community activist Terry Coleman, a Los Angeles International Airport police officer on disability leave, and former board member and mayoral candidate William (Tony) Draper, an engineer for Hughes Aircraft.

Death of Board Member

The election is the result of the death last September of board member Ernest Shaw. The winner will fill the remainder of Shaw’s four-year term. The board appointed former Police Chief Joseph Rouzan to succeed Shaw, but residents groups angered by the secrecy of the selection process led a petition drive that annulled Rouzan’s appointment and forced the election. Rouzan decided not to seek election to the office.

Another special election in November will fill a second vacancy created by the resignation in March of board member Rosemary Benjamin. Both seats will be up for election next April.

Tuesday’s winner will face an array of potentially troublesome issues, including a projected $3-million budget deficit that could require major cuts and a search to replace Supt. Rex Fortune and business manager Jerry Norman, who have resigned.

The race so far appears to be a three-way contest among Aubry, Coleman and Draper. Gill acknowledges that he is the “dark horse” but warns against ruling him out.

Aubry, who lost narrowly to Draper in 1983, leads in fund-raising with $8,761.

Coleman, a first-time candidate, has raised $4,311. Both Draper, who lost to current board President Lois Hill-Hale after serving on the board from 1983 to 1987, and Gill, who ran unsuccessfully for the board last year, do not plan to spend more than $1,000.

The school board has often been a battlefield for Inglewood political factions. It has served as a political springboard, and area politicians, including Mayor Edward Vincent, Assemblyman Curtis R. Tucker (D-Inglewood) and state Sen. Diane Watson (D-Los Angeles), have backed candidates in previous elections or maintained ties to board members.

Denial From Mayor

Coleman, Draper and Gill are among those who charge that Vincent is trying to control the school district for patronage purposes. The mayor angrily denies such accusations. He has one solid ally in board member Caroline Coleman, the last of a three-member board majority of Vincent allies that existed from 1985 to 1987.

Though he has been endorsed by Vincent, Aubry insists that he is independent and says his work experience as a county mediator in racial and ethnic strife will help bring harmony to the board. He rejects charges by the other three candidates that he would be politically controlled.

“City Hall has absolutely no business in a direct relationship with the school district,” Aubry said. . . . If I engage in any of that kind of commingling, I should be thrown out.”

Aubry, 54, asserts that the Inglewood schools have not done enough to “deal with the unique needs of minority students” who have “low expectations, parents who don’t get involved in the system (and) parents who don’t hold the schools accountable.”

Aubry emphasizes the importance of bolstering district performance on test scores and of working to prevent middle-class families from sending their children to other schools. But he bristles at the use of the term “bright-flight” to describe that phenomenon, saying it insults less economically advantaged children by implying they are less intelligent.

Along with Coleman, Aubry says the district must do more to reach out to its 40% Latino population.

‘Ripe for Strife’

“The climate is ripe for strife” between blacks and Latinos, “as the Latino community becomes more empowered and politically sophisticated,” Aubry said.

Aubry, a columnist for the Los Angeles Sentinel, holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology from UCLA and has pursued graduate study. He has been endorsed by many area politicians as well as the Inglewood Teachers Assn.

Coleman, meanwhile, has the endorsements of school board member Zyra McCloud, who beat a Vincent ally in last year’s election; Garland Hardeman, politician and Vincent opponent, and Councilman Anthony Scardenzan.

“Coleman’s only qualification to be on the board is that he lives in the city,” Draper said. “He’d do whatever Zyra and Garland Hardeman tell him.”

Coleman responded: “No one will have anything to say about how I vote. I will not be a puppet.”

Coleman, 45, has filed a workers’ compensation claim for permanent disability benefits as the result of neck and spine injuries suffered on duty. He says his 14-year experience as a police officer at Los Angeles International Airport will benefit school district efforts against gangs and drugs.

Coleman has an associate degree in criminal justice from Los Angeles City College. Although the other candidates all hold at least bachelor degrees, he does not believe he is less qualified.

“Look at the past,” he said. “They’ve had Ph.D.’s and M.D.’s on the board, and look at the mess they’re in.”

Coleman is president of the Concerned Citizens of Inglewood and is active in the United Democratic Club of Inglewood. His activism began when he was among the leaders of the petition drive for the special election, he said, “because the citizens were not getting a fair shake.”

Opponents have criticized Coleman for being the only candidate whose children did not attend district schools. He says he sent his son to Lutheran schools because he wanted him to have a “Christian” education. However, he says he would respect federal laws which keep religion out of the public schools.

Draper lost a runoff to Hill-Hale last year. He continues his outspoken criticism of waste and political cronyism in the schools, a posture Aubry describes as “holier-than-thou.”

“Draper’s as political as anyone I know,” Aubry said.

Gill said the Ladera Civic Assn., a homeowners group in the affluent northernmost area of the district, “pulls Draper’s strings.”

Draper has been endorsed by the group, but denies that they control him.

Draper, 45, says his board experience makes him the best qualified candidate. He is the only candidate proposing specific budget cuts to offset a projected $3-million deficit. Among his suggested targets: a “top-heavy” administrative hierarchy, travel expenses for board members and the Hillcrest Continuation High School for troubled students, which he suggests replacing with less expensive support programs.

“Hillcrest costs $800,000 a year to run,” Draper said. “You could replace it with schools-within-schools on other sites.”

The other candidates say it is premature to recommend specific budget cuts.

Draper incurred the anger of some teachers in 1986 when he opposed a pay increase for teachers, saying it would bankrupt the district, then finally voted for a 10% raise for all employees. He said the district’s current financial woes have had “a sobering effect” on some of his former critics.

“They realize what we’re up against,” he said. “The budget is the No. 1 issue.”

Draper has a bachelor’s degree in engineering from Tuskegee University.

Draper, Aubry and Coleman say the district should hire a superintendent as soon as possible. However, Gill says an acting superintendent should run the schools until elections next year, so that the new superintendent has the support of a stable board.

“We’re going to have two short-term board members until then,” Gill said. “What if new board members come in and they don’t like the superintendent?”

Gill, 45, lost to McCloud in last year’s board elections. He holds an engineering degree from West Coast University, serves as the president of the Morningside High School PTSA and is active in school athletic activities.

Gill worked as maintenance supervisor for the Inglewood schools from 1979 to 1980. He resigned during a district attorney’s investigation into misuse of funds that involved his department. He maintains his innocence, and there were no indictments.

According to a newspaper account, Gill told the board in 1980 that he resigned because he was “sick of political infighting” in the district.

Gill concedes that “in terms of publicity” he trails the other candidates, but says: “My strength is that I’m out there working with the kids. I have strong name recognition through my involvement in community activities.”

Gill says several of his children graduated from the district and went to good colleges, proof that a quality education can be obtained in Inglewood schools. But he says the predominantly black and Latino student population faces an increasingly competitive job market.

“Some of these black and Mexican kids are coming out of school and they’re not even prepared for the menial jobs,” he said.

An obstacle to better education in the district, he says, is that some district jobs and contracts are awarded for political rather than educational reasons.

“I don’t have any political aspirations,” he said. “If voters are out there buying candidates based on endorsements, then they’re buying the system, and they shouldn’t complain about the shape the schools are in.”