L.B. Teachers Win ‘A’ in Politics as Supporters Get School Board Seats

Demonstrating that teachers can make a major difference in who determines school district policy, the Teachers Assn. of Long Beach showed its muscle this week in the school board elections.

Teacher-supported candidates will occupy four of the five school board seats, ushering in a new era in local school politics.

Three of the candidates won Tuesday. They will join a teacher-supported incumbent, Harriet Williams, who won outright in the April 12 primary.

In a stunning upset Tuesday, newcomer Jerry L. Shultz defeated incumbent Elizabeth Wallace, a 21-year member, in District 1. “The big message,” said Shultz, a 41-year-old Los Angeles County deputy sheriff, “is that if you are an elected public official you have to be responsive to your constituents. You can’t sit in an ivory tower and make decisions that affect the public without getting them involved. This was a basic grass-roots campaign.”

Other winners were Bobbie Smith in District 2, Jenny Oropeza in District 3 and Karin Polacheck in District 5. Although the union backed both Smith and Oropeza, it had made no endorsement in the District 5 race after its candidate lost in the April 12 primary.

“I think that we are definitely going to have more of an ear on the board now,” said Felice Strauss, president of the 2,100-member union. Declaring that the election had finally broken the district administration’s traditional hold on school board elections, Strauss predicted a new era of openness in local school politics.

“Teachers have finally realized that they have the potential to make change,” she said. “It will be much more equitable in the future in that anybody can run and anybody can win.”

District Supt. E. Tom Giugni was in conference Wednesday and could not be reached for comment. But spokesman Dick Van der Laan said that the superintendent had held a series of briefings to provide all the candidates with background on pressing school issues.

“They probably have more information and more background than any other new board members in the district’s history,” Van der Laan said. “The willingness of the candidates to do their homework and to approach the issues with an open mind is very encouraging. We can work with anybody who has the best interests of children at heart.”

To many, the outcome represented the logical conclusion of a strategy begun two years ago when the teachers union played a pivotal role in persuading local voters to adopt Proposition T, a measure initiating a system under which school board members are elected in five separate voting regions rather than citywide.

Since then, Strauss said, the union has poured an unprecedented $60,000 and countless volunteer hours into the campaigns of its chosen candidates.

At least one result seems clear. The board will have four members who say they favor binding arbitration of grievances, something the teachers have demanded for years.

The exception is Polacheck, who says she is undecided on the issue, which has been a major stumbling block in the union’s past contract negotiations with the district.

Proponents of the new district election method say the resulting school board also will be more reflective of community interests and more responsive to community needs. Indeed, Smith will be the board’s first black member and Oropeza the first Latino member.

“It’s about time,” Strauss said of the new ethnic mix. “It’s much more representative of the young people we teach.”

Oropeza said the results “are a strong statement for giving the decision-making back to the people, back to the neighborhoods. I am very very proud that the voters believe as I do that that’s where the power should lie.”