For the Candidates, (Most) Verdicts Are In : One Race Still in Doubt in School Board Voting

The dust was still settling Wednesday in a hard-fought Los Angeles school board election where the outcome of one contest--a squeaker in the San Fernando Valley--still hung in the balance.

Nearly complete voter returns showed West Valley incumbent Julie Korenstein teetering toward reelection by but a few dozen votes--just 0.03% of the total. However, about 12,000 absentee and damaged ballots remained to be counted citywide and the city clerk’s office said Korenstein still could be forced into a June runoff election. Final returns were not expected for a few days.

“We will either be celebrating soon or getting busy for June 6,” Korenstein said, referring to a possible runoff against school principal Gerald Horowitz, who finished second in the six-way race with about 22% of the vote.

The unresolved Korenstein contest, combined with Westside incumbent Alan Gershman’s inability to escape a runoff, led to discordant interpretations about what the election results mean for an ongoing contract fight between the district and its teachers, who have threatened to strike as early as next month.

Union leaders said Wednesday that a generally poor showing by all three school board incumbents strengthens teachers’ resolve to bargain hard. “It strengthens not only our resolve, but it strengthens our position,” Inola Henry, chairman of the political arm of the 22,000-member United Teachers-Los Angeles, said early Wednesday. “This morning, the entire Board of Education . . . cannot have a lot to be happy about. There is a real lack of confidence and trust.”

The union had waded into the campaign with money and personnel in hopes of securing a more sympathetic board majority--and in this goal it was not immediately successful.

The union threw its support to Korenstein and Westside challenger Mark Slavkin, who succeeded Tuesday in forcing two-termer Gershman into a June runoff. In a third race, where the union remained neutral, East Valley representative Roberta Weintraub escaped a runoff, but with a surprisingly weak showing.

The results show the public wants change, Henry said, and the board should move quickly to settle the labor dispute by increasing its salary offer, giving teachers more decision-making authority at schools and paying elementary teachers for class preparation time. If no new offer is forthcoming, she added, “we’re walking (out), if that is what the membership says. . . . We think we are going to get the membership on our side.”

Strike Authorized

Teachers have tentatively authorized a strike, which could come as early as May 30, and are scheduled to take a final strike vote next week. For the majority of schools, a May 30 strike would come during the final weeks just before summer vacation. Thus, teachers believe, the action would be timed to disrupt an important finale to the school year and diminish their financial losses over the summer.

Board President Weintraub agreed that the election returns reflect “tremendous discontent” with the school system, including campus crime, labor-management conflicts, alleged waste and poor student achievement. But she said the board cannot afford a higher pay offer and other union demands.

“The ball’s in the union’s court,” Weintraub said. “My gut feeling is that they will not strike if they think it will hurt the election of Mark Slavkin. They will strike if they think it will help it.”

Slavkin said that he wants the contract fight to end and that too much was being made of connections between his campaign and the district’s labor turmoil. The contract battle is “certainly a motivator for teachers” to help him, Slavkin said, but there is “much more at stake than settling this year’s contract. . . . It’s about the fundamental restructuring of this district.”

College Board Races

Meanwhile, two contested seats on the Los Angeles Community College District board will be decided in June 6 runoffs. In Office No. 2, Rose Ochi, an aide to Mayor Tom Bradley in charge of criminal justice planning, will face Pat Owens, a Trade-Tech College teacher and critic of the district and teachers union. In Office No. 6, Althea Baker, a union negotiator and counselor at Mission College, will be challenged by Patricia Hollingsworth, a Trade-Tech teacher who was in a 1987 runoff.

Some officials were surprised that Owens received 20% of the vote, compared to Ochi’s 33%. They expected that second place would go to Mary Louise Longoria, a consultant to the county Human Relations Commission who ran unsuccessfully for the Los Angeles Unified School District board four years ago. However, Longoria finished fourth out of six, behind Howard Watts, a disabled veteran and vocal gadfly at district meetings.

Getting Message Out

“I got the message directly to the students, taxpayers and voters who have been following the struggle for the district for years,” said Owens, a student recruiter and automotive repair teacher. He was helped by his Trade-Tech base, by having his name on Republican mailings and by his ballot designation as “community college instructor,” which was more appealing than Longoria’s “education policy analyst,” several observers said.

On Wednesday, Longoria, who is Latino, criticized Latino politicians for not giving money to her campaign. “Maybe they forgot where they came from,” she said.

The influence of the American Federation of Teachers’ College Guild, which endorsed Ochi and Baker, is sure to be a major theme of Owens’ campaign along with his questioning of whether Ochi wants to use the board as a political steppingstone. Ochi will present her government experience and Sacramento contacts as helpful for the nine colleges and 105,000 students in the district.

2 Seek Seats

Baker and Hollingsworth, who are both black, are seeking a seat on a board that has no black now. Baker, who received 45% of the vote split among four candidates, will stress her deep knowledge of the district. Hollingsworth, a language arts teacher who garnered 32% of the ballots, presents herself as a rank-and-file alternative with an election track record; she came close to beating Wallace Knox in a 1987 runoff.

District officials expect that voter interest, slight on Tuesday, will be even less in June, when the ballot will offer no citywide race. That could help Ochi and Baker because union activists are likely to vote.

Also, the costs of districtwide runoffs may revive calls to have candidates run in separate geographic areas rather than the current system of running across the entire sprawling district.

Times staff writers Sam Enriquez and Elaine Woo contributed to this story.