Goldberg Elected to Head School Board on a 6-1 Vote

Despite predictions of more peaceful times for the nation’s second-largest school district, Jackie Goldberg was elected president of the Los Angeles Board of Education in a 6-1 vote Monday that showed some scars from the May teachers’ strike still remain.

At first, a celebratory mood marked the board’s annual reorganization meeting and inauguration for two reelected members and one newcomer, Mark Slavkin. But the mood quickly turned tense as Rita Walters sharply criticized Goldberg and refused to join the rest of the board in naming Goldberg president for the next year.

Walters denounced a plan pushed by Goldberg to restructure salaries so that teachers could earn as much as administrators with similar qualifications. That would “punish” administrators, Walters charged. A task force is supposed to study the issue later this year.

“Out of that concern for the total morale of this district, I cannot support Miss Goldberg this morning,” said Walters, who represents South-Central Los Angeles and, as a result of last month’s elections, is now part of a minority faction on the board viewed as unfriendly to the teachers union.

A recent move by some principals to unionize shows that the district pays too much attention to the teachers union, Walters said. She reiterated her opposition to budget cuts made to help finance the 24% pay raises for teachers called for in the three-year contract that ended the nine-day strike.

Goldberg later told reporters that Walters’ comments represented “an enormous misunderstanding of what I’m about” but said she and Walters could still work together. Goldberg also said she would fight United Teachers-Los Angeles if a union action hurt students but added that such an event was unlikely.

Last month, principals were given the same pay increases as teachers, but the board argued bitterly before giving a 16% raise over two years to top administrators. Goldberg favored raises for principals but not administrators.

The board presidency, which carries few special powers, usually is rotated among senior board members, and election is often unanimous. Goldberg, who considers herself the most liberal member of the seven-member board, is in her second term representing Hollywood, downtown and the Wilshire corridor area.

Goldberg, 44, once taught in the Compton school district and now works for a literacy program in Los Angeles. Her 14-year-old son attends a Los Angeles district high school.

In a formal speech made Monday with her mother, a retired teacher, at her side, Goldberg said she will push the district to become “more student centered.”

She said she would like the board to concentrate on improvements in bilingual education and programs for students in the first four years of schooling, along with cutting the drop-out rate and creating “shared decision-making” councils at all district schools. The councils--composed of teachers, administrators and parents--will have a say over scheduling and discipline, among other things, and their formation was a key issue in the strike.

As president, Goldberg succeeds Roberta Weintraub, the East San Fernando Valley incumbent who gained a high profile during the strike. On the board for 10 years, Weintraub was sworn in Monday for a new four-year term.

No Excuses

“There are no more excuses for any of us . . . ,” Weintraub said. “This year, we’ve got to see changes in the (student test) scores and changes in the schools.”

Also sworn in Monday were Julie Korenstein, the West San Fernando Valley representative who won her first four-year term last month after serving on the board for two years, and Slavkin, who defeated Westside incumbent Alan Gershman in a bitterly fought race. The teachers union, trying to gain a friendly majority on the board, had strongly supported Slavkin and Korenstein.

State Assemblywoman Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles) led Weintraub and Korenstein through their oaths. Weintraub then gave the assemblywoman a large plaque, bearing a school bell, in appreciation for Waters’ help in mediating an end to the teachers’ strike. After he was sworn in by the board clerk, Slavkin said he hoped for “a less acrimonious” environment on the board, although Walters subsequent comments about Goldberg soon belied Slavkin’s wishes.

At an outdoor reception afterward, teachers union Vice President Helen Bernstein called Walters “a sad person and her comments made me sad.”

At the board’s first business meeting later in the day, further signs of discord appeared. A central overseer panel for the school governing councils is supposed to be formed by the end of the month, with half of its 24 members appointed by the teachers union and the other half by the board. Monday’s agenda included a proposal to allow each board member to appoint a parent or community member and the superintendent to appoint five other people.

The issue was postponed a week after Slavkin said he feared that the matter was being moved too quickly and without enough discussion, and Walters said she thought the proposed formula shortchanged parents.