Diverse Field Vies for El Segundo Seats

A large and diverse group of candidates will greet El Segundo voters when they go to the polls Nov. 7 to fill four school board seats.

Eleven hopefuls are seeking a seat on the five-member board, which sets policy for the 1,950-student district. Of the candidates, only two, Timothy Chang and Ruth Parks, currently serve on the board.

Incumbents David Jones and Janice Cruikshank did not seek reelection.

Although no dominant issue has emerged in the campaign, a major issue new board members will confront in coming months is how to make money from the district’s surplus property and pay for long-delayed maintenance projects at various school sites.

The district, with a budget this year of $8.6 million, has been too poor in recent years to pay for the projects--projects it now estimates will cost $1.5 million. The district operates one elementary, one middle and one high school.

“El Segundo is real estate rich as a school district, and cash poor,” said candidate Ken Schofield.

Some maintenance money could be forthcoming soon. Just last week, the district completed a deal with the city to swap a downtown parking lot it did not need for a 22,000-square-foot parcel of land on Imperial Highway.

The property, which is already zoned for apartment construction, could bring the district $500,000 to $800,000 when it is sold, according to school officials.

But bigger decisions over what to do with the district’s surplus property loom. A citizen’s committee in September recommended that the district develop the property where a former elementary school now sits. The school was shut down years ago because of declining enrollment.

The committee, whose members were appointed by the present school board, also suggested that the district sell a property now used as a maintenance yard--a move it estimated could generate $1.5 to $2 million. The group also recommended that the district turn a former junior high school, also closed because of declining enrollment and now leased by the Los Angeles Raiders, into a middle school, and then develop the property where the present middle school sits.

The district has hired a consultant to help it develop a detailed plan for the surplus property.

Of the candidates, two are seeking the unexpired term of Andrew Wallet, who resigned from the board last year. Board members appointed Chang to temporarily fill Wallet’s seat, which expires in 1991, and Chang has decided to seek a four-year term.

One of the candidates for the two-year term is Martha Castillo Del Muro, 24, who graduated from El Segundo High School in 1983. Del Muro, who received a political science degree from the University of California, Berkeley, said she thinks the district should improve its academic counseling program for all students, regardless of whether they plan to go to college or into a vocation.

Also, Del Muro, who sells insurance, said the district should be more academically rigorous. “We have good teachers. The thing is, I think sometimes our classes are watered down,” she said.

Del Muro’s opponent is 38-year-old Keith Wise, a project superintendent for an electrical contractor. Wise said he would like to see the board have a more “hands-on” approach to district affairs.

“Right now, we don’t have that kind of leadership from our existing board,” Wise said. “I think they depend too much on (the) administration.”

Wise said the district should think about using any funds generated by the surplus property to boost the salaries of beginning teachers and perhaps offer early retirement incentives for older teachers.

These are the candidates seeking a four-year term:

Jim Butterworth, 34, an engineer. Butterworth said he believes that the present school board has been unresponsive to parents. In the lower grades, the school day should be lengthened, he said, and at the high school level, more stringent graduation requirements are needed.

“We have kids who graduate and don’t have enough credits to get into a four-year college,” Butterworth said.

Timothy Chang, 40, an attorney. In July, the state Supreme Court ordered Chang disbarred after finding that he misappropriated more than $7,000 from a client, the Mellon Bank of Philadelphia.

Chang said he is innocent of any wrongdoing and that he plans to appeal the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Chang said he believes that the most important issue facing the district is maintaining and increasing its revenue base through its surplus property. The money should be used for deferred maintenance projects and for teacher salaries, he said.

Also, Chang said that the district’s elementary school is overcrowded and that new board members will have to come up with solutions.

Ruth Parks, 68, a two-term board member. Parks was a school secretary for 25 years until she retired in 1981. She said she decided to run for a third term because she believes that the board would be well-served by her experience. Parks praised the present board for working to beef up drug- and alcohol-abuse programs in the elementary school, and for tightening up student disciplinary policies.

Rich Reed, 46, a self-employed music teacher and former computer programmer. For years, Reed has lobbied before education officials locally and elsewhere to change the way music is taught. He said he has devised methods for teaching music that are much easier to learn than conventional ones and that he would like to see them used in El Segundo schools.

Reed said his methods extend beyond the teaching of music to math and languages. “The idea is to reduce unnecessary complexity that makes some students fail,” he said.

Ken Schofield, 46, a real estate broker. Schofield said the present board has not been assertive enough in setting district policy. He said he wants to improve relations between the district and teachers, and find ways to increase the salaries of younger teachers.

Jerry Walters, 42, a security supervisor for an electronics company. Walters said he wants to improve communications between the community and the district. He also said he wants to scrutinize the district’s budget to determine how present money is spent before deciding whether to sell any surplus property.

“Until we find out how much we spend on brooms, the land is there,” Walters said. “It is a good safety valve.”

Patricia Walker, 47, a banker. She said she believes that the district should strive to earn money from its surplus property without actually selling any of it. She also said the district must attend to the “basic fundamentals in education.”

“We have to make sure we are preparing our students to function well when they get into the outside world,” Walker said.

Gerald Wellfonder, 43, a print shop owner. Wellfonder said he wants the board to become more accessible to the public, and that board members should strive to visit school campuses more often.

“Basically, I think the schools have done a pretty good job,” Wellfonder said.

Nancy Wernick, 43, a self-employed financial consultant. Wernick said present board members are not sufficiently versed in budget matters, and she would work to change that. “I would like to stop signing blank checks without question,” she said.

Also, Wernick said she would like to see community advisory councils formed at each educational level.