7 Running Quiet Race for 2 Seats on Santa Ana School Board : Election: Key issues are overcrowding, academic excellence, lowering the district’s dropout rate of 26% and collecting more state funds.

One incumbent and six others are vying for two seats on the Santa Ana Unified School District board in a race that pits the last veteran trustee against a slate of teachers’ union candidates, and a three-time challenger, among others.

Key issues in the heavily Latino district--Orange County’s largest--remain overcrowding, academic excellence, lowering the district’s dropout rate of 26% and garnering more state funds.

But unlike years past, the campaign leading up to the Tuesday election has been very low-key, say candidates as well as former and current board members.

It’s hard to even know there’s a school board election going on, said former board member Joan Wilkinson, who resigned two years ago. “The only clues I’ve gotten is that I see a lot of campaign signs up,” she joked.

Audrey Yamagata-Noji, one of a slate of three teachers’ union-endorsed candidates who swept the polls in the 1987 election, called this year’s contest “unusually quiet.”

“In the last race, (the candidates) were bumping all over each other,” she said. “This is totally different.”

The Santa Ana Educators Assn. this year is backing Richard C. Hernandez, an Orange Coast College program administrator, and Robert W. Balen, a project manager for an Irvine traffic engineering firm. The union represents about 1,950 teachers, counselors and other certificated employees in the district, which has more than 42,000 students from grades kindergarten through high school.

If reelected, incumbent James A. Richards, who is seeking his third four-year term, would be the only member with more than two years of experience on the board. Veteran Mary J. Pryer is retiring after serving on the board since 1971.

Such a complete turnover could pose a problem if there is no one on the board who knows about past policies, say some school board veterans, including Wilkinson, who said she supports Richards because of his experience.

“There would be a lot of wheels spinning,” she said.

Richards also has the endorsement of Pryer, a conservative force on the board. In two previous elections, Pryer ran on a slate with Richards calling for “back-to-basics” education. Pryer tentatively supports newcomer Karen K. Torrence, a fund-raising consultant, who describes herself as more of a moderate than a conservative, and supports back-to-basics education.

Yamagata-Noji, a relative newcomer herself, said lack of experience “will not be a major handicap.”

She is supporting Emilio (Dick) DeLaCruz, a program assistant at Coastline Community College in Fountain Valley.

Current board president, Robert L. Richardson, has endorsed Balen, while fellow board member Sal Mendoza is backing Hernandez.

Also running is Ron Heike, a local businessman and community leader, who said tougher managers are needed in the school district. “The school district’s been too lax in getting more money from the state. The district needs more hands-on management on the board,” he said.

Also on the ballot is Art H. Hoffman, 33, a technical writer who has run unsuccessfully for several local offices, including the 40th Congressional District seat. Hoffman is a supporter of Lyndon LaRouche, the ultraconservative former presidential contender who is now in prison for mail fraud and conspiracy.

“As a school board member I would put pressure on the police to start investigating crimes as part of a bigger Satanic operation,” Hoffman said in an interview.

Compared to past elections where tempers flared and candidates ran neck-and-neck, this year’s election has been mellow. And candidates espouse moderate views, instead of the polarized positions of years past.

That has left some people very perplexed.

“This whole race has left me baffled,” Pryer said. “Everybody sounds the same. I don’t know which way to jump.”

In the previous election, school board members Sadie Reid-Benham and James Ward were voted out when the teachers’ union supported Richardson, Mendoza and Yamagata-Noji. (Wilkinson, who held the third seat up for reelection that year, stepped down.)

The union’s main concern in that election had been low morale and having an agency shop, school board members say.

The union is again taking an active role in the election by volunteering for the supported candidates, said Rick Bryan, president of the union. The union chose to endorse Balen and Hernandez because they will get along with the other school board members, Bryan said.

This year’s race also marks the first time when Latinos could gain a majority of seats on the Santa Ana school board. Mendoza, an insurance businessman, is now the only Latino member. He became the first Latino elected in Santa Ana since 1979. In the upcoming election, there are two Latino candidates, DeLaCruz and Hernandez.

SANTA ANA UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT CANDIDATES On Tuesday voters in the Santa Ana Unified School District, Orange County’s largest, will choose candidates for two at-large seats on the Board of Trustees. If reelected, incumbent James A. Richards, who is seeking his third four-year term, would be the only member with more than two years of experience on the board. The other seat is open with the retirement of Mary J. Pryer.