LOCAL ELECTIONS : TUSTIN SCHOOL BOARD : Resigned Superintendent Now Wants to Sit With Trustees

When the Tustin Unified School District’s longtime superintendent, Maurice A. Ross, announced his resignation last fall, he cited philosophical differences with school board members. Now he is running against two of them.

Although he is the only challenger to the two incumbents--Gloria Tuchman and Jane Bauer--the campaign promises to be a heated one.

Ross said he thinks that he can bring balance to the school board by representing the whole community.

“I’m very supportive of the teachers,” he said. “I don’t even have a quarrel with the union per se. I just think that even though you’re concerned about the employees, the students have to come first.”

By contrast, the current board tends to be accountable to the teachers union, he said.

Tuchman, a Santa Ana teacher, and Bauer, a lawyer who specializes in taxes and financial planning, dispute that.

“That doesn’t make sense,” Bauer said. “If this board were so controlled by the union, why would we have had so much animosity last spring?”

Teacher morale has been low in the district since a strike in 1985, just a month before Bauer and Tuchman were elected. In 1989, teachers issued a no-confidence vote for Ross; last spring many teachers stopped extracurricular activities and homework assignments and picketed to protest a lack of success in contract talks.

At packed board meetings, parents, teachers and students held signs to support the teachers and heaped insults on the board and administrators.

Fresh from their victory in unseating Councilman John Kelly last spring, Tustin Residents Action Committee leaders pledged to tackle the school board next. One of the group’s leaders took out candidacy papers but never filed them.

But instead, after interviewing all the candidates, group leaders decided to give incumbents a chance to work out the district’s problems. So the group now backs Tuchman and Bauer.

“We interviewed all the candidates and talked to many people in the district, and we felt that they were the better choice for the two seats,” said Carl Kasalek, a leader in the citizens group.

“We have had some concerns about what is going on in the district and the educational system,” he said, “and we are very much encouraged by what’s going on with Dr. (David) Andrews,” the new superintendent.

Kasalek and the two incumbents said it would be unfair to the new superintendent to bring back the old superintendent in the capacity of a board member.

“If he is elected, it would make it very difficult for the new superintendent, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he resigned,” Tuchman said.

Don Larson, president of the Tustin Educators Assn., said teacher morale has already started picking up under Andrews, so the union is backing the incumbents.

“Teachers cannot believe that a former superintendent would come in and try to be on the board and try to develop policies,” Larson said. “We feel he had 13 years to do that, and now he’s asking for another four years.”

Ross, however, said his 35 years in education and experience as a superintendent will serve him well on the school board.

“I now want to be a board member, not a superintendent,” he said. “There have been some people who have said it would be a difficult situation for the new superintendent. But having been a superintendent will be beneficial . . . because I understand the relationship between the board and the superintendent, and I understand the support the superintendent needs because I’ve been there.”

TUSTIN UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT Jane Bauer Age: 45 Occupation: Incumbent/attorney Background: Has been a school board member since 1985. Has bachelor’s degree from Cornell University, law degree from Western State University, involved in American Assn. of University Women, Bobby Sox. Issues: Updating the curriculum; improving communication among the board, administration and parents; forming a master plan on overall district growth, and placing emphasis on in-service training for teachers to update skills. Maurice A. Ross Age: 58 Occupation: Educational consultant Background: Has spent 35 years in education, including teaching and as a principal of a junior high school and high school. Served as superintendent of Norwalk-La Mirada School District and 13 years as Tustin superintendent. Issues: Representing parents, taxpayers, students and employees; continuing sound financial management of the district; emphasizing the district’s school refurbishing program and forming goals, objectives and priorities. Gloria Tuchman Age: 48 Occupation: Incumbent/teacher Background: Has been a school board member since 1985. Served as governmental relations chairwoman for California School Board Assn. and on other bodies, including a presidential appointment to Fund for the Improvement and Reform of Schools and Teaching Committee. Issues: Quality education with fiscal responsibility; long-range planning and curriculum improvements; improving child-care services; promoting professional contract negotiations, and curtailing gang activities.