Local Elections : HUNTINGTON BEACH SCHOOL DISTRICT : Hard-Fought Board Races Cap an Acrimonious Year

After a year that has seen a worsening budget crisis, the controversial departure of the superintendent and an exodus of other administrators and teachers, the Huntington Beach City School District is set for what promises to be a vigorously contested school board race.

Seven candidates--three incumbents and four challengers--are vying for three seats in the Nov. 6 election. The victors will be faced with the task of restoring harmony to a board that has been torn by frequent infighting among members, a lengthy teachers’ labor dispute and the dismissal of Supt. Diana Peters.

Board President Sherry Barlow and Trustee Patricia Cohen, both nine-year members of the board, are each making third reelection bids largely on the promise to continue the district’s goals and direction of the past decade.

In the other corner is Trustee Robert Mann, an independent voice of dissent on the board since his election in 1987. Mann argues that the status quo is misdirected and is calling for greater communication both within the district and with parents, while favoring more power for teachers and the channeling of more money into educational programs.

The challengers, representing a divergent range of viewpoints, are also clamoring for changes in the district, particularly stressing the need to enhance communication and bridge the divisions on the board.

Shirley Carey, a health consultant and active community volunteer, and Brian Garland, a former board member and current principal at Edison High School, both support many of the viewpoints Mann has advocated. Both, for example, favor giving teachers a greater voice in district decisions and spending more money on programs and, if possible, teachers’ salaries.

Not coincidentally, Carey, Garland and Mann are endorsed by the Huntington Beach Elementary Teachers Assn.

Meanwhile, challengers Michael Cassidy, a lawyer and former police officer, and Brian Rechsteiner, an oil company executive, take a more conservative approach to proposing change. Both, for example, say they support teachers’ issues but question whether the union leadership accurately represents those concerns.

Because of the problems facing the board, many observers--including the candidates on the Nov. 6 ballot other than Barlow and Cohen--view the district as being in disarray.

Trustees were compelled this year to withdraw $200,000 from district reserves to balance the budget. Last year’s teachers’ contract negotiations were bitter and prolonged, marked by teachers who picketed, denounced trustees, threatened to strike and boycotted many school activities.

But the issue that perhaps most threatens to further divide the district is the board’s decision in July to buy out Peters’ contract three years before it was scheduled to expire.

The board paid Peters more than $140,000 in exchange for her resignation. However, under a gag order included in the buyout agreement, neither the board nor Peters has elaborated on the “philosophical differences” they say led to her departure.

All of the candidates say they hope to put the issue behind them, but Peters’ dismissal will inevitably be a focal point of the campaign.

Carey, for example, recently issued a news release attempting to dispel rumors that she is endorsed by Peters.

Both Barlow and Cohen have to wrestle with the legally binding gag order, while trying to explain why they joined the board majority in giving Peters a pay raise and contract extension through 1993--less than a year before paying her to leave.

Meanwhile, Mann, who opposed Peters’ raise and contract extension, and the challengers also must field questions about Peters’ administration and her departure. Since the new board will be appointing her successor, its views on Peters’ managerial style, which will weigh heavily into that decision, must be addressed during the campaign.

Among the challengers, Cassidy has perhaps stated the most defined viewpoint on the Peters issue. “I think she did a heckuva job,” he said of the former superintendent. “I don’t know why (trustees) did what they did.”

Rechsteiner said he believes that the district’s educational programs reflect well on Peters, but he considers the teachers union’s two votes of no confidence in Peters a significant strike against her administration.