New School Board President Has Rocky Debut : Centinela Valley: Racial tensions continue as Pam Sturgeon is accused of turning her back on blacks in the district.

Centinela Valley Union High School District trustee Pam Sturgeon had barely taken the gavel as the board’s new president Tuesday night when a board critic, who is black, accused her of currying the favor of the predominantly Latino board at the expense of blacks in the district.

“What (he) was saying is that I went and talked to the blacks, made friends with them and now I’m turning my back on them,” Sturgeon, who is white, said in an interview Thursday. “But that’s not true by any stretch of the imagination.”

The incident illustrates a continuation of racial tensions that have engulfed the district in the past year, and although the campuses recently have been quiet, the board’s meetings remain contentious.

Trustee Ruth Morales--who Tuesday stepped down from the presidency after serving a third one-year term since being elected to the board 12 years ago--presided over numerous raucous meetings in the past year. During the 1989-90 school year, students staged two walkouts, and several black employees filed complaints of racial harassment against the board.

At the same time, critics repeatedly accused the board of treating black employees and students unfairly. But board members, who deny the allegations, have said they have been the targets of a conspiracy to discredit them politically.

Commenting on her tenure in a press release issued Tuesday, Morales said, “There was a certain amount of joy, despite the problems and harassment of the past year, in knowing that in service (you are) making a difference with young people.”

In one of her first official actions as board president Tuesday, Sturgeon called sheriff’s deputies to the podium when community activist Stennis Floyd refused to obey board rules requiring that speakers refrain from insulting district employees.

Sturgeon, who praised Morales for doing “a really good job under the circumstances last year” as board president, said she hopes to “take control of the meetings” as well as her predecessor did.

The board also voted unanimously to name trustee Jacqueline Carrera as vice president and trustee Amparo Font as clerk.