Horton Leading for Goldberg Seat; Race for Walters’ Is Close : Schools: Barbara Boudreaux and Sterling Delone may face off June 4. Incumbents Leticia Quezada and Warren Furutani easily winning reelection.

Teacher Jeff Horton was leading comfortably in the race to succeed his mentor, Jackie Goldberg, on the Los Angeles Board of Education, while a runoff election appeared likely in the hotly contested race for the board’s only other open seat, incomplete returns from Tuesday’s municipal primary indicated.

Elementary school principal Barbara Boudreaux and teacher Sterling Delone appeared to be headed for a June 4 runoff to succeed retiring Rita Walters, while Walters’ choice, attorney Charles E. Dickerson III, was trailing in third place.

Incumbent Leticia Quezada was cruising to an easy victory over former school board member Richard E. Ferraro in the Eastside’s 5th District. And incumbent Warren Furutani, of the Watts-to-San Pedro 7th District, was soundly defeating carpenter Timothy E. McKinney.

Horton said his strong showing was a sign that voters “wanted someone with expertise, someone who knows the district, the neighborhoods, the schools, the business.

“At the same time, they wanted someone who is going to take the fight for more resources to Sacramento, Washington . . . to wherever it is the resources are being held up.”

United Teachers-Los Angeles, the Los Angeles Unified School District’s powerful teachers union, poured money, mail and volunteers into the contests. President Helen Bernstein said the union raised $79,000 in three weeks, most of which went to the Delone and Horton campaigns, with some going to the Furutani campaign. Although endorsed by UTLA, Quezada, who did most of her fund raising before the candidates’ filing period closed, did not seek financial help from the union.

Like other districts in California, Los Angeles is heavily dependent on funding from the state, which is facing a deficit approaching $13 billion. The district, anticipating budget cuts of as much as $317 million next year, has sent more than 2,100 layoff notices to teachers, librarians, counselors, school psychologists and nurses.

Bernstein said the union wants to make sure that it has a school board that is “at least accessible” to teachers.

The hotly contested race for the seat in the 1st District--which stretches west from South-Central Los Angeles to Baldwin Hills, Crenshaw and View Park--drew eight contestants. But the contest quickly settled into a three-way battle between Boudreaux, Delone and Dickerson, all of whom were able to outspend the other candidates.

Boudreaux, a 31-year district employee and the principal of Marvin Avenue Elementary School, had strong backing from many district administrators, including the newly unionized Associated Administrators of Los Angeles, which represents principals and assistant principals.

She raised at least $20,000 for the race and had the endorsement of Assembly Speaker Willie Brown (D-San Francisco).

Delone drew strength from solid UTLA backing and the support of longtime friend and colleague Goldberg, who did not seek reelection to her 3rd District seat, and her group of activists. Delone grew up in South-Central Los Angeles and graduated from Washington High School. He has taught social studies for the district for 16 years. U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles), several area Assembly members and board incumbent Furutani endorsed him. He had raised almost $65,000, almost two-thirds from UTLA.

Besides the backing of Walters, who chose to run for City Council instead of seeking a fourth term on the board, Dickerson had the endorsement of Mayor Tom Bradley, U.S. Rep. Julian Dixon (D-Los Angeles) and retiring Councilman Robert Farrell. He had raised about $40,000, including a $25,000 loan from himself, by the most recent campaign finance reporting deadline, records at City Hall show.

Dickerson chaired the task force that fashioned a controversial, compromise “common calendar” for most of the district’s 842 schools and centers. The calendar, adopted by the board earlier this month, paves the way for year-round operation of all schools as a means of relieving crowding.

In the 3rd District, Horton was the choice not only of UTLA--which provided $34,000 of the nearly $57,000 he had raised by late March--but also of the close-knit group of community activists that brought Goldberg, the board’s high-profile president, to office eight years ago.

But retired teacher and principal Stan Bunyan, who enjoyed backing from the administrators’ union and had raised about $32,000 by late last month, put on an energetic campaign. Former board member Tony Trias, a longtime businessman in the district--which includes Hollywood, Silver Lake, Echo Park, Mid-Wilshire and the Olympic corridor--was not able to raise as much as either Horton or Bunyan. He was counting on ties in the community and name recognition from his tenure on the school board before being defeated by Goldberg in 1983.

The predominantly minority district, the nation’s second largest after New York City, enrolls nearly 800,000 students, about 625,000 in kindergarten through 12th grade and the rest in adult schools and skills centers.