ELECTIONS: INGLEWOOD SCHOOL BOARD : Elected Colleagues Hail Challenger's Victory Over Incumbent

By GEORGE HATCH

June 6, 1991 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

Wait a minute.

When incumbents are beaten badly, their colleagues should be nervous, right? After all, isn’t the ouster of one elected official often a reflection on the rest?

Try telling that to members of the Inglewood school board, who were rejoicing Wednesday over the gaping 68.5% to 31.5% runoff loss that board incumbent Zyra McCloud suffered at the hands of challenger Loystene Irvin.

“I’m thrilled,” said school board President Lois Hill-Hale. “This vote shows people have confidence in us and in my presidency.”

Said board member Joe Rouzan: “I think it’s a clear mandate for us.”

The unusual reactions provided a fitting conclusion to the campaign leading up to Tuesday’s runoff, which determined who will represent District 5 on the Inglewood Unified School District’s board of trustees.

Although she was the incumbent, McCloud portrayed herself as an outsider battling a school board that is hopelessly out of touch with parents. And Irvin, the challenger, stressed the need to cooperate with school authorities rather than barraging them with self-serving criticism.

For her efforts, Irvin won the endorsements of all four of McCloud’s board colleagues and several other key elected officials. The lay Pentecostal minister’s message also appeared persuasive at the polls.

Although turnout in Tuesday’s runoff was a paltry 8.5%, Irvin won by more than a 2-1 margin, 2,289 votes to 1,054, carrying the absentee vote and all but three of the 34 precincts.

“I’m very happy about the outcome,” said Irvin, whose four-year term starts June 16. “I will offer a supportive atmosphere for the board, the administration and the whole district.”

McCloud, after learning of her defeat on Tuesday night, said Irvin’s election would produce a docile board--and carte blanche authority for District Supt. George McKenna. McCloud repeatedly clashed with McKenna during school board meetings.

“I see the direction of the board being out of the hands of parents,” said McCloud, a former parent activist elected to the board in 1987. “I feel the board will be under the dictatorship of McKenna. Everything is going to go his way.”

She added: “It’s very sad that people bought into the cooperation thing. What Irvin is really talking about is collusion.”

School board members Wednesday disputed McCloud’s forecast, saying the runoff amounted to a repudiation of McCloud’s combative style--and an endorsement of a calmer, more cooperative approach to problem-solving.

The public, they said, disapproved of actions such as McCloud’s support last year for students who walked out of Morningside High School to protest deteriorated bathrooms, outdated textbooks and other problems.

“She was just too disruptive,” Hill-Hale said Wednesday. “The public found out about it and said it didn’t want this type of person serving on the board.”

Terry Coleman, president of the United Democratic Club of Inglewood, one of two Democratic Party organizations in the city, agreed that McCloud’s tactics were too combative for the tastes of voters.

“You don’t get something changed by taking a baseball bat and popping people,” Coleman, who remained neutral in the race, remarked as the size of Irvin’s victory became clear at City Hall Tuesday night. “You have to work with people. And that was her downfall; she abandoned other members of her team.”

Tuesday’s runoff was scheduled after Irvin failed to win more than 50% of the vote in a three-way race for the seat on April 2. Irvin placed first in that contest with 47.4% of the vote. McCloud came in second with 31%, and Sandra Mack, a beauty salon owner, placed third with 21.6%.

Both the runoff and the earlier race were replete with accusations of stealing signs, claiming false endorsements and other dirty tricks. But having emerged as the winner, Irvin said Wednesday that she is eager to begin working on school district issues--the most immediate of which is resolving a projected $2.8-million shortfall for the 1991-92 school year.

In the long term, she says, her top three goals for the district are improved student scoring on standardized achievement tests, tightened security on campus to reduce gang-related violence and better maintenance of school buildings.

Irvin said that, to achieve the testing and security goals, she will push for more test-preparation in student lesson plans and tighter checking student IDs on campus. As for school maintenance, Irvin said she has developed a plan but is not yet prepared to disclose it.

In the campaign, she proposed creating a nonprofit foundation to raise additional money for schools. But she declined after her victory to say whether the proposal would form the basis of her school maintenance plan.

“All I can say now is that we have a plan that’s ready to go involving the whole community,” Irvin said.

McCloud, meanwhile, said she would consult her husband and children before deciding whether to resume her role as a parent activist. Should she do so, she added, she will put an abrupt end to the the post-runoff relief that school board members are feeling.

“If they think they had problems when I was on the board, they haven’t seen anything yet,” McCloud said.

ELECTION RESULTS: INGLEWOOD

Inglewood Unified School District Board

Seat 5

34 of 34 Precincts Reporting

CANDIDATE VOTE % Loystene Irvin 2,289 68.5 Zyra McCloud ** 1,054 31.5

PALOS VERDES

Palos Verdes Library District

Proposition D--Bonds *

40 of 40 Precincts Reporting

VOTE % Yes 4,266 69.88 No 1,838 30.11

LOS ANGELES