ELECTIONS / SCHOOL DISTRICTS : Lawndale’s Growing Diversity Sparks 3 Lively Races for Board

No one would blame voters in three South Bay elementary school districts if they sleep through Election Day on Nov. 5. But if election watchers are left drowsy by uncontested races in the Hawthorne, Lennox and Wiseburn school districts, the contest for three seats on the five-member Lawndale School District’s board of trustees should wake them up.

Whereas the unopposed candidates have already been declared winners, three incumbents and three challengers are vying for control of the rapidly changing Lawndale School District in campaigns generating sparks to spare.

On one side are the incumbents, Diane Bollinger, Patsy Roth and Ann Phillips, who are running well-financed campaigns on a slate that trumpets improvements made in the district under their stewardship.

On the other side are challengers, Jerry Finley, Celia Barrios Jenkins and Shirley Rudolph, who, although not running as a slate, share a common complaint that the Lawndale trustees are out of touch with parents and the problems facing the district’s children.

Bollinger, Roth, Finley and Jenkins are running for two four-year terms. Phillips and Rudolph are competing for the remainder of an unexpired term that Phillips was appointed to last year. That term expires in two years.

Although the at-large, nonpartisan election is still several weeks off, both camps accuse the other of trying to undermine their campaigns with nasty rumors. Incumbents claim the challengers are trying to smear them by misrepresenting their records, while Finley blames trustees for false rumors that a local conservative church is bankrolling his campaign.

Finley and Jenkins say Bollinger and Roth have been on the board so long that they have lost their effectiveness. They, along with Rudolph, also criticize the trustees’ fiscal management of the district, saying their plans to sell surplus school sites to generate revenue will eventually lead to overcrowding.

“None of them, except Ann (Phillips) has children in Lawndale,” said Finley, who has a daughter in the seventh grade at Will Rogers Intermediate. “The school board is out of touch. They’re living in the ‘Leave It to Beaver’ age, and that’s not today’s . . . time.”

But Bollinger, who has been on the board 20 years, and Roth, who has been a trustee for 12 years, describe their experience as a plus.

They and Phillips, who has been a board member for 15 months, dismiss criticism of their fiscal judgments as “uninformed,” countering that most of the challengers only recently began attending board meetings.

The issues dividing the challengers and the incumbents reflect some of the changes the district has undergone in recent years.

The working-class city the district serves once was made up of young, largely Anglo families headed by men and women employed in blue-collar jobs.

When their children grew up, the parents stayed. But their children, unable to afford homes in the area, were forced to leave. And as they left, the flow of new students into the district declined and enrollment plummeted.

After hitting a peak of 7,016 students in 1968, the district’s student population began to drop through the 1970s until it fell to an all-time low of 3,974 in 1983. Eventually, four of the district’s 11 schools were closed.

Since then, as more affluent, older couples with children began moving back into Lawndale, enrollment in the school district has risen an average of 100 students a year.

The demographics of the expanding district reflect those of the city it serves. The district is now 41% Latino, 31% Anglo, 13% black and 10% Asian. Almost 30% of the district’s 4,332 students speak limited or no English.

In an attempt to cope with its growing diversity, the district has begun updating its curriculum and increasing opportunities for teacher development. It is participating in a pilot program that targets children at risk of dropping out of school. It also plans to train every teacher in the district to recognize how their expectations, particularly for minority children, affect students’ performance.

Challengers, however, describe the district’s efforts to deal with its multicultural student population as “too little, too late,” pointing to the number of intermediate-level children who are affiliated with gangs. “I can’t say they (the trustees) haven’t tried,” Jenkins said, “but I don’t think they have gone far enough.”

She and other challengers also accuse the trustees of having a “cavalier” attitude toward parents. One example, they claim, was the board’s unanimous adoption of the controversial “Impressions” reading series last year, which some parents claimed contained morbid and “satanic” material. Another, they say, was the decision to redraw school boundaries--a move that many parents criticized as hasty and disruptive.

In addition, the challengers criticize the trustees’ recent decision to negotiate for the sale or long-term lease of Jonas Salk School, a surplus site in Hawthorne, to raise revenue for the district. They said the site may be needed to house students and expressed concern that other sites, including the still-open Billy Mitchell School in Lawndale, may also be offered for sale or lease.

But school board members say they have never had more than informal discussions about selling or leasing Billy Mitchell, one of the district’s largest campuses. And although they deny they have ignored parents’ input in making decisions, they point out that it is impossible to please everyone.

“Some of the decisions we have to make aren’t always popular,” Bollinger said. “But I feel I thoroughly take a long, hard look at decisions, that I consider what other people say as well as look within myself.”

Unlike Lawndale’s school board contenders, the six unchallenged candidates for the Hawthorne, Lennox and Wiseburn school boards will take office without debate.

The following candidates will be sworn into four-year terms this December:

* Hawthorne: board member Buddy Takata, 62, and newcomer Jack Yee, 49.

* Lennox: board members Mary Davis, 63, and Carmen Martinez, 38.

* Wiseburn: board members Richard Mulligan, 40, and Richard Wilson, 59.

The Candidates

FOR 2 FOUR-YEAR TERMS Diane Bollinger Incumbent, 20 years Age: 54 Occupation: Food service supervisor Quote: “In 20 years, I have missed only three school board meetings, so I feel I am quite dedicated to the position. And I try to stay abreast of all things happening in education by attending workshops and keeping myself current.” Patsy A. Roth Incumbent, 12 years Age: 49 Occupation: First-grade teacher Quote: “I really feel we have become a hallmark district in the last four years or so in that we’re outstanding in everything. We’ve for many years tried to outgrow the idea that we’re not the best and we’re finally coming into our own.” Jerry Finley Challenger Age: 39 Occupation: Research and development at Northrop Quote: “The school board is out of touch. They are living in the ‘Leave It to Beaver’ age and that’s not today’s current time. There’s gangs, there’s divorce, there’s parents that are living with other people. You can’t run a school board like (it is your) home. You have to run it like the sick community it is.” Celia Barrios Jenkins Challenger Age: 48 Occupation: Customer service manager Quote: “It bothers me that there’s nothing in the city of Lawndale for the children. Nothing. There’s stuff for the little ones, but nothing for the older kids. That’s why they start hanging out and becoming gang members. A lot of that is boredom.”

FOR 1 TWO-YEAR TERM Ann Phillips Incumbent, 15 months Age: 35 Occupation: Mother, homemaker Quote: “My main concern is that the children’s needs are met. I would like to see more extracurricular activities back in the program, things like fine arts, music and sports. I understand that because of the budget, some of these things had to be cut. But my main focus is that I think every child is gifted in one way or another.” Shirley Rudolph Challenger Age: 49 Occupation: Lawndale Parks and Recreation commissioner Quote: “I’ve been on (Lawndale’s) Parks and Recreation Commission since 1982 and have been active in Little League for many years. I feel that I want to improve the mind now that I’ve improved their bodies. . . . I’ve devoted my life to young people and I would do anything I could to help one child.”