Critics of At-Large School Board Assail Veto : Elections: Governor’s action to kill measure requiring single-member districts perpetuates a lack of representation, one official says.

The ABC Unified School District has weathered an attempt to change the way board members are elected.

Gov. Pete Wilson earlier this month vetoed a bill that would have forced ABC and several other districts to elect board members by geographic area rather than at-large.

“I do not believe it is appropriate for the state to mandate the form of election used by a local school district governing board,” Wilson said in a written statement. “This is, and should remain, a matter of local control.”

District critics, who expressed concern that the seven-member board is dominated by Cerritos residents, criticized the governor’s veto and vowed to continue their efforts to push for a more representative school board.

Most district officials praised the veto, saying they agreed with Wilson that local voters should decide the election format. “The local residents are the only ones who have to live with them,” ABC board member Catherine Grant said.

The legislation, which singled out ABC for criticism, would have allowed a voter to choose only from candidates who live in the voter’s district. Currently, six of the seven school board members reside in Cerritos, which has the largest population and the most school-age students of the eight cities served by ABC. The district covers all of Artesia and Hawaiian Gardens, nearly all of Cerritos and parts of Norwalk, Lakewood, Santa Fe Springs, Long Beach and La Palma.

Hawaiian Gardens City Council member Kathleen Navejas led the fight to pass the bill. She believes that Latinos in her city are not given proper attention by the Cerritos-dominated board.

“(The veto) is keeping people in communities with a high percent of minorities from having people elected to represent their communities,” Navejas said. “The focus, with regard to quality of education, is on gifted children. There are very few Hawaiian Gardens children who have made it through school. (The school board) is not focusing on the education of these kids.”

According to the bill, at-large elections in the ABC district have “resulted in a lack of representation on the board of residents in certain parts of the district and of residents who are members of ethnic minorities. As a result of that lack of representation, the district has not accorded appropriate attention to the educational needs of all pupils in the district.”

District officials, including Supt. Larry Lucas, objected to the language criticizing the district.

“I think it (Wilson’s veto) was an appropriate action as it related to ABC because of the inaccurate, very inappropriate and hostile amendment . . . that was not based on fact,” Lucas said. Lucas did not favor or oppose election districts in principle, but said the matter should be decided locally, not by the state Legislature.

If passed, the bill would have required district elections in school systems with at least 24,000 students and a school population that is at least 25% minority. The bill was authored by Assemblyman Pete Chacon (D-San Diego).

The ABC school district was added by name because it has 21,000 students--3,000 below the minimum enrollment established in the bill. Officials from Artesia, Norwalk and Hawaiian Gardens asked that ABC be included, legislative consultant Jon Ballesteros said.

Past board members have included blacks, Asians and Latinos. The current board has one Asian and one Latino member. All live in Cerritos except for Dean Criss, a resident of Artesia.

Criss supported the bill but questioned “the accusation that ABC did not make an effort to provide equal education for every child in the school district. That language was very inappropriate.”

The way the electoral process works now discourages people from small communities from running for school board elections, Criss said. “I could have won all the votes cast in Artesia, Lakewood, Norwalk and Hawaiian Gardens and still not have had enough for a seat on the board. This means to be a candidate, you must have considerable backing from the people of the city of Cerritos.”