SAN GABRIEL VALLEY SCHOOL ELECTIONS : School Board Races Fail to Attract Large Field of Candidates : Education: Among 25 districts due to hold elections, seven cancel them for lack of challengers.

On the Nov. 5 ballot, school board members will be selected in 17 San Gabriel Valley districts, and voters in two districts will be asked to adopt property tax increases to make up for dwindling school funding.

Enthusiasm for the school board seats has been slack, however, in many districts. Several have had only one or two challengers enter the race.

Seven of the 25 districts scheduled to have elections canceled them because there were not enough candidates. In these districts, unchallenged incumbents are retaining their seats, and in some cases new candidates are winning by default.

Parcel tax initiatives, which would add a flat tax increase to all property owners, have been put on the ballot by school boards in Claremont and South Pasadena, where school superintendents say they have been hard hit by a decline in revenues from the state this year.

The initiatives would add a $97 assessment to each parcel in Claremont and $100 to those in South Pasadena. Claremont’s tax is slated to raise slightly more than $1 million annually for eight years. The South Pasadena tax would raise about $600,000 annually for four years. Both districts hope to reduce class size, acquire instructional materials and improve facilities.

Under the terms of Proposition 13, the 1978 property tax limitation initiative, the measures require a two-thirds majority to be approved.

“The people in Sacramento are having a tough time of it right now, we know,” said Jess Swick, president of the Claremont Chamber of Commerce, which voted unanimously to support the measure at its Sept. 24 meeting. “That’s why we decided we had to do something at the local level.”

Officials in Claremont, where the initiative is being referred to as “Proposition A,” and South Pasadena, where it is called “Measure F,” report no organized opposition as yet, but say tax increases are always difficult to pass.

In recent years, parcel tax measures have failed in La Canada Flintridge and Beverly Hills. Supporters of the La Canada parcel tax are trying again on the Nov. 5 ballot.

Two years ago, the South Pasadena school board put a similar parcel tax measure on the ballot, but it fell short by about 3%, said Supt. Lou Joseph.

Joseph attributed that loss to strong opposition from the city’s senior citizens, many of whom live on fixed incomes. But the district isn’t making the same mistake this year, he said.

Both South Pasadena and Claremont would allow seniors to apply for exemptions from the tax, and Claremont would also exempt disabled people.

“We’re more optimistic this year, now that we don’t have the seniors after us,” Joseph said. “The climate for passage looks much better.”

However, the climate of the campaigning in the 17 school board elections has been mild. Most of the 93 candidates whose names will appear on the ballot are running on the issues of personal character, commitment and expertise on school matters. A “return to basics” is the most frequently stated campaign slogan.

Many candidates are taking their roles so casually that they failed to respond to queries from The Times asking about their campaigns. Only two races mustered large fields of candidates. Eleven are running for two seats in the Azusa district, and nine are seeking three seats in the Charter Oak district.

Of the 25 school districts that have expiring board terms, the following will fill them without contest: Bonita Unified, El Monte City, El Monte Union, Garvey, Monrovia Unified, Rosemead, San Gabriel and Valle Lindo.

Seven of those districts canceled their elections, saving up to $30,000 in ballot expenses; Bonita will hold an election even though the fourth candidate for three seats dropped out after the ballots were printed.

Some district officials were distressed by the apparent apathy but not entirely surprised. “It’s a thankless job even at the best of times,” said Jeff Seymour, superintendent of the El Monte City School District, which will not be holding an election this year because one incumbent and one new applicant are not being challenged.

“I think it’s a sign of the times that could be distressing,” Seymour said. “People just assume someone else is going to do the job.”

Some district superintendents disagreed with Seymour and said the reason they have no challengers this year is that the current board members are doing such a fine job.

Patrick Sayne, superintendent of the Valle Lindo School District, said, “When people are comfortable with the way things are, they don’t try to change it.”

El Monte city school board member Robert Peviani expressed surprise when informed that seven other districts in addition to his would not be holding elections. “But I guess it makes sense,” he said. “I didn’t sign up until a couple of days before the deadline because I wasn’t sure I wanted to make another four-year commitment.

“Even when you do your best at this job,” Peviani said, “people are never going to agree with you when you’re forced to cut their kids’ school programs.”