Veto Saves Election System of Schools : Politics: Gov. Wilson’s rejection of bill allows school district to continue electing board members at-large instead of by districts.

The Hacienda La Puente 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 Hacienda La Puente 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.”

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

Hacienda La Puente’s schools are 57.3% Latino, 19.3% Anglo, 14.7% Asian, 5.3% black, 2.5% Filipino, 0.5% American Indian and 0.4% Pacific Islander. The district had 24,792 students in the 1989-90 school year, when the bill was drafted.

Board President Ken Manning praised the veto, saying he agreed with Wilson that local voters should decide the election format. “I think for the state to mandate it would have been overstepping its bounds,” he said.

But school board member William Torres, who supported the bill, expressed concern that voters were missing a chance to diversify the five-member board and encourage people from small communities to run.

“I’m disappointed,” Torres said. “A district of this size geographically and with a diverse population would have given more people an opportunity to express an interest. We would have had more representation for people.”

According to the bill, at-large elections in the Hacienda La Puente and other districts 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.”

But Manning, who has been on the board for 12 years, said he has served with Asian and Latino board members in the past. “I’ve seen representatives from a wide variety of ethnicities,” he said. “There’s no way a five-member board can represent every single ethnicity.”

Despite criticizing the governor’s veto, Torres said the Hacienda La Puente board was fairly representative of its area. There are two Latino members: Torres of Hacienda Heights and Yvonne Garcia of La Puente.

The district serves La Puente and the City of Industry, as well as the unincorporated county areas of Hacienda Heights and Valinda.