ELECTIONS : 2 School Districts Lose Campaigns for Tax Increase

Two local school districts Tuesday lost their campaigns to generate badly needed revenue by increasing property taxes.

Parcel tax increases in the Claremont and South Pasadena unified school districts were each supported by a majority of voters but failed to gain the required two-thirds majority. The vote in the South Pasadena district was particularly close, with the proposed $100-a-year increase falling just 3 percentage points shy of the 66.7% mark. Two years ago, a similar tax measure failed by an identical margin.

In the Claremont district, the proposed $97-a-year increase was backed by 54.7% of the voters, meaning it lost by 12 percentage points.

The two-thirds requirement is mandated by Proposition 13, the anti-tax initiative passed by California voters in 1978.

The losses were part of a countywide trend. Parcel tax initiatives were also defeated in school districts in Culver City, El Segundo, La Canada Flintridge and Las Virgenes, and a related tax hike lost in the Newhall school district.

Claremont and South Pasadena school officials had planned to use the funds to pay for reducing class sizes, buying instructional materials and improving maintenance of facilities. Now, district officials say their only hope is that the economy will improve and that next year’s state budget will be in better shape to support them.

School board elections were held Tuesday in 17 San Gabriel Valley districts, and in all but three of the elections incumbents who were on the ballot won reelection. The exceptions were in the Mountain View School District and the Rowland and San Marino unified school districts.

In each case, two incumbents were ousted--James Galvan and Armando Esparza in the Mountain View district, Robert Wilson and Phil Anderson in the Rowland district and Selma Sax and Frederick Sears in the San Marino district.

Replacing them were Georgino George Caraveo and Margie Ruiz in Mountain View, Pete Lamphere and Jerre Davenport in Rowland and Bob Gayl and Bruce F. Rutherford in San Marino.

Galvan, a 30-year-member of the Mountain View school board, called unions representing district employees “the main force in my defeat.”

He said the board’s decision to construct an administrative building at Payne Elementary School was unpopular, along with hour reductions and layoffs affecting most district employees.

School Supt. Julian T. Lopez added that Galvan and Esparza “had to make some tough (budget) decisions, and that never endears you to the people who are affected by those cuts.”

In San Marino, a territorial decision may have led to the defeat of the two incumbents, according to Supt. Gary Richards. He said Sears and Sax were sharply criticized for the board’s decision to transfer territory from South Pasadena to the San Marino district. Some parents expressed concern that the district’s expansion will cause larger class sizes.