Former Mayor, Activists Win Seats on Board

Former Mayor Richard A. Stone and parent-activists Phillip A. Harris and Lillian Raffel emerged from a crowded field to win seats on the Beverly Hills school board in Tuesday’s election.

In the contest for the remaining seat, Peggy Elliott Goldwyn, the only incumbent on the ballot, held a six-vote lead over the nearest challenger, AJ Willmer, with an undetermined number of absentee ballots to be counted. Election officials said it may take a week or more before a winner is determined.

In a 12-candidate race for three full four-year terms on the board, Stone, an accountant and attorney who served on the City Council from 1968 to 1980, was the top vote-getter with 1,620 votes. Harris, a business executive who has been active in a parent-teacher group called Children 1st, was second with 1,511 votes. Incumbent Goldwyn was third with 1,463 votes, trailed by Willmer with 1457.

In a separate race to fill a two-year unexpired term, Raffel received 1,542 votes to easily defeat three other candidates. She was 465 votes ahead of the second-place candidate, Michael Karlin.

Should Goldwyn lose, board member Dana Tomarken, whose term runs until 1993, would be the only person on the five-member school board who is not new.

“I’m very grateful for the vote from the community,” Stone said Wednesday. One of the first things he said he would do is work on streamlining district spending to stay within a tight budget. He said he would also try to meet teachers’ demands for better health benefits.

“I take it as a personal initiative to move forward actively and restore to the district some of the luster it had,” he said.

Harris’ victory came despite criticism raised during the campaign about the role played by Harris and Children 1st in the 1989 teachers strike, during which the group stepped in on the teachers’ side and was accused by some board members and administrators of meddling.

“I think the election showed a tribute to the legitimacy of Children 1st,” Harris said.

He said he plans to continue to attend Children 1st meetings, among other community meetings, but added, “I can think independently and I will.”

Among his first goals as a board member are increasing the use of computer technology in classrooms to supplement teaching, and getting the community more involved in decision-making for the district.

Goldwyn was not available for comment. Willmer said he is hanging hopefully for the final results.

“It’s a dead heat at this point,” he said. Regardless of the outcome, “it’s been an interesting experience. Depending on the situation two years from now, I’ll be running again.”

Raffel said her first order of business as a school board member will be to study a proposal for a new middle school. The proposal, which would create a sixth-through-eighth-grade school, will be the first major decision facing the new board.

“I look forward to serving on the board and addressing the concerns and needs of the community,” she said.

Beverly Hills Unified School District 3 Elected 100% Precincts Reporting: Votes (%) Richard A. Stone: 1,620 (16.2%) Phillip A. Harris: 1,511 (15.1%) Peggy Elliott Goldwyn *: 1,463 (14.6%) AJ Willmer: 1,457 (14.6%) Victor J. Weiner: 1,067 (10.7%) Steve Dahlerbruch: 780 (7.8%) Anna R. McLinn: 740 (7.4%) Dan Himelstein: 658 (6.6%) Michael B. Flesch: 364 (3.6%) Walter P. Maynard: 180 (1.8%) Lori Chapman: 151 (1.5%) Third winner to be determined by absentee ballots

Partial Term 1 Elected 100% Precincts Reporting: Votes (%) Lillian Raffel: 1,542 (41.6%) Michael Karlin: 1,077 (29.1%) Jack Cohen: 662 (17.9%) Trisha Roth: 315 (8.5%) Phillip Scheid: 107 (2.9%)

Culver City Unified School District 2 Elected 100% Precincts Reporting: Votes (%) Michael W. Eskridge: 2,709 (36.4%) Madeline M. Ehrlich: 2,442 (32.8%) Bess Drust *: 2,283 (30.7%)

Culver City Unified School District 100% Precincts Reporting: Votes (%) E--Special Parcel Tax. Requires Two-Thirds Vote. Yes: 2,766 (60.3%) No: 1,824 (39.7%)

Key to Election Tables

* An asterisk (*) denotes incumbent candidate.

* Elected candidates and measures--or those leading with 99% of precincts reporting, are in bold type.

* Partial Term indicates that the election is to complete the remaining term of a vacated office.