Honig Critic to Head State School Board : Education: Another year of battling between the panel and the schools chief seems assured.

At an acrimonious meeting of the State Board of Education on Friday, an arch-critic of state Supt. of Public Instruction Bill Honig was elected board president, assuring another year of battling between the panel and Honig.

Businessman Joseph Stein of Indian Wells will replace retired UCLA professor Joseph D. Carrabino, whose running feud with Honig has dominated most board meetings for the past two years.

Earlier, board member Marian McDowell, who sometimes sided with Honig, withdrew from the president’s race because she said the board majority appears preoccupied with winning the lawsuit it has filed against the schools chief in an attempt to gain more control over state education policy.

“I don’t want to be involved with that,” said McDowell, an administrator in the Sequoia Union High School District. “I would much rather spend my time on real issues,” such as helping to develop a new statewide testing program or the effort to restructure the state’s schools.

Board member Kenneth L. Peters, former superintendent of schools in Beverly Hills, said McDowell was “the most deserving and capable member of the board to be president” but had been driven from the race because she was not part of the “let’s hang Bill Honig” faction on the board.

The terms of both Carrabino and Peters, along with board member Dorothy J. Lee, also a Honig critic, expire Wednesday. Carrabino and Peters have told Gov. Pete Wilson they would like to be reappointed, but the governor has not made any decisions.

Stein has been a close ally of Carrabino in the effort to wrest power from Honig in such areas as budget and personnel policy. Stein voted with the majority to sue Honig to gain more power. The suit is under consideration by a three-judge panel of the 3rd District Court of Appeal.

Last month, Peters tried to persuade the board to drop the lawsuit but lost on a 6-4 vote.

Much of Friday’s meeting was spent behind closed doors, where Honig answered charges in a preliminary report by federal auditors that he was guilty of a conflict of interest in his relations with the Quality Education Project, a parental involvement program run by Honig’s wife, Nancy, until last week.

The draft audit report recommended that the State Board of Education refund $222,590 to the U.S. Department of Education.

The report said this amount was funneled improperly to QEP through the state Department of Education, with Honig’s help.

The board members invited Sefton Boyars, head of the U.S. Department of Education inspector general’s regional office in San Francisco, to brief them in executive session on the allegations.

However, Joseph R. Symkowick, counsel to both Honig and the board, said Boyars could appear in a meeting open to the public.

Later in the day, Boyars did appear at a public session but would not discuss specifics of the QEP case, citing a policy of not discussing charges in public until a final report has been released.

Honig said he would like to have a public discussion of the charges because, he said, “they’ve got a weak case--it won’t stand up to scrutiny.”