Parents Will Fight School Remap Plan : Education: Critics say a Westside district should not be split up to create a Latino seat.

With only one day left to submit alternative proposals, parents from the Westside to the San Fernando Valley have vowed to fight a plan that would reapportion the Los Angeles Unified School District, giving Latinos more political power but diluting the strength of existing voting blocs.

The plan, drafted by the Latino Redistricting Coalition of Los Angeles, would increase the political power of Latinos voting in the nation’s second-largest school district by extending the existing Eastside district, currently represented by Leticia Quezada, into the Valley, and creating a second heavily Latino district that combines communities around downtown Los Angeles with several southeast cities.

But if implemented, the plan would eliminate the Westside board seat held by Mark Slavkin, moving parts of his district into areas represented by three other board members.

Additionally, sections of the Valley would have the same board representatives as East Los Angeles and parts of the Westside. Currently, the Valley encompasses two board districts. The plan protects the districts currently represented by a black and an Asian.

Critics of the plan emphasize that they are not opposed to creating a second seat for a Latino. But they say their districts are united by shared concerns as well as geography and should not be split up to make a second Latino seat possible.

“The Valley needs to be considered--it has unique needs,” said Diana Dixon-Davis of the Parent Teacher Student Assn.’s Valley chapter. “You don’t strip it down into little pieces and give it to downtown.”

Dixon-Davis said her organization is working against the clock to meet Thursday’s deadline for submitting alternative plans to the Los Angeles City Council. Under an obscure section of the City Charter, the council must not only redraw its own district lines but also adjust school district boundaries after every census to reflect population changes. Though the council has allowed the public to submit plans and make comments on the redistricting issue since last month, the Latino coalition is the only group to have submitted a proposal so far. The council must adopt a plan by July 1.

As of March, Latinos formed a majority of voters only in Quezada’s district and no more than 16% of voters in any other board district. Latinos account for about 40% of the city’s population but their numbers have grown more dramatically in the school district--from 39.5% of students in 1981 to 64.4% last year.

Dixon-Davis said her PTA chapter is trying to produce a map of its own that would provide for a second Latino board seat but preserve the Valley as a voting bloc separate from the rest of Los Angeles. Under her proposal, a Latino seat in the Valley could be created by taking the northeastern areas, such as San Fernando and Pacoima, and combining them with Reseda and Canoga Park.

She added that she believed the Thursday deadline was imposed to limit the number of opposing plans. “It seems pretty clear that they’re rushing this through,” Dixon-Davis said. “I think an inside track was created so that the district meets the needs of Latinos, but ignores the needs of the Valley and the Westside.”

But Alan Clayton, research chair of the Latino coalition dismissed the accusation. “That is a ludicrous charge,” he said. “There were seven public hearings. This process has been going on for a month. Anybody had an opportunity to start drawing a map.”

The coalition’s plan would give Quezada, the only Latino on the school board, a new 73% Latino district. She would pick up Valley neighborhoods from board colleague Roberta Weintraub, and in turn give up communities around downtown Los Angeles and the heavily Latino cities of Bell, Cudahy, Huntington Park and South Gate. Those areas would form a new 80% Latino district with no incumbent. Latinos would make up 47% of the voters in each of the two districts.

However, the plan would place Slavkin’s Westside home in the mostly black district represented by board colleague Barbara Boudreaux, who would also gain the Mar Vista and Palms areas. Part of Brentwood and West Hollywood would be added to Jeff Horton’s current district, which sweeps from East Hollywood to the Central City. And the coastal area stretching from Westchester north through Pacific Palisades would be added to Julie Korenstein’s Valley District.

Ronald Deaton, assistant chief legislative analyst at City Hall, explained that the Thursday cutoff date was set to allow the council’s redistricting committee enough time to examine all plans and devise its final version in time for the council’s July deadline.

On the Westside, parent activists banding together as the Westside Coalition are considering submitting their own plan, as well as pledging to write letters, phone council members and apply political pressure to keep their district intact. They say they object to the breaking up of a district united by a high level of parental involvement, a willingness to experiment with innovative educational programs, and the shared problems of being receiver schools under a program that buses students from overcrowded neighborhood campuses to less crowded schools.

“No one is objecting to the additional Latino seat, but to dismantle the Westside is just unacceptable,” said Pam Bruns, chair of the Palisades Complex, an alliance of parents and teachers, working together to support public schools in the area.

But keeping the Valley and Westside completely intact was impossible, Clayton said. “If we could’ve drawn and put together two Valley seats and a Westside seat, and the two seats that the Latino community could elect, and a black seat, we would have,” he said. “I don’t think there’s another way you can draw it.”

Though the City Council will have the final say, rapidly changing ethnic composition in the city as well as court rulings dictate the council must weigh heavily the proposal presented by the Latino coalition.

Political boundaries must be redrawn after every census. Under the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which says that every voter must have equal access to the political system, boundaries should be drawn to strengthen the voting power of a minority group. The power of the law was best demonstrated by the historic court decision that led to a redrawing of the Los Angeles County supervisorial district boundaries and the election last year of Gloria Molina, the first Latino supervisor in this century.

Though some board members have raised concerns about the proposed district changes, the board has not yet submitted a proposal of its own, according to Barbara Boudreaux, the board’s liaison to the City Council on redistricting.

Boudreaux said the expense of drawing up a map, which she said could be as high as $20,000, has been a deterrent. However, she added that the council has agreed to give the school board until Tuesday to submit a proposal. She said she will consult with her fellow board representatives Thursday.

Slavkin said he has been trying to persuade the board to submit a plan.

“Your interest in the matter is related to the extent you are at risk,” said Slavkin, who will be meeting with the coalition this afternoon to discuss their proposed plan. “Members who see themselves in a secure position feel much less of an urgency to act in this manner. Secondly, it’s hard for colleagues to look one another in the eye and say ‘I’ll support a plan that will displace one or two of you.’ ”

Slavkin echoed many others in saying that he did not oppose the creation of a second Latino seat. “I think it’s important the districts reflect the changes in demographics that have occurred over 10 years . . . but not in a way that disenfranchises the Westside of Los Angeles from representation on the board.”

Times staff writer Richard Simon contributed to this story.