Parents to Fight Latino Group’s Redistricting Plan : Education: The ethnic coalition urges a stronger voice on the L.A. school board. But opponents say the proposal yokes two communities with major differences.

A group of San Fernando Valley parents has vowed to battle a redistricting proposal that would provide for a second Latino representative on the Los Angeles school board but would carve up the Valley in the process.

The map submitted by the Latino Redistricting Coalition would increase Latino power on the board by pairing a chunk of the Eastside district represented by incumbent Leticia Quezada with a section of the northeastern Valley. The two enclaves would be connected by a narrow strip.

A second heavily Latino district would be created by combining communities around the downtown area with such southeast cities as Bell, Cudahy, South Gate and Huntington Park.

The plan’s sponsors say it would guarantee Latino control of two board seats, in compliance with a federal law ensuring minority electoral strength.

But some parents contend that the proposal violates the geographical integrity of the Valley and yokes two communities that boast major differences even among their Latino residents.

In response to the Latino coalition’s plan, the 31st District Parent Teacher Student Assn., which covers the Valley, has submitted its own map, which would preserve the Valley as an entity represented by two board members and keep together other minority communities across the city. The map has received preliminary endorsement from the Coalition for Fair Representation, a fledgling Valley group of mostly Latino parents who oppose the original proposal.

“They don’t have the right to say, ‘We’re going to break up your community,’ ” said Tony Alcala, a Sun Valley resident who heads the group. “The San Fernando Valley is a unique community.”

“East Los Angeles has one set of problems; the Valley has another,” said Juana Sanchez, 44, a North Hollywood mother of two school-age children. “You combine these and you’ll have total chaos.”

The two sides of the debate are likely to clash today in the final scheduled meeting of the redistricting committee of the City Council, which is charged with redrawing the boundaries of the Los Angeles Unified School District after every census. The council must adopt a map by July 1.

Alcala accused the Latino Redistricting Coalition of mapping Quezada’s district in such a way as to freeze out the political influence of Latino voters in the Valley, who would be heavily outnumbered by their counterparts in East Los Angeles. “Nobody’s going to tell me that an East Los Angeles representative is going to represent” Valley residents fairly, he said.

“There are dozens of issues that we see differently,” added Diana Dixon-Davis, a Chatsworth parent and demographer who authored the PTSA plan. “We have a different climate, a different socioeconomic milieu than downtown. The age of our community is very different. . . . If a person lives in this community, they’re much more likely to reflect the needs and concerns of the community.”

But Ruben Rodriguez, chairman of the Latino Redistricting Coalition’s Valley chapter, said the issues facing Latino youngsters--who represent 64% of the district’s student population--cut across geographical lines.

“The problems affecting the Latino community are pretty much the same--the dropout rates, bilingual education, good teachers,” he said. “The primary concern is Latino representation on the board of education. We don’t feel we’ve gotten adequate representation.”

Quezada, who is a Latina, has “demonstrated over the years that she has the interests of the Latino community at heart,” said Edward Guzman, head of the Valley chapter of the Mexican-American Political Assn., which is “squarely behind” the original proposal. “We feel that she’s more sensitive to the needs of the Latino community of the northeast San Fernando Valley.”

Furthermore, the PTSA plan--one of five before the committee--is illegal, according to Alan Clayton, research chairman of the Latino coalition. Under the Voting Rights Act of 1965, he said, boundaries must be drawn to shore up the electoral clout of a minority group--as demonstrated in 1990 by the creation of a Latino-controlled Los Angeles County supervisorial seat for Gloria Molina, the first Latino supervisor this century.

“The City Council has to draw a plan that is legally defensible,” Clayton said. “They know you cannot draw a plan that dilutes the strength of the Latino community without opening yourself up to litigation.”

Dixon-Davis, who described the coalition plan as “massive gerrymandering,” acknowledged that her proposal does not guarantee an additional Latino seat based on voter strength, even though Latinos make up more than 45% of the population in three of the seven school board districts in the PTSA plan. But she urged the council to consider alternatives to the coalition’s map in spite of legal precedent.

“If everybody didn’t do things because they were afraid of getting sued, nobody would step their toe out the door,” she said.