Latinos May Gain 2nd School Board Seat : Redistricting: Council is divided in tentatively approving a new map that would come at the expense of the Valley’s representatives.

New Board of Education district boundaries that would give Latinos greater political influence over the Los Angeles city schools while setting up a reelection battle between board colleagues Julie Korenstein and Mark Slavkin won tentative approval from a bitterly divided City Council on Tuesday.

The 9-6 vote in support of the redistricting plan came over the objections of San Fernando Valley PTA members who noted that it would weaken the Valley’s say in school issues by reducing the number of districts entirely within the Valley from two to one.

However, Councilman Richard Alatorre, the plan’s chief architect, said, “When you have something as blatant as underrepresentation of Latinos on the school board, something needs to be done.”

The map, which would be used for next April’s school board elections, increases the chances for a second Latino to win a seat on the seven-member Board of Education, which governs a school system that is 64% Latino.

It would give Leticia Quezada, the board’s only Latina, a new Latino-majority district featuring a long, thin finger extending her Eastside political base to heavily Latino neighborhoods in the Valley.

A second Latino-majority district would be created. It would extend from Echo Park through downtown Los Angeles to Bell, Cudahy, Huntington Park, Maywood and South Gate, which are part of the Los Angeles Unified School District.

The plan places nearly half the district’s 4 million residents in different Board of Education districts.

The map, which will return to the council for final approval next week, also must go to Mayor Tom Bradley for approval. A Bradley spokesman said the mayor will not take a position on the redistricting until the map reaches his desk.

Valley residents objected that the plan would guarantee only one board seat--currently held by Roberta Weintraub--to a Valley resident. Under the plan, the home of Korenstein, who is the other Valley resident on the board, would be placed with Westside board member Slavkin in a new district reaching from Chatsworth to Westchester.

“Do not make the San Fernando Valley the orphan of the city of Los Angeles,” Korenstein said. Said Slavkin: “I’m not delighted.” But he said that council members “did the best they could under tough circumstances.” Those circumstances included court rulings prohibiting the splitting of large blocs of minority voters.

Valley Councilwoman Joy Picus submitted an alternative plan that she said would increase the chances for a second Latino to win election to the school board while preserving two board seats for Valley residents.

“It’s not necessary to gut the Valley,” Joel Wachs argued in support of Picus’ map. But the alternative drew objections from Alatorre, who contended that it would dilute African-American voting power in the central city.

Supporters of the approved plan, including the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, said it was required by the federal Voting Rights Act.

Arguing for a second Latino on the school board, Arturo Barragan, president of the San Fernando Valley chapter of the Assn. of Mexican American Educators, asked: “Is it rational to allow 65% of the LAUSD population to be represented by only one board member?”

The action on the plan was the latest in a series of efforts to deal with changing Los Angeles County demographics in the last year that have produced a number of City Council, legislative and congressional districts with Latino majorities.

Joining Picus in voting against the school board district map were Council members Ernani Bernardi, Hal Bernson, Marvin Braude, Nate Holden and Wachs.

The City Charter requires the council to redraw school board district boundaries to adjust for population changes recorded in the 1990 census. 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. Latinos, however, make up only 13% of the district’s registered voters.