School Board Remap Plan Receives Preliminary OK : City Council: Critics say creation of the new Latino-dominated seats would weaken the Valley’s voice.

A sharply divided Los Angeles City Council voted 9 to 6 Tuesday to give preliminary approval to a school board redistricting plan that San Fernando Valley-based critics claimed will weaken the Valley’s voice in educational issues.

Under the plan, two Latino-dominated school board seats, including one reaching from Boyle Heights to Sylmar, would be created and the Valley would be represented by four school board members. However, only one of the four board members would be required to live in the San Fernando Valley.

Two of the board’s seven seats are now located wholly in the Valley, thus requiring that they be filled by local residents.

Critics hotly denounced the plan in a debate that became a litmus test of allegiance to Valley interests.

“The Valley is being short-changed,” said Councilman Joel Wachs, who argued that Latino political power on the school board can be enhanced without hurting the Valley.

“Do not make the San Fernando Valley the orphan of the city of Los Angeles,” warned Valley-based school board member Julie Korenstein as local school activists unveiled an alternative remap plan of their own that fell one vote short of being adopted.

But supporters claimed the plan that was approved Tuesday is needed to satisfy the federal Voting Rights Act and provide a historic opportunity for Latinos to increase their own clout in a school district in which 65% of the students are Spanish-surnamed.

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.”

Despite Tuesday’s fireworks, the drama is not over.

To win final adoption, the plan must be approved again next week when one of its key backers, Council President John Ferraro, will be absent, recovering from open-heart surgery planned for Monday. Ferraro said he had no plans to reschedule his operation.

With the vote so close, Ferraro’s absence next week could be critical.

After Tuesday’s debate, Councilwoman Joy Picus, leader of the Valley bloc seeking to stop the plan, urged a cluster of school activists to focus their lobbying efforts in the next few days on pressuring Councilman Michael Woo to change his vote.

“Call his office, over and over and over again,” Picus advised the group, which included Korenstein, Valley-based PTA leaders and members of Pacoima’s black community. “Call them until they can’t think straight in that office.”

In an interview, Picus said Woo was key because he has mayoral ambitions and may need to court Valley voters. Woo on Tuesday voted in favor of the remap plan that was adopted.

The plan’s major supporters have been Latino civil rights groups, led by the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, and their key legislative ally, Alatorre from the east side.

The civil-rights groups have warned that if their plan, designed to create two predominantly Latino school board seats where only one now exists, is not adopted they may sue the city.

MALDEF successfully sued the city in 1986 to create a second Latino council seat and filed another lawsuit in 1988 that led to a redrawing of county supervisorial districts culminating in the election of Gloria Molina, the first Latina to sit on the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors.

Opposing the Alatorre-MALDEF remap plan are all four council members whose districts are entirely in the Valley: Hal Bernson, Joel Wachs, Ernani Bernardi and Picus.

Joining these dissenters are Westside Councilman Marvin Braude, who also represents Woodland Hills, Tarzana and Encino, and Councilman Nate Holden, a black, inner-city lawmaker who has mayoral ambitions himself and has called the Alatorre-MALDEF plan an example of “gerrymandering at its worst.”

Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky, who represents parts of Van Nuys and Sherman Oaks, had earlier supported several alternative plans but eventually backed the Alatorre-MALDEF proposal.

According to its critics, the plan approved Tuesday would weaken the Valley’s voice on school issues by reducing the number of school board members elected from Valley-based constituencies.

The plan would thrust Korenstein into a district that stretches from Porter Ranch to Westchester and force her into a political fight for survival with Westside school board member Mark Slavkin, who would also live in the same district.

Currently, the Valley has two school board districts represented by Korenstein and Roberta Weintraub.

Under the Alatorre plan, Korenstein’s seat would be merged with Slavkin’s and Weintraub’s seat would become the only all-Valley district. Parts of two other districts would be brought into the Valley, one of these based in the central city, the other on the east side.

The alternative plan that lost by one vote was crafted during a late Monday night numbers-crunching session between a demographer for the Valley-based 31st District PTA and the city’s redistricting expert, David Ely.

This alternative, while still in need of fine-tuning, importantly “lives up to the requirements of the Voting Rights Act,” Picus said.

In an interview, Ely was more cautious in evaluating the alternative. Asked if it met federal requirements for boosting Latino representation on the school board, Ely said: “It would take more analysis to determine that.”

Under the Alatorre plan, Latino registration in the two districts would be about 47.5%, while the Picus-PTA plan would create districts of 44% and 46% located outside the Valley.

Voter registration is an important criteria for judging the electability of a Latino candidate and compliance with the federal Voting Rights Act.

The Picus-PTA plan would create two districts based solely in the Valley. One of these, in which Weintraub now resides, would be located entirely east of the San Diego Freeway and include the Latino core of the East Valley. This district would be 48% Latino in population but only 14.7% of its residents are Latino voters.

The other all-Valley district, in which Korenstein lives, would include the West Valley but also reach into the Sunland-Tujunga and Shadow Hills areas in the East Valley. This district would be 71% white.

Staff Writer Richard Simon contributed to this report.