Latino Group Condemns Attack on Remapping Plan : Education: A parent-teacher organization has threatened a suit because one of two Valley trustee districts would be erased.

A coalition of San Fernando Valley Latino leaders on Saturday condemned an opposition campaign being waged by the Valley’s major parent-teacher group against a redistricting plan that would create a second Latino seat on the Los Angeles Board of Education.

“We are here to focus on the real issue,” Ruben Rodriguez, president of the San Fernando Valley Latino Redistricting Coalition, said during a news conference in San Fernando. “And that is that 65% of students are Latino and they are represented by only one school board member.”

Leaders of the 31st District Parent-Teacher-Student Assn. have threatened to sue to block the plan--given tentative approval last week by the City Council--because it would weaken the Valley’s say in school issues by reducing the number of districts entirely within the Valley from two to one.

But, Rodriguez said: “This is not about the Valley being split up.”

Final approval of the plan Tuesday by the City Council would mean that “Valley Latino children and parents will finally have an ear and a voice” on the Board of Education, said Art Barragan, president of the Assn. of Mexican American Educators.

“We can no longer, in the name of education, continue to support policies which only take into account the geography of an area and ignore the demographics,” he said.

Members of the PTSA, which represents about 150 school-based parent groups, have recently portrayed themselves as advocates for minority issues, Barragan said.

“They are under a false illusion,” he said. “The PTSA allows our parents to supply the punch and cookies for students at school parties, but they do not allow our parents to have a voice in their decision-making policies.”

Not one of the PTSA’s 15 board members is a Latino, Barragan added.

But Cecelia Mansfield, 31st District PTSA vice president, said Saturday that the organization represents grass-roots Latino parents without political motives, unlike some of the coalition members. She conceded, however, that her group does not have any Latinos on its board.

The redistricting plan, as approved last week, not only places portions of the Valley in three board seats dominated by constituencies outside the Valley but also fragments minority voting strength in the area, she said.

“The Latino community in the Valley would be split into three board seats,” while the seat containing the northeast Valley would be dominated by “Eastside interests,” Mansfield said.

Black and Asian voting strength in the Valley also would be diluted, Mansfield said. She added that the PTSA is willing to work with the coalition to find “an acceptable alternative plan” that would satisfy both groups.

“All of us have an interest in finding a solution to avoid ultimately having the courts make the decision for us,” Mansfield said.

A bloc of Valley-elected officials led by Councilwoman Joy Picus also is attempting to stop the plan, mapped out by Councilman Richard Alatorre and a coalition of Latino civil-rights groups.

“When you have something as blatant as underrepresentation of Latinos on the school board, something needs to be done,” Alatorre said after the vote last week.

Picus and the PTSA have submitted an alternative plan that Picus said would increase the chances for a second Latino to win election--one goal of redistricting--while preserving two board seats for Valley residents. It failed by an 8-7 vote last week.

Alan Clayton, research chairman of the Los Angeles Latino Redistricting Coalition, said the Picus plan and one submitted by the PTSA in May are “outrageous” because they disenfranchise not only Latino communities, but Asian communities as well.

“The PTSA plan goes right down the middle of Koreatown,” he said.

Mansfield said the PTSA plan is constantly changing. “We are not set on one thing.”

Among those who gathered Saturday to support the Latino-backed plan were representatives of the Mexican American Political Assn., Concilio of Chicano Affairs, the Chicano Roundtable and individuals such as San Fernando Mayor Jose Hernandez and Maria Reza, principal of San Fernando Junior High School.

School Board Redistricting in the Valley

This map was preliminarily approved Tuesday by the Los Angeles City Council on a 9-6 vote. A second vote is set for Tuesday. It is backed by Councilman Richard Alatorre and Latino civil rights groups. District 4 extends to Westchester; District 5 to Boyle Heights; and District 3 to Hollywood.

This map is endorsed by Councilwoman Joy Picus and a coalition of Valley-based groups, including the 31st District PISA. They say the Alatorre map would weaken Valley influence over school board matters. District 3 extends to Westchester and Hollywood.