Teacher Salary Issue Clouds Race for School Board : Education: Three-way struggle in the ABC Unified School District seems a referendum on the board majority.

CERRITOS — Three candidates are vying for a school board seat in a special election overshadowed by a divided board and the worst labor dispute in the history of the ABC Unified School District.

The candidates are Charlie Chung, the school board’s choice; David Montgomery, the choice of labor groups, and Brent Maddox, a comparative newcomer to district political wars.

The winner will serve as a trustee until December, 1993, completing the unexpired four-year term of Dean Criss, who died in March.

The struggle for the seat has become a referendum on the board majority and the district’s position on teacher salaries.

“This is boiling down to an issue of who’s going to control the board,” board member Jim Weisenberger said.

Chung is endorsed by Weisenberger, board President Dixie Primosch and two other board members. They often vote together and support the district’s bargaining position with the teachers.

Montgomery is the choice of board member Cecy Groom. Trustee Sally Morales Havice has remained neutral. Groom and Morales Havice are often on the losing end of board votes and have sided with teachers in the contract dispute.

The ABC Federation of Teachers and other employee unions have endorsed Montgomery, as they did in last year’s regular school board election. In that race, Montgomery finished sixth among nine candidates, including the four winning incumbents.

Montgomery, a 41-year-old painting contractor, is the harshest critic of the current board majority. “The board is unresponsive,” he said. “They don’t listen to the public. I would listen to the public. Maybe it comes from being a parent. That doesn’t mean I would agree with everybody, but right now there’s a dead ear at the board level.”

Montgomery led a successful petition drive to force the special election after the school board appointed Chung to replace Criss. Montgomery had also applied for the vacancy.

Chung, who served about two months before having to step down and stand for election, said his primary focus is on what he could bring to the school board. He is a GTE-West fiber-optics engineer who helped install the district’s experimental fiber-optics network, which was donated by GTE. He said his technical background would help him evaluate the educational potential of new technology.

Chung, a 51-year-old native of Korea, was educated there and in Japan and Germany. He said his studies abroad would give him a helpful perspective for improving education. A number of area city council members have endorsed him.

Candidate Maddox, who entered the fray without endorsements, hopes the two favorites will knock each other out.

“I’m new. I haven’t been involved in all the things going on,” said Maddox, a 35-year-old quality control manager for a dairy products manufacturer. “But I’ve been listening and I’ve been informed, and I think it’s time for new leadership.”

Maddox supports teachers in the salary dispute.

Each candidate has been active in district affairs. Chung organized parent-education workshops for Korean parents and belongs to the district’s affirmative action committee.

Maddox served on the superintendent’s advisory committee and on a parent advisory committee at his child’s school.

As a parent adviser, Montgomery is on the district finance committee and served on a principal-hiring board and the committee that analyzed how excess school property could be developed commercially. Montgomery has also regularly attended school board meetings.

The divisiveness of the campaign obscures several issues on which the candidates agree. All favor a cautious approach to a district plan to generate money by developing school properties. Each has children in the district and wants increased parent involvement.

The candidates’ views differ on changing how board members are elected. At present, members are elected at large in the district, which serves Cerritos, Artesia, Hawaiian Gardens and portions of Lakewood and Norwalk. All the current board members and candidates live in Cerritos, the district city with the largest voting population.

Activists from Artesia and Hawaiian Gardens have long sought to divide the school system into election districts. They have said schools in their areas do not get equal attention, a charge ABC officials vehemently deny.

Montgomery, who lives near the Hawaiian Gardens border, favors election districts. Chung and Maddox said election districts are not needed.

The issue getting the most attention is the contract dispute. Teachers have not yet agreed to a contract for either this year or last.

The board has offered a 1.66% raise and a 0.84% bonus for the ‘91-’92 school year. Teachers want all or nearly all of the bonus to be part of the permanent raise.

The district said the teachers will probably get their wish if they can wait till next spring, when additional state funds are scheduled to arrive. The district said it would be imprudent to guarantee the full raise before then.

The teachers don’t want to wait. Union leaders point out that the district’s financial reserve is more than three times the legal limit and well above what many other school systems have set aside.

Administrators say the reserve is needed to offset expected shortfalls in state funding. Even paying for the current district offer, they said, could result in future layoffs or program reductions.

Union leaders also have accused Supt. Larry Lucas and top administrators of being autocratic. And they criticized the board majority for raising the upper limits of pay last year for the most experienced administrators during tight financial times.

Board members said that improving the pay scale for administrators was needed to keep district salaries competitive, that administrative salaries are not out of line with other districts and that administrators have to receive good evaluations to qualify for raises. For most administrators, the action resulted in a 2.3% pay increase.

At last week’s board meeting, union representatives announced that teachers at many school sites had overwhelmingly approved a vote of no confidence in the school board.

About 180 teachers and about 25 parents and students descended on the board meeting, and some lambasted the four members of the board majority. Occasionally, members asked for silence so they could speak.

The crowd booed board member Catherine Grant when she tried to explain the school board position and cheered for 20 seconds a stinging retort from fellow board member Groom.

“Mrs. Grant, you make me sick,” Groom said.

Grant did not answer, but board member Weisenberger responded to Groom later on a related subject.

“Somebody doesn’t know what she’s talking about,” he told her.

ABC Unified School District

Enrollment: 21,000 Areas served: Cerritos, Artesia, Hawaiian Gardens, parts of Lakewood and Norwalk.

On the ballot: Three candidates for one unexpired board term that will end in December, 1993. Issues: A contract dispute between the school system and teachers, a plan to increase revenue by developing school properties and a proposal to replace at-large elections with election districts.

CANDIDATES

Charlie Chung

Age: 51

Residence: Cerritos

Occupation: Fiber-optics engineer for GTE-West in Pomona, owner of a Cerritos real estate company.

Remarks: “I can work as a mediator (to) build a bridge between the community and the school district. I have already been involved in doing that . . . I’d like to (have more) parent workshops so parents know more about what’s going on in school and what children are learning, so the parents can help children at home.” He said his professional background would help the board evaluate new technology and that his familiarity with educational systems abroad would also be a plus. On the labor dispute: “If we have enough funding from the state, I’d like to give more money to teachers, but we are not sure we will get the money.”

Brent Maddox

Age: 35

Residence: Cerritos

Occupation: Quality control manager for Besnier America, Los Angeles, which manufactures dairy products.

Remarks: “I think it’s time for new leadership . . . ABC is a very good school district and all the test results indicate we’re doing the right thing. At the same time, we’ve got to maintain it . . . Maintaining the programs with limited dollars” will be a primary challenge. “We’ve got to let the parents have more say-so. That’s another reason I’m running, to give the parents a voice.” On the contract dispute: “I stand with the teachers. I think they should be receiving more . . . Once we lose the morale of the teachers we begin to lose touch with the students because I don’t think the teachers will give 100% anymore.”

David Montgomery

Age: 41

Residence: Cerritos

Occupation: Painting contractor

Remarks: “I have been going to board meetings for over two years, trying to familiarize myself with how the district does things. I think I have a good understanding of everybody’s role . . . The board majority is unresponsive. They don’t listen to the public. I would listen . . . Having six kids in the system, I have the same concerns other parents do. I am very concerned that my twins in the second grade have the same opportunity and programs available that my 12th-grader has.” He supports teachers in the contract dispute: “What they’re fighting over is so small . . . The district is willing to spend money in other areas.”