Korenstein to Run for Weintraub’s Vacated School Seat : Education: The two were expected to compete for the post. The candidate staunchly supports a Valley district.

Moving quickly to fill a political vacuum, Los Angeles school board member Julie Korenstein filed papers Wednesday to run for the mid-San Fernando Valley seat being vacated by board member Roberta Weintraub.

Korenstein’s action came on the first day candidates were allowed to file for 1993 city races and one day after Weintraub made her surprise announcement that she is retiring after 14 years on the board.

Weintraub’s departure was welcome news for Korenstein, whose current West Valley district was carved up in a recent redrawing of school district boundaries, leaving her with the unpleasant choice of running against either Weintraub or another incumbent, Westside board member Mark Slavkin.

Korenstein, 49, had already purchased a condominium in Weintraub’s district in apparent preparation for a run against her when Weintraub--a homemaker-turned-antibusing leader who became the board’s longest-serving representative--said Tuesday she would not run again.

“I stayed up all night weighing things back and forth and I decided I would” seek Weintraub’s seat, Korenstein said, adding that she had no advance knowledge of Weintraub’s retirement.

Both Korenstein and Slavkin were backed by the Los Angeles teachers union in the 1989 election, causing some district observers to suggest that the union pressured Korenstein to move to Weintraub’s district to avoid pitting two union-supported candidates against each other.

But Helen Bernstein, president of United Teachers-Los Angeles, denied that her organization influenced Korenstein’s shift.

Korenstein said she believes she has a good chance of winning in Weintraub’s district, which Korenstein said encompasses about 60% of the area she used to represent.

One of her main campaign themes, she said, will be her staunch support for breaking up the massive Los Angeles school system, the nation’s second largest, and creating a separate Valley school district. She said she has been working closely with state Senate leader David A. Roberti (D-Van Nuys) to remove legal and political obstacles to a Valley district.

Also Wednesday, Slavkin filed papers to campaign in Korenstein’s current District 4, which was redrawn last summer and now stretches from Porter Ranch to Los Angeles International Airport.

Slavkin, who lives on the Westside, was tossed into that district with Korenstein, a longtime Porter Ranch resident, by the redistricting. That redistricting angered many Valley parents and educators by eliminating one of two all-Valley seats.

According to city analysts, 60% of the voters in the new District 4 are on the Westside--Slavkin’s power base--compared with 40% in the West Valley, Korenstein’s base.

Elected to the board in 1987, Korenstein narrowly lost a 1991 bid to unseat City Councilman Hal Bernson of Granada Hills.

Slavkin, the school board’s youngest member, said he was pleased that he and Korenstein would not be running against each other.

“It would’ve been a very tough race for both of us,” he said. “I can’t speak for Julie . . . but I certainly wasn’t looking forward to that kind of campaign. . . . She and I have been allies on many issues and tend to come from the same place on issues that come before the school board.”

Korenstein said she talked to top UTLA officials and believes she will have union support in her upcoming campaign. But Bernstein said it had not yet been determined whether Korenstein or Slavkin would even receive the union’s endorsement. The union is battling to reverse a 12% pay cut approved by the board and has threatened a strike next month.

“There’s no guarantee that UTLA’s giving any money to anyone this year,” Bernstein said. “The only candidate that might get any teacher grass-roots support is Julie Korenstein. That’s because she voted against the pay cut.”

Bernstein said Slavkin voted “to unfairly cut our pay. . . . So as far as many teachers are concerned, Mark Slavkin’s priorities are all wrong.”

Besides Korenstein, three others--all of them educators--have filed papers to run in Weintraub’s District 6.

Chris Laird, a Northridge resident who teaches math at Jefferson High School in Los Angeles, put in his name as did Lynne Kuznetsky, a teacher who lives in Encino. Also in the running is Adolph (Ace) Guzman, a Sylmar man who works at Vinedale Elementary School in Sun Valley.

The candidates must submit petitions with at least 500 signatures by Feb. 13 to confirm their candidacy.

Slavkin was the only candidate Wednesday to file in District 4, but the filing period does not close until Monday.