ELECTIONS / LOS ANGELES UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT : Educators Dominate Field Trying to Oust Pair

Incumbents Julie Korenstein and Mark Slavkin joined a host of other candidates Saturday who filed signatures to run for two seats representing portions of the San Fernando Valley on the board of the Los Angeles Unified School District.

Saturday was the deadline for candidates to submit petitions with at least 500 signatures of registered voters to confirm their candidacy and be placed on the April 20 ballot.

Slavkin, 31, of West Los Angeles faces three Valley educators in his bid for reelection: former United Teachers-Los Angeles President Judy Solkovits, 58, of Northridge; Elaine Holzer, 53, a Chatsworth resident and counselor at the Pacoima Skills Center, and Douglas Lasken, 47, of Woodland Hills, who teaches at Ramona Elementary School in Hollywood.

District 4 stretches from Westchester near Los Angeles International Airport to Porter Ranch in the northwest corner of the Valley and includes three area codes.

“The size of my district is proof that we need to decentralize the school district,” Slavkin said, just after filing the signatures.

In District 6, Korenstein will be challenged by Eli Brent, head of the union representing school district administrators; Chris Laird, a Northridge resident who teaches math at Jefferson High School in Los Angeles; Lynne Kuznetsky, a teacher who lives in Encino and Adolph (Ace) Guzman of Sylmar, who works at Vinedale Elementary School in Sun Valley. Other candidates include Terry Guy Stoller and Richard Bieber.

Barbara Romey, 45, a Northridge parent who unsuccessfully ran for school board in 1987 and 1989, took out nomination papers but then decided not to run for office. Instead, she will focus her energies on splitting up the school district.

Korenstein now represents District 4, but after the reapportionment placed her in Slavkin’s district she purchased a Tarzana condominium and decided to run in District 6. That district, which includes portions of the central and eastern Valley, is now represented by Roberta Weintraub, who is stepping down from the board.

The new districts were created after an acrimonious City Hall battle last summer that eliminated one of two all-Valley seats.

Slavkin is the only candidate who lives on the Westside, where 60% of the voters in the new District 4 reside, but his Valley opponents all have broad backgrounds in the Los Angeles Unified School District and say they can overcome the geographical handicap.