ELECTIONS / BURBANK SCHOOL BOARD : Debate Centers on Inadequate High School Facilities : Campaigns: A mayor’s committee recommends replacing the aging campuses with one new one. But candidates want to maintain two properties.

In the race for a seat on the Burbank School Board, the question of how to tackle the problem of deteriorating school facilities dominates the debate.

The city’s two high schools, Burroughs and Burbank, are both more than 50 years old and suffer from the ravages of time. They have no air conditioning, poor lighting and poor communication and security systems. Auditoriums, lunchrooms, libraries and offices are inadequate.

With the school-age population growing rapidly, there is a growing sense of urgency about the condition of Burbank schools. Indeed, the board, for the first time, is contemplating converting one school to a year-round schedule to deal with overcrowding.

It is widely accepted by all candidates and the current board that something must be done. The question is, what?

According to a city advisory panel called the Business Review Committee, renovation of Burroughs High, the younger of the two facilities, will cost an estimated $41 million, while repairing Burbank High will run about $51 million.

The Business Review Committee, appointed by the mayor, has suggested that the board sell off Burbank High--which was built in the 1920s--and use the money, along with funds to be raised by a bond issue, to construct a single new high school.

“The economic reality is to go to one high school, sell Burbank High and issue bonds,” a committee report reads.

The issue has struck a chord with Burbank residents, who are concerned that the city would lose a vital part of its tradition.

These are the four candidates for the two open seats on the five-member board:

Denise Wilcox, 38, high school administrator and teacher

Wilcox has been in education for 17 years. She is a teacher and the founder of a law and government magnet program at Monroe High School in the Los Angeles Unified School District.

Wilcox has lived in Burbank all her life and attended Burbank schools. Two of her three children attend schools in the district.

She supports the idea of maintaining two campuses and says there has not been enough study on cost-effective ways to rebuild both schools.

“Until we do that,” she said, “I think we need to slow down on the one-high-school issue.”

Keeping two schools in Burbank not only would preserve part of the city’s culture, she said, it would maintain educational quality.

“Schools over 4,000 just don’t work well. The ideal number of students is between 2,500 and 3,000. Anything above that becomes too unwieldy.”

Wilcox also maintains that property values will suffer if efforts are not made to improve Burbank schools.

Wilcox proposes creating magnet schools and other programs that will “help to alleviate the overcrowding and ignite the instructional program in a real, real positive way.”

Joe Hooven, 49, small business owner

Hooven is vice president of the Burbank Educational Foundation, a nonprofit organization that raises money for Burbank schools, and chairman of the city’s Park and Recreation Board. He also serves on the Burbank Unified School District’s Year-Round School Committee and Property Advisory Committee.

Hooven and his wife, Janet, have two children who attend Burbank schools. To lead the schools “into the 21th Century,” the board will have to be able to work within the city structure and with city leaders, Hooven said.

“When the city decided they wanted a new mall we got it,” Hooven said, referring to the Media City Center Mall. “The same thing will happen when everybody in the city decides it’s time to modernize our schools. It’s going to take the cooperative effort of everyone in the city working together.”

Hooven supports maintaining two high schools.

“We’re going to have to get a bond issue and then we’re going to have to look to the city to help us,” he said.

Hooven said the school board must also begin to address the issue of overcrowding with “vision and creativity.” It may have to consider opening schools that have been closed and building new schools, he said.

He advocates televising school board meetings and holding one of the two monthly meetings at a school site to make it easier for parents to attend. He would also like to create a newsletter to keep parents and others informed of the district’s activities.

Hooven said he is endorsed by the Responsible Citizens of Burbank, the Burbank Realtors and the California Organization of Police and Sheriffs.

Vivian Kaufman, 62, president of the Board of Education

Kaufman has lived in Burbank for 39 years and is married to Superior Court Judge Bernard Kaufman. The only incumbent running for reelection, Kaufman is the current president of the school board and has served on the board for eight years. She has two grandchildren who attend schools in Burbank.

“I am adamantly in favor of retaining two high schools,” Kaufman said.

Studies done by the school board have shown that the best route financially would be to completely rebuild the older Burbank High and refurbish and modernize Burroughs High, Kaufman said. She plans to propose a bond issue for the June, 1994, ballot.

“Voters have to realize that these are our schools,” Kaufman said. “There is no money coming from Sacramento to help with the situation so we are going to have to go before the voters with the bond issue.”

Kaufman said she also intends to lobby the City Council to use redevelopment funds to help rebuild the schools.

On the issue of overcrowding, Kaufman said members of the board are considering many options, including changing the attendance boundaries so students attending crowded schools could move to other campuses. Creating magnet schools and adding portable classrooms are other options.

Kaufman said that during her tenure on the board, she helped establish a “non-adversarial problem solving approach” to negotiating with school personnel.

“We did not have to make any pay cuts and we didn’t have to make any layoffs,” Kaufman said.

Kaufman said she is endorsed by the Burbank Labor Coalition, Burbank Teachers Assn., the Burbank Chapter of the California School Employees Assn. and Los Angeles County Supervisor Mike Antonovich.

Dr. S. Michael Stavropolous, 54, neurosurgeon

Stavropolous has lived in Burbank for five years and in Southern California for 22 years. He is a neurosurgeon and is married with one adult son.

Stavropolous argues that developers have “coveted the Burbank High site” for several years and alleges that the “Burbank Unified School District and the City Council have worked in concert to make the sale of that site possible.”

He favors maintaining two high schools and believes “we need all of our schools. We should not lose even one inch.”

Stavropolous said he would support a bond issue to renovate Burbank and Burroughs “only as a very last resort.” Stavropolous contends that money from the redevelopment agency, from the state government under the State School Modernization Program, and from the prior sale of surplus property, could be used to help modernize the schools.

He opposes year-round school “except as a last resort” and supports creating magnet schools.

Stavropolous has also proposed the televising of school board meetings as a way of giving parents and the community “exposure to board activities.”

Stavropolous said he has been endorsed by former Burbank mayors Al Dossin and Mary Lou Howard and by school board member Bob Dunivant.

Burbank voters will also elect a city clerk. There are two candidates, Marge Lauerman and and Margarita Campos. City Treasurer Jim Rogers is running for reelection unopposed.

Margarita Campos, 38, executive secretary

Campos, a Burbank resident for 30 years, works as secretary to the mayor and the City Council and has worked for the city of Burbank for 18 years.

Campos said she is running for office because she believes the city needs a change.

“That whole trend of change is sweeping the country,” Campos said. “People are looking for their city officials to be more accountable to them and more accessible to them.”

Because the city clerk’s office interacts with the public, it has the unique opportunity to encourage greater participation in Burbank and a greater sense of civic pride, she said.

The city clerk’s office can create an environment where all residents believe they are a part of the city, “so that everybody can participate and not just a chosen few,” Campos said.

She is bilingual in English and Spanish, skills that she believes will help her if she is elected. She is enrolled in a business law program at the University of West Los Angeles and said such training will help her perform the duties of city clerk.

Marge Lauerman, 61, city clerk

Lauerman, a Burbank resident for 48 years, has served as city clerk since 1991 and has worked in the city clerk’s office for seven years.

Lauerman described the city clerk’s office as the “hub of the wheel,” a place where citizens come for information. The office also oversees municipal elections and is the city’s official record keeper, taking minutes at each council meeting.

“We function between the public, the council and the staff,” Lauerman said. “We relate to all of them and they all come here for information and records.”

Lauerman, who oversees a staff of seven, described her job as “extremely detail oriented.” In the years that Lauerman has been in office, the city’s clerk’s office has increased its use of computerized records.

“We’re proud that we’re a customer-oriented clerk’s office,” Lauerman said. “The great majority of requests are provided and responded to immediately.”

Lauerman, a certified municipal accountant, said she is always looking for ways to improve the efficiency and level of services of her office.

Next Step Burbank will hold a municipal election Feb. 23 with polls open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Voters will be casting ballots for three City Council seats and two positions on the school board, as well as city clerk and city treasurer. Candidates must win a majority to take office. For races in which no candidate garners a majority, the top finishers will compete in a runoff election April 13. For information about polling places, call (818) 953-9732.