Decision ’93 / A Look at the Elections in Los Angeles County : Los Angeles School Board : Three Seats will be filled, including one for a new Eastside district. : DISTRICT 2 : Ex-Board Member, Principal, Activist Seek Seat in Latino Area

A former school board member and an Eastside school principal appear to be the front-runners in the race to fill a seat in the new, predominantly Latino District 2.

Larry Gonzalez, a television executive who served one term on the Los Angeles school board in the mid-1980s, and Belvedere Middle School Principal Victoria Castro have each raised more than $40,000 and captured key endorsements.

The third candidate on the ballot, education activist Willene Cooper, has not sought endorsements and has raised less than $1,000, according to election records. Although Cooper has won praise among educators for more than 30 years of volunteer work on behalf of schools, some question whether she can win. “She doesn’t have the money or the organization,” said Ed Zschoche, south area chairman for United Teachers-Los Angeles.

A fourth contender, Los Angeles resident Gale Shanghold, plans to run as a write-in candidate for the Socialist Workers Party.

The 2nd District was created last year when the City Council assembled five densely populated cities in Southeast Los Angeles County--South Gate, Huntington Park, Maywood, Bell and Cudahy--into a single district designed for maximum Latino voting strength. It also includes the heavily Latino areas of Boyle Heights, Echo Park, Silver Lake and Pico-Union. Latinos make up 475,833, or 80%, of its residents and about half its 87,386 registered voters.

Gonzalez, station manager of Spanish-language KMEX-TV in Los Angeles, says business expertise will help him attack bureaucratic waste.

Castro, a 25-year educator with seven years as a math teacher, said her front-line experience has put her in touch with schools’ needs.

Cooper, who has served on citizen education groups for more than 20 years, said she is the only one who speaks for parents.

The three have similar views on several issues.

All want increased school security, including metal detectors in secondary schools. All want more anti-gang education.

All three support the LEARN proposal to decentralize the school district’s administration but say it falls short in involving parents and non-teaching employees. All oppose the proposal to break up the school district. And all three want more schools in the Southeast area, to reduce crowding.

Gonzalez has picked up support because of what supporters call his innovative ideas. He has suggested leasing space from universities for secondary classes. And he proposes a teacher corps in which teacher assistants and aides would gain bilingual skills in exchange for a commitment to remain in the school district.

Gonzalez said he brought such ideas to the school board during his 1983-87 term. He cites a proposal to expand bilingual education and his involvement in securing an agreement with a private company to build a medical magnet high school.

Critics say that Gonzalez did not spend enough time at schools he represented while on the school board. Some are suspicious about Gonzalez’s political aspirations, noting that he left the board after one term to run unsuccessfully for the City Council. Gonzalez said he will not seek higher officer if elected.

“This is a personal issue for me,” Gonzalez said of his bid for office. “I am not satisfied with the education my two children are receiving. We have to stop discussions of power and control that dominate the board and get down to discussions of teaching children.”

The teachers union has endorsed Gonzalez, bringing the promise of help through its highly organized mailing system.

Also endorsing him is an ad hoc committee of Southeast-area city council members and educators, after hearing his ideas on overcrowding and other issues, said Huntington Park City Councilman Ric Loya, one of the group’s organizers.

Castro has won support because of innovative programs she introduced at Belvedere Middle School during seven years as principal. She helped establish a 40-hour training program at an Eastside clinic to help parents cope with adolescents. About 450 adults, many of them Latino immigrants, have gone through the 3-year-old program.

Supporters say Castro is a capable administrator who understands the difficulties of implementing broad school board policies. They cite her extensive experience in the district, including work as a noon aide, teacher’s assistant, administrative dean and assistant principal. Castro has been endorsed by the California School Employees Assn. Local 500 and several administrators organizations, including the Council of Mexican-American Administrators of Los Angeles.

“Education reform has been my life agenda,” Castro said. “We need to stop denying that we have problems on campuses. Somewhere in the crises we forgot to talk about what the kids need.”

Critics say Castro does not have enough experience outside the classroom. For example, she was unable to define a joint powers agreement--a tool government agencies often use to build projects or acquire land together--when asked about it by the Southeast-area ad hoc committee, according to an internal memo.

She also has been criticized for not taking a more aggressive approach toward financial problems at the Alhambra-based Azteca Head Start program, whose board of directors she headed last year. The organization, which serves Eastside- and Southeast-area children, recently was stripped of $2 million in federal funds by the Los Angeles County Office of Education because of questions over alleged unapproved expenditures.

Castro, who has been on the board for three years, said that mismanagement at the organization predates her involvement and that the county has refused to release funds it recommended that the board spend to resolve legal problems.

Castro and Gonzalez have been criticized as carpetbaggers. In December, Castro moved from Alhambra to a leased home in Bell to live in the district. Gonzalez moved from Highland Park to a leased condominium downtown in September. Both were born and raised in Boyle Heights.

Cooper was born in Huntington Park and has lived for 40 years in South Gate, where her four children attended school. She is popular among parents in the Southeast area, where she serves on a Huntington Park education task force and as a liaison between South Gate and the school district.

Cooper and her volunteer campaign staff have focused their efforts on the Southeast area.

She said voters will look past Gonzalez’s and Castro’s well-financed campaigns and select her based on three decades of service.

“We’ll just see if the old-fashioned way of doing things will win,” she said. “I still don’t believe that money buys everything.”

Leading Issues School violence: All candidates support installation of metal detectors at secondary schools and endorse expulsion of students caught with weapons. They want more anti-gang, anti-violence education in elementary schools and junior highs, and want more school police on campus. Castro wants school police in uniform and more social services such as county probation officers who counsel youths. Cooper wants to suspend students who do not report classmates who are carrying weapons.

Crowding: All want more schools in the Southeast area, including a regional high school. Gonzalez would seek private or municipal money; others have made no statements on funding. Gonzalez proposes leasing space from universities for secondary classrooms. Cooper wants more magnet schools in the area.

Reform: All candidates support the LEARN plan as a first step to transfer authority to individual schools. They want specifics on parents’ and school employees’ roles. Cooper asks how LEARN will be funded and says it could conflict with school-based management plans in place. Gonzalez wants elected boards of parents, teachers and other school employees to set curriculum and budget and evaluate administrators at individual schools. Castro wants parents to be taught how to be involved in schools.

The Candidates Victoria M. Castro, 47, is principal of Belvedere Middle School in East Los Angeles. She has bachelor’s degrees in math and Mexican-American studies from Cal State L.A. and a master’s degree in urban education from Pepperdine University. She is single and has one child.

Zada Willene Cooper, 63, is a longtime volunteer liaison between Southeast-area schools and the Los Angeles Unified School District. She graduated from Huntington Park High School. She is married and has four children.

Larry Gonzalez, 37, is the station manager for Spanish-language television station KMEX Channel 34 and was a school board member from 1983 to 1987. He attended East Los Angeles College and Pepperdine University. He is divorced and has two children.

Los Angeles Unified School District Election The District: Covers 652 square miles, including nearly all of the 469 square miles of the city of Los Angeles; the cities of Cudahy, Gardena, Huntington Park, Lomita, Maywood, San Fernando, Vernon, and West Hollywood, and parts of 19 other cities and unincorporated county areas. Contested seats: Districts 2,4, and 6. School district enrollment: 641,206 (K-12). 1992-93 school district budget: $3,849,308,506.

Facts and Figures Here’s a look at the Los Angeles Unified School District, the second largest in the country. Enrollment (Fall ‘92)

LEVEL TOTAL Elementary schools and centers 347,676 Middle schools 119,876 Senior high schools 126,955 Magnet schools and centers 37,088 Schools for the handicapped 4,105 Opportunity and continuation schools 5,506 Total kindergarten-12th grade 641,206 Community adult schools 122,094 Occupational and skills centers 37,475 Children’s centers 10,300

1992-93 Budget

How the total budget of $3,849,308,506 is divided:

EXPENSE PERCENTAGE Salaries for teachers and administrators 42% Salaries for non-teaching employees 16% Employee benefits 17% Supplies, food, debt service, etc. 14% Other expenses 11%

INCOME PERCENTAGE State, including lottery proceeds 74% Local property taxes, state-controlled 12% Federal funds 11% Other 3%

Education’s Costs

$4,220: Average cost to educate one K-12 district student, per state accounting guidelines (1991-92 school year)

$3,071: State allocation per pupil, (1991-92 school year)

$3,131: State allocation per pupil, (1992-93 school year)

$40,000: Average teacher salary (estimate)

Homeless Support

An estimated 17,000 homeless children live in the city, many under age 6, according to a study. These eight elementary schools get special support including tutoring, social services and tracking of pupils who change schools:

Arminta Street, North Hollywood

Broadway, Venice

Cabrillo Avenue, San Pedro

Cheremoya Avenue, Los Angeles

Coeur d’Alene Avenue, Venice

9th Street, Los Angeles

Sheridan Street, Los Angeles

10th Street, Los Angeles

Sources: L.A. Unified School District, State Board of Education