BOARD OF EDUCATION : Minorities to Be Majority on Governing Panel for First Time

The election of a second Latina to the Los Angeles Board of Education means that for the first time in school district history a majority of board members will be minorities, forming a bloc that is firmly against breaking up the district.

The three board races, in which two incumbents were reelected, also represent an erosion of influence of United Teachers-Los Angeles and a win for the union that represents clerical and other non-teaching unions, some district observers said Wednesday.

Victoria Castro, the principal of Belvedere Junior High School, credits her solid win over former school board member Larry Gonzalez to the scores of volunteers from the non-teaching unions, which contributed about $40,000 to her campaign. Gonzalez had been backed by UTLA, which primarily supplied campaign volunteers.

Board members Mark Slavkin and Julie Korenstein were reelected in newly drawn districts that include the Westside and the San Fernando Valley, both areas that strongly support breaking up the school district.

Other board members include Barbara Boudreaux, who is African-American; Warren Furutani, who is Japanese-American, and Leticia Quezada, a Latina.

With the impending retirement of veteran board member Roberta Weintraub, only two of the seven school board members--Slavkin and Korenstein--support breaking up the district. State Sen. David A. Roberti (D-Van Nuys) has introduced legislation to splinter the district into as many as seven smaller units, a bill that has already cleared one key legislative hurdle.

Although board President Quezada promised to intensify Sacramento lobbying efforts to squash the breakup movement, some say the board’s stance on the issue is irrelevant because of their lack of clout in the capitol.

However, Slavkin’s and Korenstein’s pro-breakup stance likely contributed to their victories, several observers suggested.

“Although you can’t put a number to it, my gut feeling is that the breakup issue carried considerable influence,” said Jill Reiss, leader of a Valley-based movement advocating the breakup.

Slavkin favors creating autonomous high school complexes while keeping certain services, such as transportation, centralized. His main opponent, teacher Douglas Lasken, ran a grass-roots campaign and favored the general concept of breaking up the district, garnering 34% of the vote.

Korenstein’s main challenger, administrators union head Eli Brent, collected 22% of the vote. He opposed the breakup.

In District 2, which stretches from Huntington Park to Pico-Union, Castro’s election will for the first time unite five predominantly Latino Southeast-area cities, including South Gate and Bell, in one school board district.

“Finally we have a school board that is reflective of the district,” said Castro, alluding to the district enrollment that is 87% minority, primarily Latinos.

Many say Castro’s election will strengthen the Latino agenda on the school board and hope she will push for hiring more Latino administrators and teachers, funding for bilingual education and programs that help Latino parents become more involved in their children’s educations.

Much of her backing came from Latinos who work for the school district as secretaries and in other support roles.

“They support the idea of fairness for all employees and so do I,” Castro said.

Castro’s support from the non-teaching unions comes at time of intense labor strife in the school district, with teachers renewing their threat to strike if a contract settlement is not approved by May 7. In an unprecedented move last year, the non-teaching and administrators unions formed an alliance to counter the influence of the teachers union, which has poured considerable money into board member campaigns.

“You can’t say UTLA did well in this election,” said school board member Jeff Horton. “Mark (Slavkin) won without their endorsement and their endorsed candidate lost in the 2nd District.”

Teachers union President Helen Bernstein has said that union members, who are in the midst of a wrenching contract dispute with board members, were not eager to support candidates for a board that they believe lacks credibility. The union did, however, give about $80,000 in cash and services to Korenstein, who was the lone board vote against a deep teacher pay cut last year.

Castro’s two primary campaign themes focused on improving school safety and parent empowerment, especially among Latinos. Although supportive of the district’s recently adopted LEARN reform plan, she would like to see elements of it bolstered to give parents a stronger voice in decision-making.