Voter Backlash Clouds School Board Races : Education: Upcoming elections could turn into referendums on trustees’ handlings of controversial local issues.

The Montebello Unified School District has begun to recover from a near bankruptcy, which poses a conundrum for voters in the Nov. 2 school board election: Do they blame incumbents Darrell H. Heacock and Paul A. Lopez for the problems or credit them for the turnaround?

The school board races in Montebello, Norwalk-La Mirada and Lynwood are among several local contests that could prove to be referendums on trustees’ handling of controversial local issues.

In Montebello, the school system was $14 million in debt three years ago and so close to bankruptcy that officials feared a state takeover. The school board has approved budget cuts of nearly $43 million and cut 435 staff positions, including teachers, school librarians, nurses, counselors, plumbers, mechanics and groundskeepers.

“I think we’ve done a very good job,” said incumbent Lopez, 68, a retired Monterey Park resident who has served on the school board of the Montebello Unified School District since 1989.

“We balanced the budget. We showed people and staff and employees that we’re really there for their benefit.”

Incumbent Heacock, a board member since 1979, said that during the financial crisis, he never backed away from difficult choices. “Some were right and some were wrong, but they were decisions that had to be made,” said the 60-year-old Montebello real estate broker.

Heacock and other district officials said they hope to restore programs and services that once made Montebello Unified the envy of other urban school systems.

A third incumbent, Eleanor K. Chow, will not seek reelection. The top three vote-getters will win seats on the five-member board.

The challengers are Thomas M. Calderon, 39, a self-employed public relations specialist; Hector Armando Chacon, 26, an administrator for a job-training program at Cerritos College; Fe De La Torre, 45, a clerk at the district’s adult school in Bell Gardens; Joseph A. Maytorena, 64, a retired teacher and school administrator; Ruben G. Martinez, 44, a manager for the Mobil Oil Corp., and Henry F. (Hank) Ramey Jr., 28, a Cerritos College student studying to be a paralegal.

All are Montebello residents except Ramey, who lives in Bell Gardens, and Chacon, a Commerce resident.

The challengers said community members will not forgive the board for the poor planning and overspending that precipitated the difficulties.

“When you have a surplus of millions of dollars and in a short time you’re in debt, somebody was really asleep,” Chacon said.

Maytorena concentrated some of his criticism on the budget cuts. “Parents are concerned about the lack of materials in the schools,” he said. “They’re concerned that they have to pay for buses to athletic activities.”

Martinez said a shortage of school supplies, including textbooks, has harmed his daughter’s education. “I don’t think that’s the way you should be teaching students,” he said.

Calderon said the financial difficulties have caused district parents to feel powerless, “cut adrift from the process of running the schools.” He added that board members had not taken sufficient responsibility for their decisions.

Ramey joined the chorus of critics, adding that he wanted to change a district focus that resulted in Bell Gardens students being cheated of their fair share of district resources.

De La Torre stressed the need to look forward. “I think we should look at the budget, see the money coming into the district and work from there as a team,” she said.

The teachers union, traditionally friendly to incumbents, has endorsed challengers Calderon, Chacon and De La Torre.

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In the Norwalk-La Mirada Unified School District, parents and community members have stormed the board room over issues ranging from the opening of six new middle schools to renting school playing fields for adult soccer leagues.

Candidates have also had to fend off personal attacks.

The incumbents fighting for four seats on the seven-member board are Jesse M. Luera, 61, owner of a dry-cleaning business; Lupe Flores-McClintock, 37, a bilingual student evaluator at La Habra High School, and Armando Moreno Jr., 52, an employment counselor for a nonprofit foundation. Incumbent William White will retire.

Luera must fend off bad publicity over being fired May 5 as Norwalk’s director of social services, a post he held for nearly 20 years. City officials would not say why Luera was fired.

His removal came after a city investigation into complaints by at least two city employees that Luera sexually harassed them. On Sept. 30, these workers filed a sexual harassment lawsuit against Luera in Los Angeles Superior Court.

Luera has denied any wrongdoing, but declined to discuss specifics pending the outcome of an administrative hearing to dispute allegations leading to his dismissal. The hearing will take place after the election, said Luera’s attorney, Augustin R. Jimenez.

A group called Citizens for Better Government has circulated by mail documents containing sexual harassment allegations against Luera. The return address is fake, and no spokesman for the group has stepped forward.

Luera, a board member since 1975, predicted he would endure. “The support has been tremendous,” he said. “People don’t forget who you are or what you’ve done. People said, ‘You ought to run.’ ”

Opponents of Flores-McClintock have castigated her for having three relatives working for the district. They said she has a conflict of interest that affects her votes on everything from salary increases to layoffs. Flores-McClintock said the attacks are unfair because her relatives all held jobs before her election in 1989.

“They’ve stood on their own merit,” she said. “They shouldn’t get preferential treatment because I’m on the board, and they shouldn’t be looked upon negatively.”

Moreno’s albatross has been charges that he improperly meddled in school affairs involving district employees and family members. Moreno, a board member since 1989, steadfastly denied any wrongdoing, but conceded that he became weary of defending himself.

He signed up for the race with misgivings, withdrew, then announced his renewed candidacy at Monday’s board meeting.

“I got out because I didn’t want any more politics,” Moreno said. “But I felt like I was deserting the students we’re all here for.”

The challengers are Darryl Rodney Adams, a teacher at a Norwalk middle school; Richard A. Blodgett, 47, a house painter; Gabriel (Gabe) Garcia, 30, community services administrator for the City of Orange; Pat Ruiz, 62, a retired elementary school teacher, and Sandra (Sandy) J. Thorn, 42, a saleswoman for a company that markets nuts and other crops.

The challengers collectively faulted the incumbents over a variety of issues.

Adams said the district planned poorly when it opened six middle schools, serving grades six through eight. Before this fall, students remained in elementary school through seventh grade, then attended high school.

The transition was “hastily done and ill-timed,” he said. “The problem has been that some of the facilities are still not ready.”

Blodgett, a member of a middle school planning committee, disagreed in part. “Some of the school sites are still torn up,” he said. Overall, he said, the new schools are “working out great.”

Thorn is opposed to adult-league soccer play on district fields. The board finally banned the leagues, which had been renting the fields, after repeated complaints that players urinated and changed clothes in public. She said the entire debate was “ludicrous and out of control” because “we’re expending time and energy in an area that doesn’t benefit children’s education.”

Garcia said he is concerned that district efforts to make money by selling surplus property could result in losing land needed for schools. “When you sell the property, you never have it again,” he said.

Ruiz said she wants to see that the La Mirada portion of the district gets fair representation, something she said has not happened in the past. Four of the seven current board members live in Norwalk. All the candidates are La Mirada residents except Adams, Blodgett and Luera.

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In Lynwood Unified, the issues of contention have included year-round schooling and the protracted construction of a high school.

Five candidates are vying for two seats on the five-member board. The incumbents are Joe T. Battle, 52, a manager for the Internal Revenue Service, and Rachel Chavez, 55, a homemaker with a daughter attending Lynwood High.

The challengers are Ken Alford, 22, an assistant in the student store at Lynwood High; Claude Law, 54, a warehouse worker, and Laura M. Byrd, 48, a high school history teacher in Inglewood.

The school district began a year-round schedule in July, 1991, to ease overcrowding. The change prompted a parents’ lawsuit that briefly shut down the school system.

Alford opposes year-round school and said he is running as an employee who knows from personal experience that the school system could be better. He wants a stricter dress code and Spanish translators available at parent meetings.

Law, an active community and school district volunteer, will be making his second bid for the board. He also opposes year-round schooling and said the district has mismanaged efforts to obtain a new high school.

District officials have tried for more than a decade to replace the old high school, which is overcrowded and outdated. Several months ago, the state pledged to release the needed construction funds.

Byrd, on the other hand, declined to criticize the board or its actions. The sister of Lynwood Councilman Louis Byrd, she said she has nearly two decades of teaching experience to offer the board. Her main goals include improving multicultural studies so that children learn to respect cultural and ethnic differences. Battle, a board member since 1981, could not be reached for comment.

Chavez, the board’s only Latina, said district management has improved in recent years, but that the school system needs to hire more Latinos and more bilingual employees to relate to a student body that is overwhelmingly Latino.

A board member since 1989, Chavez said she has tried to offer honesty, open-mindedness and commitment to the school board.

“I vote my conscience,” she said. “I have no priority on my agenda other than that the children of Lynwood receive a quality education.”

Community correspondent John Pope contributed to this story.