PTA Surveys Candidates in 22 School Districts : Education: The 105-page detailed document is termed the group’s most ambitious ever.

Hoping to provide detailed and objective information about candidates for school boards throughout Orange County, the 4th District Parent-Teacher Assn. has conducted its most ambitious survey ever of those running for office this fall.

Some themes run throughout the candidates’ answers: tighten budgets, increase parent involvement, emphasize job skills, keep schools safe, and improve communication between trustees and the community.

“Have you felt any compassion for the children or openness to parents in 10 years?” asked Anaheim Union High School District candidate Mary Anne Zimolzak, who echoed many challengers’ anti-incumbent feelings. “We need a heart at this higher level, a heart against--or, if possible, with--power.”

Most candidates appear to support school uniforms and prefer a back-to-basics approach to academics rather than fashionable reform programs such as performance-based education.

But hidden among the responses are some innovative suggestions, such as live television coverage of school board meetings with call-in participation and formal pairing of high school students with senior citizens.

“In the past, not a lot of information has gotten out,” said Barbara Ledterman, the county PTA’s legislative director, who organized the project. PTA councils in each district will distribute the candidates’ responses to parents.

Ledterman said she was surprised at many of the responses to the survey.

“I just assumed everyone was in (education) for the same reason I’m in it,” she said with a shrug. “There are people out there who aren’t getting involved in schools because of interest in kids. There are other agendas.”

In the 105-page document, candidates explain their qualifications for office and answer two questions specifically aimed at each district.

Overall, 120 candidates for office in 22 local school districts responded to the survey; 41 candidates in those districts did not return surveys.

PTA groups in Irvine Unified and Savanna school districts plan to conduct their own surveys, Ledterman said. Fullerton Joint Union High School District and La Habra City School District were not included because candidates there are running unopposed.

Of those who responded, half have children attending public schools. An additional 36 candidates have children who graduated from public schools, three more have children who are too young for school, and three others sent their children to private schools for part or all of their education.

Eight candidates who responded do not have children, and a few said they were offended by the question, which the PTA asked of every candidate.

“This question betrays the public school Establishment’s ‘keep-out’ mentality,” said Leon E. McKinney, who does not have children and is one of nine running for two seats in the Huntington Beach Union High School District. “The vast majority of taxpayers don’t have children in school.”

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Joseph J. Wagner, another candidate in the same district, echoed McKinney’s concern. “This question reveals an undesirable bias,” Wagner responded, explaining that he has chosen not to have children. “I understand the insight that parenthood can bring to this job, but parents are often less objective when hard decisions are needed.”

Most candidates, though, emphasized their personal connections to the school community, whether by volunteering in their child’s classroom, coaching a team, or speaking at board meetings. Thirty-two of the candidates who responded to the PTA survey are incumbents.

When asked about experience over the past five years that qualifies them for the school board, 46 of the challengers cited volunteer work with the PTA or other school-based organizations. An additional 15 named non-school-related community involvement.

Ten of the candidates who responded to the survey work in public schools as teachers or administrators. Four are college teachers or administrators, and four more are retired educators.

Candidates in various districts were queried on a variety of topics in education, including bilingual education, multiculturalism, full inclusion for disabled students and uniforms and dress codes.

Though they backed a variety of specific programs, virtually all candidates stressed the importance of English comprehension. Only Michael Valenti in the Anaheim City School District backed a “true bilingual” program, saying he wished his own children could learn Spanish.

“Every child must learn English!,” incumbent Bobbee Cline of Saddleback Valley Unified wrote on her survey. “We need to get rid of state regulations and bureaucracy that tie up the funds we need with pointless rules.”

David A. Lampert, a candidate in Tustin Unified, suggested that schools also help students’ families. “We need to reach out and help the non-English speaking families, the moms and dads of these children, and help them to speak English too,” Lampert said.

Most candidates in the county’s urban areas praised the diversity of their school systems and stressed the importance of multicultural education and ethnic pride.

But several people decried such programs.

“We are all Americans and the diversity of our people is the American culture,” said Maurice (Morrie) Hansen, a Capistrano Unified candidate.

In the Anaheim City School District, candidates were polled about Proposition 187, the statewide ballot initiative that would deny education, social services and all but emergency health care to illegal immigrants. Five of the six candidates who responded said they oppose the measure. The remaining candidate, John Luckett, said he is unfamiliar with the issue.

Valenti called Proposition 187 “immoral and unconstitutional,” while Benny Hernandez described it as “monstrous” and promised not to enforce it if it passes.

Full inclusion of special education students in mainstream classrooms, a hotly debated topic in Orange County recently, drew mixed reviews from the candidates. Most supported mainstreaming, but expressed caution about also balancing the rights of others.

Dress codes drew strong support from candidates in virtually every district.