L.A. ELECTIONS / BOARD OF EDUCATION : It’s Teacher Vs. Parent in 5th District Contest

As Tuesday’s election draws near, the runoff candidates for a Los Angeles Unified Board of Education seat are striving to cement their control of two distinct cadres of 5th District voters.

Lucia V. Rivera paints herself as being compassionate--a parent and longtime high school volunteer who knows what parents really want and what children really need.

David Tokofsky paints himself as being savvy--a social studies teacher and longtime union representative who knows the inside of a classroom and the ins and outs of education politics.

But under that relatively simple surface is a far more intricate tableau.

Critics of each say that Tokofsky is the teachers union pawn, while Rivera is the administrators’ operative. If he wins, there will be a majority of union-backed candidates, two of them teachers, on the seven-member board. If she wins, there will be a board majority of administrator-backed members, three of them former principals.

Both candidates say they are independent and interested chiefly in the welfare of Los Angeles Unified’s 630,000 students. Rivera notes that she would be one of only two parents on the board; Tokofsky says he would be one of just two teachers.

If elected, Rivera said, her top priorities will be empowering parents, combatting truancy and improving school safety. If he wins, Tokofsky’s will be bolstering campus security, resurrecting arts education and increasing student academic achievement.

Even that abbreviated political analysis does not tell the whole story.

Rivera is the Latina candidate in an Eastside/northeast San Fernando Valley district that was redrawn in 1992 in hopes of creating a second stronghold for a Latino Board of Education candidate.

Her ethnicity and enthusiasm have drawn the support of most of the region’s Latino politicians--except for departing board member Leticia Quezada, who has made no endorsement in the race. On Friday, Quezada’s predecessor, Larry Gonzalez--elected in 1983 as the board’s first Latino--endorsed Rivera.

In the primary election, Rivera gained 44% of the vote but fell short of a simple majority, propelling the race into a runoff. Tokofsky was disappointed in his 27% showing, and briefly considered dropping out, but has since received the endorsement of five of the seven other primary candidates, including the three other Latinos.

Tokofsky is undeniably the candidate of the teachers union, United Teachers-Los Angeles, which historically has meant an avalanche of teacher support that outweighed the political liability of ties to organized labor.

This year it has generated at least $80,000 worth of printing and phone bank support as well as thousands of dollars from individual union members, ranging from classroom teachers to UTLA President Helen Bernstein. But teacher participation in activities such as precinct walking and phone calling has lagged, a phenomenon that Bernstein blames on their feelings of betrayal after two board members who were previously endorsed by the union later voted to cut teachers’ pay.

Rivera has received more than $20,000 from administrators--ranging from school principals to Assistant Supt. Ruben Zacarias--and has been endorsed by their organization, the Associated Administrators of Los Angeles. Her campaign manager is Lloyd Monsserrat, who is on leave from his job as a deputy for board member and former Principal Vicky Castro.

But Rivera is also supported by several unions, and has received at least $10,000 from the California State Council of Service Employees and $20,000 from the Los Angeles City and County Employees Union.

On the campaign trail, the lines between the two blur even further.

Although parents are Rivera’s chosen target, Tokofsky has not conceded them to her. And while he professes to be the political expert, she says he is underestimating a parent’s ability to grapple with difficult issues.

“I’m a person who takes everything into consideration and I’m open and I definitely can make good choices,” Rivera said. “Is he saying parents don’t know how to make decisions?”

Standing before a citizenship class at the Highland Park Family Service Center on Friday morning, Rivera imparted practical hints for getting involved in schools, drawn from her five years working at Eagle Rock High School, first as a volunteer and most recently as a paid parent liaison.

Parents gathered around Rivera afterward, eager to hear more about her promises to increase their power on the board and in other forums, ranging from the districtwide LEARN reform program to individual school councils. But her listeners’ enthusiasm is not negotiable at the ballot box, and that underscores Rivera’s greatest challenge: many of the parents she is counting on for support are not registered to vote.

Although nearly 70% of the residents--and 87% of the schoolchildren--in the district are Latino, fewer than half of the registered voters identified themselves as Latino three years ago, when district boundary revisions split the Eastside and sent the 5th District snaking up into the Valley.

“I really like what she says,” said Elvira Jimenez, who has one child in nearby San Pasqual School. “But I’m not a citizen yet.”

Tokofsky has to straddle a difficult line between broadening his appeal beyond teachers and yet reassuring his colleagues that he will not abandon them if elected.

In a teacher-filled classroom at Belmont High School last week, he slipped into one of his favorite stump speeches, in which he jokingly proposed that malathion helicopters loaded with antidepressants spray campuses around the district. Then he blamed teacher depression on the system.

“Your spirit has gotten depressed by pay cuts, demeaned by lack of self-esteem,” Tokofsky said during the lunchtime visit, one of two dozen such school appearances during his runoff campaign.

He tried to persuade the educators that he would not let them down, acknowledging that many felt particularly resentful of former history teacher Jeff Horton, who voted with his board colleagues for pay cuts in 1991--the year he was first elected with substantial union help--and again in 1993.

Tokofsky’s remarks were punctuated by nods and “ahhs” of appreciation from the teachers, several of whom said afterward they would vote for him.

“Of course I support my ethnicity and that’s my first impulse, as a Latina,” said Olivia Sanchez-Brown, who teaches adult education. “But he really has the teaching experience and wants to use it [on the board]. Most politicians are interested in their political futures.”

Both candidates publicly downplay ethnic politics, but privately acknowledge its role in the race.

After two anticipated Latino front-runners opted out before the primary, Rivera was able to attract the endorsements of powerful Latinos, ranging from Councilman Richard Alatorre to Rep. Xavier Becerra (D-Los Angeles).

The prospect that a white could win the seat prompted odd liaisons. In the waning days of the primary campaign, Los Angeles County Supervisor Gloria Molina backed Rivera, saying that the importance of preserving the 5th District for a Latino outweighed her longstanding political feud with Alatorre.

For Tokofsky--who is liberal and bilingual--the possibility of being perceived as the angry white male candidate was horrifying. He has instead designed a campaign around his qualifications, beginning with a bachelor’s degree in history from UC Berkeley and continuing through his role as coach of the Marshall High academic decathlon team that brought the district its first national decathlon title in 1987.

During a debate at Roosevelt High School last month, all in Spanish, Tokofsky spoke at least as fluently as Rivera, even punning at one point by overemphasizing the first two syllables of burocracia (“bur- ro” or jackass) when he told the crowd of the “stagnating bureaucracy” of the Los Angeles Unified School District.

Rivera, whom Tokofsky criticized in one mailer for having only a high school diploma, has emphasized her user’s knowledge of Los Angeles Unified schools. She has helped four children make their way through the system and quit her job as a secretary to help out at the school when one of them began struggling in high school.