Orange Board Increases Conservative Majority

Conservatives swept the school board elections Tuesday, knocking off two incumbent trustees, as voters also overwhelmingly endorsed efforts to ditch bilingual education.

The election gave the conservatives an apparent 6-to-1 majority on the school board, up from the narrow 4-to-3 edge they had held since 1993. It was a stunning defeat for the teachers union, which had opposed the board majority.

“It means that we keep the district from union control, and that’s the biggest thing,” said Martin Jacobson, president of the Orange Unified School District board of trustees.

Opponents of the board majority were disconsolate.

“I feel for the district,” challenger Gisela Meier said. “I think they’ll continue to drag this district down.”

Jacobson, an outspoken conservative, held off a challenge by Meier, according to unofficial final returns.

Jacobson was joined in victory by allies Linda Davis, who defeated incumbent James Fearns, and Kathy Ward, who knocked off incumbent Rick Ledesma.

In addition, Terri Sargeant, who also has been endorsed by conservatives, defeated William G. Vasquez in a contest for an open seat.

Voters handed Measure A a landslide victory. The nonbinding measure asked whether they agreed with a recent decision to replace bilingual education with an English “immersion” program. An unsinkable majority said yes.

Poll workers reported a surprisingly strong 19.6% turnout among the district’s 92,734 registered voters.

Most school board elections are shunted to the political backstage. But Tuesday’s vote, the only one this fall among Orange County school districts, put Orange Unified front and center. There was an issue for everyone.

Should bilingual education be abolished? Do teachers deserve higher pay? Should school services be privatized? Are state and federal programs a socialist corruption of public education? Is big labor running amok? Is it gay-bashing to denounce “homosexual activists” involved in a campaign? And what kind of curriculum should students be taught?

Voters in the county’s fifth-largest school district faced those questions and others as they filled four school board seats in an election closely watched here and elsewhere in California.

Some said they were tired of polarized debates that have earned Orange Unified a reputation for controversy.

“I would prefer that the school board emphasize more the interests of the children rather than pushing political viewpoints,” said Robert Hall, 67, a retired engineer in Santa Ana. He said he voted against members of the board majority because “they tend to be too radical.”

But others applauded the board majority for tackling charged issues. Val Tardif, 74, a retired businessman in Orange, said teacher unions “hit the nerve” with him. “They just wield too much influence,” he said, explaining his vote for Jacobson and his allies.

Jacobson, an outspoken proponent of bare-knuckle, back-to-basics brand of school conservatism, has been a staunch critic of the teachers union.

The advisory measure on bilingual education came amid statewide debate over how to teach children who aren’t fluent in English. An English-only initiative is being promoted for a state vote next June. In addition, Orange Unified is one of four Orange County districts in the past two years to win a waiver from the state’s native-language requirements.

The newly elected trustees, who represent four separate regions, will be sworn into office on Dec. 11 for four-year terms. The 29,000-student district serves Orange, Villa Park and parts of Anaheim, Santa Ana and Garden Grove.

Conservative activists have controlled the board since 1993. But centrists and liberals, backed by the Orange teachers union and its parent, the California Teachers Assn., were hoping to recapture the majority.

On one side of the campaign was the board majority: generally conservative, often combative and frequently attacked for hewing to what critics called a religious agenda.

Two of the majority’s four seats were at stake. Jacobson, 44, an accountant, sought reelection, but Max Reissmueller did not. In addition to Jacobson, key Orange County Republicans backed Davis, 48, a community volunteer; Ward, 40, a bank executive-consultant; and Sargeant, 44, a land use planner.

There were no signs that religious groups played a major financial role in the campaign, although some anti-abortion activists were seen Sunday at an Orange church handing out fliers supporting the board majority.

Jacobson had campaigned four years ago with an electronic monitoring bracelet after being arrested at an anti-abortion demonstration. In the late stages of this year’s campaign, Jacobson lashed out at liberals and gays, accusing them of seeking to take over the district.

A few liberal and gay political groups opposed the majority in a coalition called Kids First for Education. But the most potent opposition force by far was the Orange teachers union, which outspent all other interest groups in the campaign in support of a four-candidate slate of Fearns, 66, a retired probation officer; Ledesma, 35, a financial advisor; Meier, 46, a writer; and Vasquez, 51, a municipal manager.

Candidates in the opposition group depicted themselves as centrists or moderates. “You basically have a far-right group, and you have everybody else,” said Suzanne Vaugine, president of the Orange Unified Education Assn., the local teachers union.

Other candidates were Bea Gonzalez, 35, an employment development technician; Robert L. Douglas, 39, a maintenance worker; and J. Carolan Smyth III, 46, a merchandising planner and educator. Every candidate except Smyth and Douglas raised at least $1,000.

The local union affiliate spent $60,000 in the campaign, according to Vaugine, collected in small chunks from individual teachers. The statewide union also gave $2,700 worth of support to each of the four union-endorsed candidates: $10,800 in all.

Teachers, usually key players in school politics, were seeking to reshape the school board after drawn-out contract negotiations yielded a settlement last summer that left many of them disgruntled. During those talks, members of the board majority repeatedly criticized the union as fiscally irresponsible for seeking higher pay with long-term health benefits.

The board majority also drew notice for rejecting social service grants, including a state anti-drug program that offered some students psychological counseling. Jacobson, in his ballot statement, disparaged state programs that espouse a “socialistic philosophy that would detract from the academic focus to which I am committed.”

The majority also sought to privatize school services, although an effort to contract school bus service failed after the chosen company dropped out at the last minute.

The bilingual education question, though a top draw with voters, raised little debate among candidates. The school board unanimously opted last spring to drop dual Spanish-English teaching for an English-immersion program. The board placed the measure on the ballot to seek an after-the-fact vote of confidence.

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Also contributing to this report were Times staff writer H.G. Reza and correspondent Lesley Wright.

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Election Returns

Orange Unified School District

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100% Precincts Reporting Votes % Trustee Area 1 (**)Martin Jacobson* 8,928 50.7 Gisela Meier 8,677 49.3

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Trustee Area 4

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(**)Linda Davis 8,924 50.5 James Fearns* 8,759 49.5

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Trustee Area 5

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(**)Terri Sargeant 9,328 53.4 William G. Vasquez 8,134 46.6

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Trustee Area 7

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(**)Kathy Ward 7,620 43.1 Rick Ledesma* 7,142 40.4 Bea Gonzalez 1,524 8.5 J. Carolan Smyth III 701 4.0 Robert L. Douglas 699 4.0

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Measure

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A--Bilingual Education (advisory) (**)Yes 14,354 86.5 No 2,249 13.5

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* An asterisk (*) denotes an incumbent candidate.

* Elected candidates and approved measures--or those leading with 99% of precincts reporting--are in bold type.(**)

Los Angeles Times