Riordan Takes Pride in School Slate’s Showing

A beaming Mayor Richard Riordan declared victory Wednesday in his campaign to remake the Los Angeles Board of Education and said he expects the new school board to launch a revolution to improve the public schools.

Two of the four candidates on the mayor’s slate won by wide margins in Tuesday’s voting. A third appeared headed to a narrow victory with only a small percentage of ballots yet to be counted. A fourth candidate forced a two-term incumbent into a June runoff, raising the possibility of a clean sweep for the mayor’s campaign to install a new majority on the seven-member board.

“The time for revolution is now,” Riordan said.

Already, one of the victors who benefited from the mayor’s $2-million fund-raising drive was planning to start quickly on fulfilling her campaign promise of making the district run more like a business.

Caprice Young, who defeated two-term incumbent Jeff Horton, said her first priority will be getting the board to adopt a long-term strategic plan that ties student achievement to the district’s finances. Young, a manager for IBM, brings business and budgeting experience that is lacking on the board, which consists entirely of former teachers and principals.

The other victor, Mike Lansing, also said he intends to focus on the $6.6-billion budget, adding that there should be better spending controls to “maximize dollars going into the classroom.”

Board member David Tokofsky, the only incumbent to gain the mayor’s support, was holding on to a slender lead over challenger Yolie Flores Aguilar. Genethia Hayes and incumbent Barbara Boudreaux were headed for a June 8 runoff.

Echoing the mayor, Young and Lansing said during the campaign that they want to concentrate on broad policy issues and leave the day-to-day operations of the district to Supt. Ruben Zacarias and his staff. Many critics have accused the board of wasting time and confusing staff by “micromanaging” the district.

The new team will face some hard realities as it attempts to shift the board’s focus, starting with the tremendous constituent pressures that come with the $24,000-a-year jobs. From parents who don’t like their children’s teachers, to employees complaining that they were wrongly disciplined, to students appealing expulsions, the board stands as the court of last resort in the 700,000-student district.

‘The Ball’s in Their Court’

The new board members will face a series of tough issues, most notably the superintendent’s ambitious program to eliminate the practice of promoting students who perform below grade level. School officials have estimated that as many as 100,000 students may need special tutoring to avoid failing, posing immense demands for classroom space, teachers and money.

Tough union negotiations also lie ahead over the question of how to hold teachers accountable for student performance.

The fierceness of Riordan’s $2-million campaign to unseat three incumbents has also engendered some bad feelings that could aggravate the board’s notorious contentiousness.

City Councilwoman Jackie Goldber, a former board member who supported Horton, said the Riordan candidates now must show that they can improve the city schools.

“They have now spent $2 million creating the most negative attitudes toward public education in the history of this city, and now it’s their job to change that,” Goldberg said. “I wish them well. The ball’s in their court. There are no excuses now.”

Two board members who were not up for reelection said they hope to make the transition as easy as possible by including the new members in board deliberations even before they are formally seated on July 1.

Julie Korenstein said she hoped to join the new members in pushing aggressively forward with reforms that have already been started, such as teacher training and the increase of phonics instruction for early readers.

Defeated incumbents Horton and George Kiriyama both promised to smooth the way for their successors.

Supporters of Horton and Kiriyama have contended that Riordan was attempting to buy control of the school board through his generous support of candidates.

Riordan said Wednesday that he doesn’t expect the new board members to take their lead from him.

“I supported four very independent people,” he said.

Even as he spoke of revolution, however, it remained uncertain whether two of his four candidates would prevail.

Tokofsky led Aguilar by only 310 votes with 98.4% of the precincts counted.

The Los Angeles city clerk’s office said that about 13,000 absentee and hand-processed ballots remained to be counted and that the final results might not be available for several days.

Tokofsky’s political consultant, Sue Burnside, said she expected the uncounted ballots, which include absentee ballots, to favor him. Meanwhile, because the race was so close, a write-in campaign by a third candidate created a possibility of a runoff. The city clerk’s office has not yet determined how many write-in votes were cast.

Round Two

Riordan also conceded that a tough campaign lies ahead for Hayes, the candidate he backed in the school board district covering much of southern Los Angeles.

Hayes held a 424-vote margin over Boudreaux, but will have to face her in a runoff because neither won a majority in the four-candidate race.

Political observers predict a bruiser.

“It’s going to be an incredible second-round fight--both candidates are still standing and in good shape, and both are backed by seasoned professionals,” said political consultant Phil Giarrizzo. “It’s going to be a real race to watch in terms of its importance to the city and the resources and support gathered by both sides.

“A lot of what ultimately happens will depend on whether Hayes can raise her own money,” he added.

Riordan has promised to back her campaign if she seeks help, but because his popularity among blacks is low, he maintained a hands-off posture in the primary, limiting the funds he spent on her to less than a third of what he spent on Young and Lansing. A high percentage of voters in the district are black.

Hayes’ supporters said she will muster more campaign donations on her own behalf over the next six weeks.

“It’s in our own best interests to raise as much money as we can on our own, and have the campaign in our tactical control, as we did in the primary,” said Hayes’ campaign manager, Parke Skelton.

Even before Tuesday’s results confirmed a runoff for the school board’s 1st District seat, Boudreaux had been preparing for a new campaign.

At Boudreaux’s campaign headquarters Tuesday, sample campaign mailers designed for a runoff were already tacked up on a wall in a cluttered cubicle she calls her “war room.”

“Of course, we hoped to pull it off on Tuesday. But we didn’t,” said Boudreaux’s campaign manager, Jewett Walker. “Now, we’re going to get out there and run as hard as we can with every last bit of energy, breath and blood we’ve got to give.

“Do we have the money we need for a runoff? No,” he added. “Can we get it? Yes.”

Times staff writer Beth Shuster contributed to this report.

* A RUNOFF FOR HOLDEN?

Councilman Nate Holden was still below 50% vote tally with one precinct outstanding. A31