Board Foes Rev Up Recall

Teacher and parent anger mounted within the Westminster School District on Friday, a day after its fractured board of trustees hired a socially conservative lawyer to represent the district as it continues toward a showdown with the state over discrimination policies.

With a recall of two trustees already underway, the turmoil jeopardizes millions of dollars in funding and could lead to a state takeover of the district.

District Supt. Barbara DeHart met with the new lawyer, Mark Bucher, throughout the day to find a resolution to appease state education officials and three of the district’s trustees who reject the state law.

California Supt. for Public Instruction Jack O’Connell has given the district until Monday to revise its antidiscrimination policy to comply with a law that protects transsexuals and others who do not conform to traditional gender roles.

For months, the three trustees -- Helena Rutkowski, Judy Ahrens and Blossie Marquez-Woodcock -- have remained defiant, saying the law offends their Christian principles because it allows students and teachers to define their own gender, and could lead to promotion of alternative lifestyles in the classroom. The district is the only one in California to reject the law.

While district officials and Bucher declined to comment on Friday’s talks, opponents of the board majority continued to rail against them and increased efforts to oust them.

“They’ve hijacked the district. It’s unbelievable,” said trustee Jo-Ann Purcell, who, along with board President James Reed, voted to follow the state law. “I hate to think about what other damage they could do.”

Purcell said she was hopeful that state legislators will be receptive to emergency legislation proposed by state Sen. Joseph Dunn (D-Garden Grove) that would allow the state to take control of Westminster.

“It’s the best thing we can hope for,” she said. “If you’ve got a cancer, you’ve got to cut it out, even if it means [Reed] and I have to go too.”

Dunn said Friday that he plans to present the legislation as an amendment to a bill on Tuesday and is hopeful it will pass within a month.

The emergency law, which would need a two-thirds majority to pass, would empower the state to temporarily take over a district that violates a state law in a way that threatens funding.

Louise MacIntyre, the district’s PTA council president, said she ordered hundreds of posters, lawn signs and buttons Friday as part of an effort to recall Ahrens and Marquez-Woodcock from the board. Rutkowski, whose term expires in November, is not targeted.

With more than 100 parent volunteers ready to gather the 7,200 required signatures, MacIntyre said she was confident the recall would qualify for the Nov. 2 ballot.

Not all parents disagree with the three trustees.

“This is not about discrimination,” said Stephanie Erickson, whose son attends school in the district. “This is about preventing a law that allows the homosexual agenda in the classroom.... Someone has to have the courage to take this fight on.”

At issue is the wording of the district’s policy for handling discrimination complaints. In listing groups protected from discrimination, Westminster refers to “gender” and not to “sex” or “sexual orientation.” State law requires every school district’s complaint procedures to reflect the state’s definition of “sex” as male or female and “gender” as a person’s actual sex or perceived sex.

Janet Brubaker, president of the Westminster Teachers Assn., said the union fully supports the recall and Dunn’s legislation.

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Times staff writer Stanley Allison contributed to this report.