17 File for School Board Races, Including Ferraro

Two open seats on the Los Angeles Board of Education have drawn 16 office seekers, while a former longtime board member, making another comeback bid, hopes to unseat an incumbent.

Also, nearly 30 candidates signaled their intentions to run for seats on the Los Angeles Community College District Board.

Among the candidates to file for a seat on the Los Angeles school board was former board member Richard E. Ferraro, a controversial conservative who in 1983 lost the Eastside’s District 5 seat he had held for 14 years.

Monday was the last day office seekers in the April 9 municipal primary election could file notice of their intention to run. The last day to complete the two-step process is Feb. 2, but anyone who did not meet Monday’s deadline cannot enter the races.

The Times will run a complete list of candidates once the nominating process ends.

Ferraro, who lost his school board seat to Larry Gonzalez, then a state senator’s aide, is the only challenger to file for the District 5 seat. In his latest attempt at a political comeback he is hoping to unseat Gonzalez’s successor, Leticia Quezada, the board’s first Latina, who is seeking a second term.

Ferraro’s lengthy tenure on the board was stormy. He was censured by colleagues twice, including once for calling other board members names.

In 1985, Ferraro forced Arthur Bronson, then a trustee of the Los Angeles Community College District, into a runoff but lost in the general election.

District 5 includes Eagle Rock, Highland Park, Mt. Washington, Boyle Heights, East Los Angeles and several incorporated cities, such as Vernon, Maywood, Huntington Park, Cudahy and Bell.

The only other Board of Education incumbent to seek reelection this spring, Warren Furutani, faces two challengers for his District 7 seat. The district runs south from Watts to San Pedro.

The decisions of two high-profile board members not to seek reelection ensures a change in the dynamics of the seven-member board. It leaves 11-year incumbent Roberta Weintraub as the only one with more than four years in office. The change will be heightened if board member Julie Korenstein succeeds in her bid to unseat City Councilman Hal Bernson this spring, necessitating a special election to replace her on the school board.

Rita Walters, an 11-year veteran, is giving up her District 1 seat to run for the City Council. The district includes South-Central and southwest Los Angeles. This race has attracted nine potential candidates.

The District 3 seat is being relinquished by eight-year incumbent Jackie Goldberg, who plans to return to teaching. The district encompasses Hollywood, Echo Park, Silver Lake, Mid-Wilshire, downtown Los Angeles and the Olympic Boulevard corridor. Five candidates have expressed an interest.

Severe budget problems, overcrowding, student achievement and a growing number of students suffering from the effects of poverty are some of the issues facing incumbents and would-be successors.

Unlike school board members, community college district trustees run at large rather than by geographic areas. In addition to Los Angeles, the nine-college district covers other communities including Alhambra, Beverly Hills, Burbank, Culver City, Las Virgenes, Montebello and Palos Verdes. The colleges are East Los Angeles, City, Harbor, Mission, Pierce, Southwest, Trade-Technical, Valley and West Los Angeles.

Terms are up for four of the seven board seats, which are referred to as offices. Harold Garvin, representing Office 5, is the only incumbent not seeking reelection. Incumbents will try for another term in Offices 1, 3 and 7. Twenty-nine challengers and candidates filed papers to run for these seats.

How to allocate shrinking budget resources is likely to be a major issue in the races for seats on the financially strapped college district board.

For those races in which no candidate receives 50% of the vote in the primary, the top two vote-getters will face each other in a runoff election June 4.