ELECTIONS : 8 Candidates, 3 Seats and Lots of Issues for Centinela Schools

Since classes began last month in the Centinela Valley Union High School District, teachers at Hawthorne High School have staged two sickouts to protest a contract dispute.

Last month, a Leuzinger High School student was shot and injured.

And the U.S. Justice Department continues its investigation into alleged employment discrimination by the district.

Such are the issues facing eight candidates vying for three open school board seats in the Nov. 2 election.

The district’s troubles have fueled campaign debate, with challengers contending that the lone incumbent, board President Pamela Sturgeon, has worn out her welcome and Sturgeon saying she has done her best with problems that predated her. Two of the board members are not seeking reelection because they are moving.

The new board will have plenty on its hands in running the district, which includes more than 6,000 students in Hawthorne and Leuzinger high schools and a continuation school, Lloyde High.

The board has spent nearly $2 million over the last three years to settle racial discrimination lawsuits filed by former employees.

That and other financial woes left the district nearly bankrupt last year, and state officials earlier this year called in a fiscal consultant to oversee the district’s budget.

Along with the budget problems, community activists, teachers and students have complained that the board is inattentive.

All the challengers blame the board, and specifically Sturgeon, for the discord in the district.

But Sturgeon said she has made solid efforts to build communication among teachers, administrators and students.

“Even if I don’t agree with the staff, I will at least listen and discuss with them,” she said. “And I think the endorsement from the teachers union and the classified employees union shows I care for them.”

John Dragone, Sturgeon’s opponent for the Area 1 seat, disagrees. “If there really was open communication, you wouldn’t have teachers walking out, you wouldn’t have people getting mad when she moves to go into closed session during the board meetings.”

In addition to Dragone and Sturgeon, Ann Birdsall also is running for the Area 1 seat.

In Area 2, the candidates are Mario Chiappe, Stennis Floyd and Jean DeSimone. Incumbent Amparo Font did not seek reelection because she is moving to Orange County to take a teaching job.

In Area 5, the candidates are Nivia Brito and Sheila Stachowiak. Asila Jacqueline Carrera, who has held the seat four years, is not running for reelection because she is moving from Lennox to Hawthorne.

The next election for Areas 3 and 4 will be in 1995.

Here is a look at the candidates:

Area 1

* Lawndale

If reelected to the board, Sturgeon, 47, said her first priority would be “round-the-clock negotiations to see that the teachers get a contract.” She added that safety on the campuses is another important issue.

Sturgeon has been endorsed by the Centinela Valley Secondary Teachers Assn., which is the teachers union, and the Classified Employees Assn., which represents non-teaching and non-professional workers. She has raised more than $1,700 in campaign contributions.

Candidate Birdsall, 53, served on the board from 1983 to 1989. When she started her term, the district was nearly bankrupt. By 1989, she said, it was nearly solvent. Now, she said, the board has run the district back into fiscal trouble.

“This board is the source of the problems,” she said. Financial mismanagement, she added, has left the district unable to buy books for students. “My son has no books for his Spanish, English and science classes. When I left the board in 1989, all the students had books.”

Birdsall, who works at El Camino College as a records clerk, said she would be attentive to the district’s finances.

“Times are hard, but if you do it right, and don’t blow money on attorneys, and use the money properly, then you can start using money for books,” she said.

Birdsall has not sought endorsements, saying she is more interested in support from the community as a whole and employees in the district. She has raised $933.

Newcomer Dragone, 32, who works as an office manager, said he is running because he is “tired of the baloney.”

“(We) have a board president who displays no concern for the community. If she conducted herself more professionally, the district would be spared the criticism.”

The time is ripe for change, he said. “When I attended Lawndale High (in the late 1970s), there was pride in the district. Teachers, parents and students have been burnt so many times by this board. There’s a lot of animosity and poor morale. People are looking for a change.”

Area 2

* Hawthorne, east of Hawthorne Boulevard

Lack of leadership is a contributing factor to the district’s poor image and low morale, said candidate Chiappe, 42, a computer network specialist. “We need to reinvigorate the board and seek solutions to the problems based on a consensus,” he said. Instead of managing the basics, the current district has merely “reacted to all the consequences that come from not taking care of the basics,” he said.

Chiappe has the endorsement of the Gardena Democratic Club and has raised $1,200 for his campaign.

A longtime Hawthorne resident, DeSimone said that if elected she would try to improve communication among the board, teachers, administrators and students. She suggested committees that would bring teachers, students and parents into the board’s decision-making.

“I want to show people how good the schools are,” she said. Her two sons attended Leuzinger and went on to USC. Her 13-year-old daughter attends Leuzinger.

DeSimone has raised almost $2,000.

Floyd, 44, describes himself as a staunch activist. He is a member of the Committee for Racial Free Education, a community watchdog group whose letter to the U. S. Justice Department prompted an investigation into allegations that the district discriminated against two African-American employees.

Student safety and the district’s financial woes are top concerns, he said. He proposed seeking more state grants.

An aerospace engineer, he has not sought endorsements. “I owe no allegiance to anyone, only to the students and the community,” he said. He has raised $857.

Area 5

* Lennox

Sheila Stachowiak said she feels she is the best person to fill the seat because, along with experience, “I have the time to devote to the district.”

Stachowiak has run for a board seat in previous elections. She said the district’s problems won’t disappear overnight, but a united board would make progress.

“I would like to form committees made up of students and teachers and parents,” she said. “When you feel a part of the decision-making process, you don’t feel so threatened.”

Although it is a nonpartisan race, she received the endorsement of the local Democratic Party as well as one from the California State Employees Assn., which represents some non-teaching employees. She has raised $525.

Candidate Brito, 28, said the district should pay more attention to students. “I would like to see more after-school activities, fund-raisers for the schools that the kids can organize to help them gain some managerial skills while allowing them to feel like they are making a contribution,” she said.

Her experience as a manager of a mid-Wilshire law firm, she said, makes her a solid contender. “This district must be run like a business,” she said.

Brito has raised $1,500.