Slavkin Recall Forces Gain Momentum : Schools: Group trying to oust L.A. board president for his support of a legal challenge to Prop. 187 is passing a petition on Westside seeking to put the issue to a vote.

Leaders of the effort to recall Los Angeles Unified School district board President Mark Slavkin this week said their San Fernando Valley-based campaign is gaining momentum on the Westside.

In West Hollywood, however, City Council members expressed support this week for Slavkin, unanimously approving a resolution denouncing the recall drive against him. In their meeting Tuesday, the West Hollywood council members also endorsed the Los Angeles school board’s decision to take part in a legal challenge to Proposition 187, the voter-approved measure to deny schooling, health care and other government services to illegal immigrants.

It was that school board action that prompted the recall campaign against Slavkin.

“Mark Slavkin is only doing his job in supporting this (court) challenge,” said West Hollywood Councilman Paul Koretz, who introduced the resolution approved Tuesday. “We all recognize that 187 is a potential disaster for the school district, if not for the whole state.”

Recall drive leaders said they are recruiting dissatisfied residents of Westchester, Pacific Palisades and Marina del Rey to help them gather the 53,000 signatures needed to get the recall measure on the ballot. Election officials will only count signatures gathered within Slavkin’s district, which runs from Chatsworth to Westchester.

“Mark Slavkin is in for a big surprise,” said Janice Bierley, a former science teacher and a leader of Voice of Citizens Together, the Sherman Oaks group heading the recall drive.

Though most Westside voters opposed Proposition 187 at the polls last November, Bierley said the recall organization has been getting calls from angry Westside residents who want to jump on the recall bandwagon. Some, she said, “are helping with money, and others have said they’re eager to get petitions going.”

She says her group has joined forces with a local organization called Westside Citizens for Immigration Reform. Calls placed to that group this week were met with a taped message condemning Slavkin’s “arrogance” and requesting donations and volunteer help.

Bierley argues that Slavkin and the school board should not use taxpayer money to challenge a measure approved by 59% of California voters. The recall activists argue that the estimated $250,000 the district may spend challenging Proposition 187 could pay for, among other things, building improvements and instructional materials at the schools.

Slavkin, for his part, criticizes the tone of the recall campaign. “The level of hate is so disturbing,” he said. He also pointed out that recall supporters may themselves cost the district money, since the district will have to foot the bill for the recall vote if the matter is decided in a special election.

“So how does the (recall election), which is billed to the district, improve the nature of our immigration policy?” he said.

Slavkin added that while he is taking the movement seriously, it may be hard for his opponents to gather and sustain momentum. “I don’t think it’s a mass movement on either side of the hill,” he said.