L.A. SCHOOL BOARD ELECTS FIRST OPENLY GAY PRESIDENT.

Byline: Kimberly Kindy Daily News Staff Writer

The Los Angeles Board of Education on Monday elected Jeff Horton as its new president, marking the first time an openly gay member has been chosen to hold the post.

Horton, 48, is best known for establishing programs and policies to protect disadvantaged students - in particular homosexual students, teen-age mothers and minorities. He has taken considerable criticism for those stands from some parents.

``He's an advocate for all children, which I see as his great strength,'' said board member Mark Slavkin, who stepped down Monday after serving as president for two years.

Horton was elected on a 4-0 vote with three board members absent. Victoria Castro was the only board member who sent word to the meeting that she supported Horton for the job.

Board member Barbara Boudreaux, a longtime critic of Horton's who did not attend, said the absence of so many board members on such an important day should catch the attention of the public.

``They said (fellow board members) they wanted a unanimous vote. Well, they got a 4-to-0 vote and people can read between the lines about why there were so many people absent,'' Boudreaux said.

Horton's performance has drawn mixed reviews. What is seen as compassion by some in the Los Angeles community has been criticized by others.

Critics are concerned that Horton, in his new role, will distract the board from its main charge - providing a quality education to all students.

``We are concerned about a number of programs he has imposed on the district,'' said Eadie Gieb, president of Parents and Students United of the San Fernando Valley.

``He needs to be involved in scholastic improvement and student safety, not focusing on programs for gay and lesbian students,'' she said. ``This vote by the board confirms we need a breakup . . . the board is so out of touch with the concerns of parents.''

Horton, a five-year member of the board, represents an area that stretches from the northern tip of the San Fernando Valley through the mid-Wilshire corridor to West Hollywood.

He was reared in Van Nuys from ages 3 to 13 and taught 15 years at Crenshaw High School before going into school-district politics.

Horton's sexual orientation did not become publicly known until after he first was elected as a school board member in 1991. He made it a matter of public record during National Coming Out Day that same year. But that revelation did not affect his popularity in his district. Both times he ran for the school board, he received approximately 60 percent of the vote.

But Lou Sheldon, executive director of the Traditional Values Coalition - which in recent years has helped secure the elections of conservative Christians to school board seats - said he is distressed by Horton's election to the presidency.

``We are very concerned because his agenda is contrary to the beliefs of many parents,'' said Sheldon. ``Jeff Horton will be watched very closely by our organization and many others.'' And it is the work of groups like Sheldon's that had the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation cheering Monday about Horton's election.

``It helps counter the radical right's attacks on schools and the after-school programs that benefit gay and lesbian students,'' said Tamra King, a director in the Los Angeles-based GLAAD.

Sheldon's group helped organize a protest last year against the Horton-sponsored Gay and Lesbian Pride Month in which schools are encouraged in the month of June to highlight achievements of the homosexual community.

Horton also helped establish the Gay and Lesbian Commission, a district-funded advocacy group. In addition, he has helped expand school programs for teen-age mothers.

And he pushed for a system to report and track hate incidents and crimes committed on district campuses, which began in the 1995-1996 school year.

But Horton said to think of him solely as an advocate for such programs gives an incomplete picture.

His acceptance speech largely focused on the issues of instructional reform.

``We have begun a process of reforming the district and we need to stick to that path that we have started, . . . placing an emphasis on student achievement,'' he said, after the vote was cast in his favor.

He also pointed to his service this year as a board member where he chaired the board's instruction curriculum and student achievement committee.

He worked closely with a committee that developed the district's first set of student learning standards - which outline what students should know and be able to do in four major subject areas from kindergarten through 12th grade.

He was also closely involved with another committee that rewrote the district's eight-year-old bilingual master plan this year.

City Councilwoman Jackie Goldberg, who attended Monday's ceremony, said Horton is known for his compassion for all students - not just gay and lesbian and minority students.

``He also cares desperately for white Anglo-Saxon students because that's what he was,'' she said.

However, Goldberg said she sees that as serving as a foundation for his greatest strength, student achievement.

``Jeff's entire career has been in education,'' she said. ``He is very unique in his understanding, from the classroom point of view, how to improve student achievement.''

Horton served as Goldberg's field deputy for from 1989 to 1991 when she was a school board member - one of those years as board president.

Goldberg, a lesbian who was not open about her sexual orientation during her time as a board member, said Horton becoming the first openly gay board president is ``significant,'' but she did not focus on issues of his sexual orientation.

Goldberg laughed loudly Monday when one public speaker, a regular at board meetings, decried Horton's ``family values.'' ``I was letting him know how absurd he is,'' she said of her reaction to the speaker.

Horton said he suspects this is a battle he will continue to wage.

He pointed with pride to his family - his partner of 13 years and their 6-year-old adopted son.

``When people say it's no family they are wrong,'' said Horton. ``This is a family and it works and there is no doubt in my mind.''

Superintendent Sid Thompson said he supports Horton and believes his commitment will be to student achievement. He described Horton's personal life as ``private.''

CAPTION(S):

Photo

PHOTO (color) Jeff Horton won 4-0. Three board members were absent.

Bob Halvorsen/Daily News