MAYOR'S CHOICES AHEAD VOTERS SUPPORTING GALATZAN, VLADOVIC FOR SEATS ON LAUSD BOARD.

Byline: NAUSH BOGHOSSIAN

Staff Writer

With Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's effort to reform the LAUSD hanging in the balance, one of his school board candidates held a narrow lead over his opponent while the other appeared headed for victory.

With fewer than 5 percent of registered voters casting ballots, unofficial returns showed veteran city prosecutor Tamar Galatzan, who had the mayor's political and financial backing, well ahead of union-backed incumbent Jon Lauritzen in the race to represent the San Fernando Valley.

Villaraigosa also supported Richard Vladovic, who was leading Neal Kleiner for the seat representing South Gate.

If Galatzan and Vladovic ultimately win, the mayor would have four allies on the seven-member school board, reigniting his stalled effort to help run the nation's second-largest district.

Appearing with Galatzan late Tuesday at the Sportsmen's Lodge, the mayor voiced his desire to collaborate with the LAUSD leaders with whom he's been at odds.

"We've been to the Legislature. We've been to the courts. We've been to the ballot box," he said. "Now it's time to join hands and forge a genuine partnership."

Galatzan said that she looked forward to collaborating with Villaraigosa and others who shared her desire for change.

"This vote is going to make clear that voters in the San Fernando Valley want reform and this is going to be a new day for L.A. Unified," Galatzan said. "It's fresh blood. It's people who ran for office with the singular goal of reform.

"There's a sense of urgency that I stressed and Vladovic stressed in his campaign and I think that that urgency is the message voters heard and responded to."

Galatzan's challenge to Lauritzen's re-election bid sparked a vigorous and expensive race that evolved into a contest between reform and the status quo. The candidates sparred over the future of charter schools, as well as ways to improve lagging student test scores and the district's stubbornly high dropout rate.

Lauritzen predicted that Galatzan will be stymied in fulfilling her promises to voters.

"I think she's going to find herself taking orders from the mayor and they're going to be trying to change the district in a way that is not possible at this time because she doesn't understand how the district works," Lauritzen said late Tuesday, as the votes continued to trickle in.

Galatzan's campaign relied heavily on election mailers, most of them funded by the Partnership for Better Schools -- a committee of mayoral supporters that contributed $2 million of the $2.2 million she raised Jan. 1.

Lauritzen, meanwhile, received $1.04 million in contributions, about $900,000 of it from United Teachers Los Angeles.

Although Galatzan's campaign had hoped to persuade voters to cast absentee ballots and Lauritzen had counted on strong support from the district's labor unions, election officials estimated turnout at less than 5 percent.

The hefty contributions reflect the scope of the battle for control of the 707,000-student district.

Soon after being sworn in as mayor, Villaraigosa took aim at the Los Angeles Unified School District, initially vowing to wrest away control of the district.

He later tempered his goals, and collaborated with UTLA to draft a state law that would give him a significant role in running the district.

Assembly Bill 1381 was passed by the Legislature and signed into law by the governor last September.

However, the LAUSD mounted a legal challenge, and the legislation has been struck down repeatedly in the courts.

Villaraigosa turned to the school board race -- in which four seats would be up for grabs -- as his final attempt to have influence in the district.

With four supporters on the board, the mayor will get a cluster of low- performing schools to oversee as well as other, symbolic forms of decision-making, said Jaime Regalado, director of the Edmund G. "Pat" Brown Institute of Public Affairs at California State University, Los Angeles.

But depending on the degree to which Villaraigosa is going to have a role in the district, it may lead to friction with new Superintendent David Brewer III, who's working on creating his own path at the LAUSD.

"The school board and the district will now lean more toward what the mayor deems as necessary and practical for the district. He's going to be more of a player now," Regalado said. It will heighten the visibility of the mayor and result in Brewer having a more difficult time making his own mark and looking like a true leader."

Villaraigosa-backed Yolie Flores Aguilar handily won the District 5 seat during the March 6 general election and Monica Garcia, a Villaraigosa ally, is already a member of the school board.

Garcia, long the sole Villaraigosa ally on the board, said she's thrilled the mayor's slate prevailed and welcomes a clear partnership with the mayor in the form of having him oversee a cluster of low-performing schools.

"The three new board members represent change and I expect that their leadership will produce the urgency and the focus of improving graduation rates that we haven't seen," Garcia said.

UTLA President A.J. Duffy said he called Galatzan Tuesday evening to congratulate her and offered to meet with her very soon. And although his candidate Lauritzen lost, Duffy believes the union will still be able to bring in its reforms to the LAUSD.

"We have some bridges to build, we have a future together and we should start working on that future," Duffy said. "I think we'll be on the same page and I don't think there will be a problem."

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Los Angeles school board candidate Tamar Galatzan is congratulated by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa during Galatzan's election night celebration Tuesday at the Sportsmen's Lodge in Studio City.

Michael Owen Baker/Staff Photographer