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

Byline: NAUSH BOGHOSSIAN

Staff Writer

With control of the Los Angeles Unified School District hanging in the balance, education reformer Tamar Galatzan took a strong lead Tuesday over union-backed incumbent Jon Lauritzen in the high-stakes race for a San Fernando Valley seat on the board, according to early returns.

With the political and financial backing of Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, Galatzan mounted a multimillion-dollar campaign against Lauritzen, whose re-election effort was funded primarily by United Teachers Los Angeles.

Villaraigosa also supported Richard Vladovic, who was leading Neal Kleiner for the seat representing South Gate. The two seats would give the mayor four supporters on the seven-member school board and reignite his stalled effort to help run the nation's second-largest district.

Galatzan said late Tuesday that she looked forward to collaborating with Villaraigosa and others who share 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.

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 UTLA.

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.

If both of the mayor's candidates prevail, 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 that 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.

Galatzan, a deputy city attorney and the mother of two young children, led educator Lauritzen by 4 percentage points in the primary. The third candidate, Louis Pugliese, who captured 16 percent of the vote and forced the runoff, subsequently endorsed Galatzan, in what political consultants had predicted would be key in swinging votes in her favor.

But unlike hard-fought elections under previous mayoral administrations, the union did not fight tooth-and-nail against Villaraigosa, a former organizer for UTLA.

Both the mayor and UTLA's leadership have proposed reform plans to cut district bureaucracy and divert money to classrooms; create smaller schools and classrooms; and give educators greater control over their campus budget and curriculum.

naush.boghossian(at)dailynews.com

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CAPTION(S):

2 photos

Photo:

(1) LAUSD school board candidate Tamar Galatzan places her ballot in the box Tuesday at her polling place in Studio City.

David Sprague/Staff Photographer

(2) Incumbent LAUSD board candidate Jon Lauritzen votes at Chatsworth Methodist Church in Chatsworth on Tuesday.

Tina Burch/Staff Photographer