RIORDAN BACKS SLATE FOR L.A. SCHOOL BOARD; MAYOR ENTERS REFORM FRACAS.

Byline: David R. Baker Daily News Staff Writer

Making his bid to reshape a school system he considers evil and inept, Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan Monday announced a slate of candidates he will back in April's Board of Education elections.

The list includes one incumbent - David Tokofsky - and three challengers to unseat current board members. If elected, they would form a new majority on the seven-member panel.

``These are people who want to revolutionize the school district,'' Riordan said. ``They will each run their own campaigns, but I will help them with whatever it takes to run.''

Riordan said he would be willing to contribute money to their campaigns if needed.

The challengers represent a mix of public- and private-sector experience.

Genethia Hayes, executive director of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference's Los Angeles chapter, has been tapped to run against Barbara Boudreaux, a choice Riordan made in September.

Mike Lansing, a former private-school teacher who runs the San Pedro Boys & Girls Club, will challenge incumbent George Kiriyama.

Caprice Young, a former assistant deputy mayor for Riordan who now works for IBM, will challenge Jeff Horton.

Riordan's announcement, coming after months of verbal battles with the board, drew condemnation from the board members he hopes to remove. Barbara Boudreaux, who represents South Los Angeles, said the mayor should stick to running the city.

``He targets anyone who disagrees with him,'' she said. ``We need someone who's supportive of us, not someone's who's going to be a bully to the Board of Education.''

She also predicted that Riordan's attempt to influence the election, possibly with financial support, would backfire. ``My constituents don't like people trying to buy campaigns,'' Boudreaux said.

But the challengers said they are their own candidates, pursuing their own campaigns. Riordan did not try to impose upon them any unified platform, several said.

``My decision to run for the board was not some new thing - it happened well before the mayor endorsed me,'' Hayes said.

Each has his or her own notions of what is wrong with the immense Los Angeles Unified School District. Hayes said she wants the district to do a better job showing the public where its money goes. She also wants the district to help cultivate experienced teachers who want to move into administration and said the district needs to emphasize reading by the end of third grade.

``The curriculum is only open to youngsters who can read,'' she said.

Young, who served on Riordan's budget team, said the district needs better strategic planning.

``There's no financial planning as far as I can see,'' she said.

She, too, wanted a tighter focus on reading skills as well as teaching children to use new technologies.

Lansing said he was caught off-guard by Monday's announcement and declined to discuss his proposals for reform until he officially declares his candidacy in early January. He said, however, he believes his 17 years of teaching private school could lend a new perspective to the board.

``My involvement on the private side brings a whole different attitude on how to fix something that needs fixing, whereas someone mired in the same system for years might not,'' Lansing said.

The challengers echoed some of Riordan's complaints about the board. Its members, several candidates said, are embroiled in personal politics and interfere with Superintendent Ruben Zacarias' job.

That puzzled board member Jeff Horton, whom Riordan hopes to oust. He said he shares Riordan's concern about micromanaging Zacarias.

``I've been fighting against it,'' Horton said Monday.

Board president Victoria Castro, who is not up for re-election in April, raised a similar complaint Monday about Riordan's slate.

Tokofsky, she said, has not been supportive of Zacarias. Castro is backing county Board of Education member Yolie Flores Aguilar to unseat Tokofsky and has sent mailers soliciting $99 donations to Aguilar's campaign.

``I thought it was (Riordan's) intention to have a board that would support and work with Dr. Zacarias and not micromanage, and I think this selection demonstrates just the opposite,'' Castro said. ``It's just another back-room deal.''

Tokofsky said he shared a common approach with Zacarias and Riordan, calling them education traditionalists in a system gone haywire.

Daily News Staff Writer Rick Orlov contributed to this report.