TEACHERS TO PICK NEXT UNION HEAD; HIGUCHI FACES RE-ELECTION BATTLE.

Byline: David R. Baker Daily News Staff Writer

As the Los Angeles school board gears up for a watershed spring election, the teachers union it works and spars with is in a race of its own.

Day Higuchi is seeking re-election as president of United Teachers Los Angeles, the 34,000-member union that helps shape education policy in the city's public schools. When ballots are counted Feb. 25, union members also will pick a secondary vice president, secretary and treasurer, among other officers.

The race pits Higuchi - who is eligible to serve a second, three-year term - against three opponents who consider him too cozy with school district leaders to be effective. The challengers rail against a district they see as constantly seeking concessions without offering much in return and say the union's leadership hasn't done enough to protect members.

``There's a lot of people who see the union forgetting its job,'' said Warren Fletcher, a UTLA board member and presidential candidate known for his fiery speeches at Board of Education meetings. ``There's pressure coming from the district, but there's no countervailing pressure from the union.''

Despite such talk, Higuchi could be hard to beat. While opponents call him soft on the district, he recently convinced the Board of Education to consider granting teachers a raise on top of the 2 percent pay hike already negotiated for this year. Several board members and the district superintendent had adamantly opposed the idea.

Higuchi is proud of reopening the contract against such stiff resistance. And while he scoffs at the idea that UTLA has grown complacent, he says the union must constantly balance its interests with those of the students and the district. Weakening the district, he said, could fuel efforts to break it apart.

``Certainly we could be extremely confrontational at all times and hasten that process, but it wouldn't be in the best interests of the students,'' he said. ``The tactics of the past may not get you what you want.''

In addition to Fletcher, Higuchi's challengers include two special education teachers: Sheila Hopper from Northridge's Darby Avenue School and Mark Wilkins of Abraham Lincoln High School downtown.

Hopper, a whistle-blower who once waged a long court battle against the district, already has seen her campaign thrown into turmoil over her eligibility for office. Union records do not show her as an active member, and although she said she pursued dropping out of the union last year, she said she never went through with the idea.

Union officials said last week that they would not take a stance on Hopper's eligibility until after the ballots, which were mailed Feb. 5 with her name on them, are counted.

Still pursuing her campaign, Hopper emphasizes pushing for higher wages and rejecting any attempt by the district to link pay to student test scores, an idea criticized by all the union's presidential candidates. She also wants UTLA to stand up for teachers like her who fight the district over problems in the classroom.

``The union is so concerned with its own self-preservation that it's no longer concerned with its members,'' Hopper said. ``This union has become one and the same with the district.''

Wilkins emphasizes greater equity in pay and benefits for all union members, including school psychologists, nurses and librarians. He wants higher teacher salaries but believes the union should have waited until the current contract expired before pushing for another pay hike. Union members rallying around such slogans as ``Raise the Raise,'' he said, can only alienate the public.

``Whoever came up with that is an idiot,'' Wilkins said. ``A lot of parents in this district are struggling to make a living. Do you realize how greedy that looks to them?''

Fletcher wants to revitalize a union he believes has grown soft, giving in to district demands without getting anything in return. His campaign statement in the union's newspaper slams school board members for trying to link pay to student performance, questions why the union contributes to those board members' campaigns and tells teachers, ``We can be strong again.''

``If I only get five votes, but we put the nail in the coffin of test-score accountability, I've won,'' Fletcher said.

For his part, Higuchi said his priorities, if he is re-elected, will include boosting pay, creating training programs for emergency credentialed teachers, implementing the district's new program to end social promotion and pushing district leaders to do something about the growing need for classroom space.

Although several of these priorities don't directly affect teachers' pocketbooks, they are all vital to improving and strengthening public education in Los Angeles, Higuchi said.

``If you don't focus on these other things,'' he said, ``you won't get your bread and butter.''