4 Challenge Anaheim School Board Incumbents : Election: Overcrowded classrooms and meeting the needs of increasing numbers of students limited in English have been the dominant issues.

ANAHEIM —  An Anaheim police officer, a real-estate saleswoman, a retired chiropractor and a security guard are vying with two incumbents for three seats on the Anaheim City School District Board of Trustees.

The six candidates will be on the Nov. 7 ballot for voters in the fast-growing elementary school district, where overcrowded classrooms and meeting the needs of increasing numbers of students limited in English have been the dominant issues.

The district, which includes most of Anaheim, has 21 schools and 13,850 students in grades kindergarten through six. School board members oversee the district’s educational guidelines and administer a $53-million annual budget and 1,500 employees.

Incumbent Celia Dougherty, an assistant principal at Lampson Elementary School in Garden Grove who is seeking a second four-year term, said the district’s biggest challenge will be finding space for more students.

Dougherty said the state’s guidelines show that the district, where enrollment has been increasing by about 5% a year, needs the equivalent of five new schools to accommodate growth, but the state does not have the money to build them.

The current five board members have already said they will convert several of the district’s schools to a year-round schedule to cope with overcrowding.

But while some parental opposition to year-round schools is expected, Dougherty said, “even if we didn’t have a crunch, the benefits of year-around education have been shown through research.”

Without a summer break, students forget less, she said, so teachers need to review less.

Dougherty also predicted that the district will have a tougher time attracting quality teachers, especially those trained to instruct the increasing number of non-English-speaking students.

Incumbent Betty Patterson, a substitute teacher seeking her fourth term as a trustee, said that as older residents are displaced by young families, the school board should also consider building more classrooms and perhaps buying land for a new school.

She is seeking reelection because there are still challenges ahead, she said, though she cited good student test scores and financial stability as her top accomplishments while on the board.

Patterson said she is pleased with the board’s recent policy of negotiating more closely with teachers and other employees during contract talks to allow franker airing of complaints. “It’s been a real attempt on the board’s part, and the teachers and other employees, to get along,” she said.

Both incumbents cited among their accomplishments the state’s honoring 10 of district schools recently as distinguished schools.

Trustee Albert R. Peraza, who has retired as a principal in La Habra, said he chose not to seek a fourth term because the school board needs someone with new ideas.

The challengers are John L. Waite, a retired chiropractor; Pete Wase, a security guard; Lou Lopez, a community services officer for the Anaheim Police Department, and Barbara C. Gonzalez, a real estate saleswoman and former school teacher and administrator.

Gonzalez said coping with the district’s growing enrollment and better pay for teachers are two of the biggest issues in the district.

Without adequate pay, “you can’t keep teachers and you can’t encourage new people to teach,” said Gonzalez, who has been endorsed by the Anaheim Elementary Educators Assn.

She added that the district must place more emphasis on helping teachers instruct students from diverse ethnic backgrounds, because half the district’s students are minorities, and half of those are learning English as a second language.

Because students need to be taught equally well, no matter their language or background, she said, teachers need the training to make certain they can effectively teach so diverse a group.

Also endorsed by the district’s teacher union is Lopez, who said he is seeking a seat to represent parents with children in district schools.

“No one on the current school board and none of the other candidates has children going through the school district,” said Lopez, adding that he has two children attending Benito Juarez Elementary School. “It’s difficult for someone on the board to relate to what some parent is talking about when you don’t have kids in the school district. I think the parents need that right now.”

If elected, Lopez said, curbing school dropouts and holding open forums for parents and teachers to talk with trustees are his main goals.

He would also like to start a training program to help teachers and administrators deal with crime on campus.

Wase is seeking a seat because he said too many students leave school unable to spell or do simple arithmetic without a calculator.

He added that there seems to be too much “New Age” material taught in school, such as how to accept death.

Wase said he supports higher pay for teachers, who, he said, “deserve a decent income . . . (because) they have the responsibility of raising the next generation.”

He also vowed to seek amendment of Proposition 13, the 1978 tax-cutting measure, to allow easier tax increases for local schools.

Wase would also like to see more emphasis on classical music in grade schools. “We can teach kids to sing canons,” Wase said, adding that students could also be taught to compose classical music in the tradition of Bach and Brahms.

“That potential is never explored” in schools, he said.

Waite said an emphasis on the basics of reading, writing and mathematics are one of his main interests in seeking a seat.

He also advocates the teaching of alternatives to the theory of evolution, which he termed a “pseudoscience” that cannot be proven.

Waite declined to say what the alternative to teaching evolution in science classes would be, but he said: “You don’t have to bring the Bible in. I’m a Christian, but I’m trying to stay within the First Amendment to the Constitution.”