By Danny Teigman
Lester was replaced by Franklin Alvarado, an architect who is believed to be the district's first Hispanic school board president. Alvarado was re-elected to the board along with Lester last May, defeating the union's endorsed candidate, Realtor Joe Sinnona, after an occasionally testy campaign. Trustee Steven Weitz, who is in the final year of his term and will likely run again next May, was elected vice president for the coming school year.
Last Thursday's board reorganization meeting was mostly amicable, attracting a crowd of a dozen or so and lacking the overpowering presence of the Long Beach Classroom Teachers Association, which has flooded school board meetings for the last 12 months with T-shirt-wearing members protesting the delay in negotiations on a new collective bargaining agreement. Union members have worked for two years under the terms of an expired contract, and generally blamed Lester for the impasse.
Lester, in turn, wore the teacher's censure as a badge of honor, and rode widespread taxpayer resentment over escalating teachers' salaries to a landslide re-election. Alvarado finished a close second, well ahead of Sinnona.
Last week's meeting also marked the beginning of Frank Ruggiero's tenure as assistant superintendent for business.
Alvarado said he views his leadership position as analogous to manning the tiller of a ship. "More than anything else, being the board president changes the style of the meeting," he said. "I certainly have no more power than anyone else. As a board we'll continue working together as we have."
Weitz, an attorney who is a partner of Lester's and who has been school board president four times, now begins his second vice presidency. He echoed Alvarado's sentiment. He also touched on pending issues regarding the stalled teachers' contract. "I look forward to serving as vice president," he said after taking the oath of office. "The board has a full agenda this year. Hopefully we will settle our labor contracts and re-focus our attention to educating children."
The evening's most contentious issue concerned the approval of contracts for assistant superintendents Randie Berger and Helen Cheliotes. Matt Dwyer, a frequent presence at board meetings, criticized the speed with which their contract was settled while the teachers' contract talks remain stalled.
The three-year contracts call for a 4.8 percent increase followed by a 2 percent raise in the first two years and a yet-to-be-determined raise in the third year. The last contract increased by 2 percent each year.
"For the last five years, [Berger and Cheliotes] received an average 2.56 percent raise each year," Superintendent Robert Greenberg said. "This year I boosted them from $143,000 and change to $150,000." As a concession, the assistant superintendents will be paying a larger percentage of their health-insurance premiums.
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