Joining a School Board to Change ItCorrections
Edith Colon was born and raised in the South Bronx, attended its public schools and now has a daughter in seventh grade at Intermediate School 147. For  years, she said, she has watched her neighborhood schools deteriorate and test scores plummet, and now she is mad.
Ms. Colon, 42, lays the blame at the feet of the elected school board members, many of whom have no children in the public schools. They are motivated, she says, more by political ambition than by concern for what children learn. So this year, Ms. Colon, a homemaker, is making her first run for public office as a challenger in District 8 in the Bronx.
This year, more parents than ever are seeking seats on community school boards, according to various civic and community organizations. Almost since they were formed in 1970 with the decentralization of the school system, the boards have lacked parental representation and served more as stepping stones to higher office, like the City Council or State Assembly. Now, tired of corruption and disillusioned with the priorities of board members, parents like Ms. Colon are making their first forays into politics.
"What purpose does a person have, who has not shed the tears, not felt the pain of watching their child not getting an education, for wanting to serve on the school board?" Ms. Colon asked the other day.
She is one of 553 candidates who are seeking 288 seats on the 32 nine-member  community school boards in the May 7 election. While no one keeps exact figures  on the number of parents among the candidates, community groups say that a big reason for their participation this year is a shift in issues.
In the last elections, three years ago, controversy over a multicultural curriculum, condom distribution and other ideological battles drew the attention of a number of political organizations. The races culminated in the highest voter turnout in a school board election since 1970 -- although it was only 12.5 percent.
This time, those issues have mostly been supplanted by frustration about failing schools, disillusionment with the taint of malfeasance on some boards and anger over school budget cuts.
"There's been so much publicity about school board corruption, and about the  lack of quality of the New York City schools," said Carolyn D. Archer, who is running for a seat in Brooklyn's District 16, where her son is a pupil. "We keep hearing about people getting jobs in the schools because of who they know, not what they know. People are really tired of it."
Community organizations ranging from Mothers on the Move, which has been advising Ms. Colon, to the East Brooklyn Congregation, an umbrella group of area organizations, are giving parents tips on campaigning.
Norman S. Fruchter, co-director of New York University's Institute for Education and Social Policy, has been working with 50 to 60 community and church groups in several parts of the city, including the troubled Districts 7 and 9 in the Bronx, to cultivate new leadership.
Many incumbents have ties to political parties, whose organizations help to keep them in office even while schools in their districts deteriorate. Reform of the school boards, Mr. Fruchter said, will come only with the help of community  groups working to educate voters and potential candidates. "There is no other independent base of organization that can stir up this kind of interest," he said.
Newcomers to board contests are facing uphill battles against incumbents with the backing of political party machinery.
"Some of our board members have been in office since decentralization started" in 1970, said Alberta D. Morgan, a parent running for the District 5 board in Central Harlem, where all nine incumbents are seeking re-election. "Things have not, education-wise, gotten better. They have gotten worse."
In some parts of the city, like District 9 in the Bronx, which Schools Chancellor Rudy Crew has taken over because of longstanding corruption, community groups have organized voter registration drives and forums for candidates.
"There are going to be 4,000 more pairs of eyes watching them," said Jacques  Hoffmann, associate organizer for the South Bronx Churches, a group that registered 4,000 new voters in the district, equal to the number of people who voted in the last election.
But few people expect this election to bring major change in the way the districts are run. Among the 553 candidates are many incumbents, even in districts known as the most troubled, like Districts 7 and 9 in the South Bronx.
Dr. Crew suspended both districts' boards last month, citing allegations of corruption and poor student performance. According to papers filed last week with the city's Board of Elections, only 10 candidates are running for the 9 board seats in District 9, among them 7 of the suspended board members, including Carmelo Saez Jr., the president. In District 7, 6 of the 13 candidates are incumbents.
The elections come at a time when the possibility for change in the way the schools are run seems more real than it has since the system was decentralized in 1970. That was when the local boards were created to oversee the city's elementary and junior high schools, which now number 848.
With Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani calling for direct control of the schools, and Dr. Crew taking an aggressive stance against failing schools and corrupt school  boards, state legislators have signaled that they are more willing to make changes in school governance.
Robert Berne, dean of the Wagner School of Public Service at N.Y.U., said many parents and other potential candidates have been encouraged by statements Dr. Crew has made indicating that he wants to work with local board members. Paul Chandler, a candidate in District 17, which has also been taken over by the Chancellor's office, said he is worried that his campaign will be for naught if  the Legislature grants Dr. Crew the power to continue suspending boards even after the elections.
Legislative leaders say they have reached agreement on the measure. "This could set a precedent where the Chancellor begins to eliminate boards altogether," Mr. Chandler said.
Like Ms. Colon in the Bronx, Mr. Chandler is a product of the public schools  in his neighborhood. So are his children, and his grandchildren are now students in District 17. Mr. Chandler taught there, and he was part of the movement in the Ocean Hill-Brownsville section of Brooklyn whose efforts led to decentralization. But he is dismayed at what decentralization has wrought.
"I feel like I helped to create this monster," said Mr. Chandler, who is now  the director of the Jackie Robinson Center for Physical Culture, a youth organization in Brooklyn. The president of the suspended board, Sylvester Leaks, who critics say lacked the leadership to run an effective board, said recently that he was sure he could win re-election even without the support of parents.
"It shows his arrogance and ignorance," Mr. Chandler said.
Correction:  March 25, 1996, Monday
A picture caption on Thursday about the growing number of parents who are seeking seats on community school boards misstated the location of Edith Colon,  who is seeking a seat on the District 8 board in the Bronx. She was fifth from left, not second.