Chris Amico: Journalist

PALMDALE — Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Monday night fund-raising dinner put at least two Palmdale School District trustees in the awkward position of supporting the governor but opposing a pillar of his “Year of Reform.”

At the same time, two other trustees from that district were marching in protest outside the Antelope Valley Fairgrounds.

Trustees Shawny Barcelona and Tom Lackey, the latter running for Palmdale City Council, attended the dinner but say Schwarzenegger’s “Live Within Our Means” initiative would hurt schools. They called it anathema to their positions as trustees and stood by a resolution the school board adopted unanimously in February calling for more education spending. Barcelona is up for re-election on Nov. 8.

That resolution, which called on the governor to fund fully Proposition 98, the 1988 initiative that guaranteed a minimum school funding level, puts the board in opposition to any cuts in the education budget.

“No one in an honest sense can say that our public education system is over-funded,” Lackey told the Valley Press on Wednesday.

Prop. 76 would give Schwarzenegger and future governors broad authority to trim budgets midyear. It would also amend Prop. 98.

Bruce Shank, political chief for the Palmdale teachers union, blasted Barcelona in a letter to the Valley Press.

“She is lending her support to a politician who has publicly vilified public education and teachers,” Shank wrote. “What a shame that Mrs. Barcelona is not on the side of public schoolchildren and their education. She has once again let her husband, a Latino Republican and paid executive of the chamber of commerce, influence her decisions.”

Isaac Barcelona, a former Palmdale School District spokesman, is CEO of the Palmdale Chamber of Commerce. He earned co-chairman status and a seat near Schwarzenegger at Monday’s fund-raiser by selling 95 tickets to the $250-a-plate dinner.

Shawny Barcelona insisted she and her husband differ on many issues, especially education funding.

“This is one area where we disagree, just like Arnold (Schwarzenegger) and his wife probably disagree,” she said.

Barcelona said she opposes Prop. 76 and is leaning against Prop. 74, which would make teachers wait five years for tenure instead of the current two years.

Barcelona, a Republican who voted for Schwarzenegger, said she backs the governor’s redistricting proposal, Prop. 77, and the measure to force unions to get permission from members before using that money for political ends.

Lackey and Barcelona said they are aware of the fine political line they are walking. According to recent polls, Schwarzenegger now draws strong support only from Republicans and self-identified conservatives. But Lackey, who describes himself as a conservative, rejected the notion that the governor might weigh him down.

Shank said he stands by his views. He said Lackey and Barcelona are “hypocritical” for attending the dinner. When told that both trustees oppose the spending limit and teacher tenure initiatives, Shank said, “It’s less hypocritical.”

“The fact that they went there was more or less saying to teachers, ‘We don’t really care what you think,’ and that is not a good position for a board member to take,” said Shank, who admitted that he, too, voted for Schwarzenegger in the 2003 recall election that ousted Democrat Gray Davis.

Barcelona flatly rejected any implication that her husband is controlling her politics.

“My husband did very well campaigning for Arnold. I had nothing to do with it,” she said. “I could divorce him, but it’d be much more expensive.”

Palmdale School District Superintendent Jack Gyves joked that he offered a guest room to Isaac Barcelona “in case he wasn’t welcome in the house for the next couple months.”

The superintendent did compliment the school board members for their ability to overlook political differences and support public education.

Two other Palmdale trustees, Robert “Bo” Bynum and board President Sandy Corrales, joined protesters outside the fairgrounds Monday night.

Corrales, who also is up for re-election Nov. 8, said she was offered a free ticket to the dinner, but attending would be “the ultimate contradiction,” calling Schwarzenegger “the one person who has single-handedly dealt the worst blow to public education.”

Bynum, the only Palmdale trustee not running for anything at the moment, said the public would have to make up its mind.

Trustee Sheldon Epstein, who also is running for re-election, did not attend the dinner or accompanying protests, choosing instead to spend the evening with his family.

“These are personal decisions,” he said of the other trustees’ actions. “They’re acting as individuals outside the scope of the board. They’re certainly not representing themselves as trustees.”

Noting the board’s split, Epstein said, “That’s why you have a five-member board.”

As for the impact on Barcelona’s school board campaign and Lackey’s run for City Council, he said, “I would hope that when people go to the polls…they look at the performance of those individuals over the last four years.”