Her predecessor, a skillful negotiator, was known for his bare-knuckle tactics. Those who know Barbara Kerr say she prefers a velvet glove.

The Riverside elementary school teacher becomes president today of the 335,000-member California Teachers Association

, succeeding Wayne Johnson, who served the maximum four years -- often clashing with Gov. Gray Davis and state lawmakers.

"Wayne is confrontational even when he doesn't intend to be," said Senate Republican leader Jim Brulte of Rancho Cucamonga. "Barbara is the type of person who believes if you spend enough time listening to what she has to say, you'll come to understand her logic."

Kerr, who previously served as CTA vice president and secretary-treasurer, cautions that her congeniality should not be interpreted as a sign of weakness. Beware, she warns lawmakers who attempt to increase class sizes or enact other cost-cutting measures at the expense of teachers and students.

"I still have my teacher's look," she said, a storm cloud gathering over her sunny face. "The kind that stops a 6-year-old on his tricycle 30 feet away."

As California's largest professional employee organization, the CTA spends millions of dollars on candidates and causes and is a fixture in the Capitol.

The association's policies are crafted by its 700-member governing board, but lawmakers and school administrators say the CTA's president sets the tone for the group's relationship with the Legislature and the governor.

Johnson presided over a four-year period of record budget surpluses and deficits. As the state budget deteriorated, reversing education spending increases, so did Johnson's relationship with Davis.

Johnson was unavailable for comment for this story. But he and the Democratic governor had a public falling out after Johnson accused Davis of requesting a $1 million campaign donation from the CTA last year.

The CTA, which had donated nearly $1.5 million to Davis during his career, did not contribute to his re-election campaign.

The chasm widened after the governor's proposed budget in January called for more than $2 billion in education cuts.

Facing a firestorm of protests -- and a threatened recall -- Davis agreed to increase education spending by $700 million in his revised budget.

"We're talking now," the 56-year-old Kerr said, declining to be more specific.

The CTA opposes the recall campaign, but Kerr declined to say whether the association will contribute money to Davis should he face an election.

A budget resolution, Kerr said, would take the wind out of the recall drive. And she noted the CTA has contributed $1 million to a media campaign targeting five Republicans who have supported education spending in the past but are budget holdouts.

Kerry Mazzoni, Davis' education secretary, said it would be premature to compare Johnson's and Kerr's relationship with the administration.

"Barbara Kerr has been a passionate advocate for teachers and education for a long time, and we look forward to working with her," Mazzoni said.

Kevin Gordon, executive director of the California Association of School Business Officials, which is often at odds with the CTA, said Kerr has already made her mark.

"Barbara single-handedly pulled together the Education Coalition in a way that we haven't seen in nearly 10 years," Gordon said. The coalition includes Gordon's organization, the CTA, the California School Boards Association and the state PTA, among others

The coalition worked with the governor's staff to fashion the revised budget proposal. It still contains $1.5 billion in reductions, but Kerr said the coalition was able to keep the cuts as "far away for classrooms as possible."

Gordon jokes he may be lowering Kerr's popularity with her membership "by saying good things about her," but, he said, she has "great style."

"When she walks into a room, people feel they can trust her and they like her," Gordon said. "That can't be said of every person who has occupied her position. ... Wayne is an extremely charming guy. But I don't think anyone felt he was interested in leading the education community. He was only interested in leading the CTA."

As head of the Los Angeles teachers union, Johnson led a bruising 1989 strike that won his members a 24 percent salary increase over three years.

Kerr comes from the smaller Riverside City Teachers Association, where she assumed her first union office in 1978 the day California voters approved Proposition 13. The measure limiting property taxes sent schools scrambling for money.

"I am good at bad times," she said. "I didn't plan to become CTA president during the worst economic times in state history. But we'll work our way out of this."

Kerr, who is divorced, does not have children. But she has taught hundreds of children in Riverside, where she has been a kindergarten and first-grade teacher since 1969, most recently at Woodcrest Elementary School.

She served on the CTA Board of Directors for 10 years and becomes the second person in modern history to hold the association's top three leadership posts.

"You have to be a people person to do this kind of work, and she's one of the best I've ever seen," said Ken Noller, a Riverside middle-school teacher and local union representative.

As CTA president, Kerr said her goals include reversing increases in health care costs that are being passed on to teachers.

She also wants to stop the spread of the "testing mania" that forces schools to spend up to two months a year preparing for standardized exams. And she wants to increase education funding, particularly for "schools of greatest needs."
Because of the state's bleak budget projection, Brulte said schools should not expect the increases in spending they have received in recent years.
"I like Jim, but he's being delusional," Kerr said, slipping into negotiation mode. "Except for a couple of years, we haven't gotten any increases."