Troubled School District Faces Another Recall Vote

The embattled Rio School District has had its share of political squabbles.

In the last three years, a veteran superintendent was fired for pushing a pro-bilingual education agenda, another resigned under pressure, and a vitriolic but ultimately unsuccessful campaign was launched to recall two school board members.

And the district’s troubles are not over yet.

On Tuesday, voters in the largely Latino, blue-collar district will be asked to cast ballots in another recall election aimed at ousting three board members -- the current majority, who detractors say are responsible for many of the district’s problems.

“People say they just want to get the board straightened out so the process of education can go on,” said Jim Pearson, who is active in the recall effort. “Since we first started circulating petitions in December ... the community response has been amazing.”

The campaign collected more than 2,900 signatures, leading to a recall election less than three months before the district’s regular fall election. Voters in the 4,100-student district will be asked next week whether to retain board members Simon Ayala, Eve Acosta and Ken Ortega. Ayala, board president, is up for reelection in November; Acosta’s and Ortega’s terms run through 2008.

Among the central issues of the campaign are the board’s split vote in June 2005 to end its contract with former Supt. Patrick Faverty and its decision last March to pay his predecessor, Yolanda Benitez, $1.4 million to settle her lawsuit alleging wrongful termination.

Ayala said the campaign against him has been filled with half-truths and misrepresentations. He said the board majority was simply displeased with Faverty, whom he called a poor communicator who failed to inform the entire panel on important issues, including adjusting budgets.

He also blamed Faverty, who was hired on a split vote, for delays in the construction of Rio Rosales Elementary School and the opening of Rio Del Mar elementary at the new Riverpark housing development in Oxnard.

“Bottom line,” Ayala said, “we thought the guy was horrible. He might have known curriculum, but there’s more than that when you’ve got a district to run.”

It was Faverty’s method of working closely with some board members while ignoring others that angered the majority, who voted to accept his resignation, Ayala said.

“That was Faverty’s thing. He had no respect for the [then] minority on the board. He would always say that ‘[I] only have to count to three.’ But when it came down to renewing his contract, guess what? Three got him in and three got him out.”

Robert W. Guillen, a manufacturing production manager, is on the ballot to replace Ayala if he should be recalled and has signed up to oppose him again on the November ballot. Tim Blaylock, chief professional officer of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Oxnard and Port Hueneme, is hoping to replace Acosta if she is recalled Tuesday, and electrician Brian E. Martin would replace Ortega.

Rather than attempting to recall the current majority, Ortega said, voters should appreciate some of the improvements made in the district during the last 18 months. They include the resolution of the long-standing and costly lawsuit with Benitez, progress on stalled construction at three school sites and a recent 3% salary increase for teachers and district staff, the first in several years.

“Regardless of whatever the outcome Tuesday, we took care of a lot of issues that were being ignored or that people of the prior board majority were incapable of dealing with,” said Ortega, who was elected in 2004. “Someone had to stop the proverbial madness. How long were we going to fight the fight against Yolanda Benitez? How long were we going to continue to support a practice of hiring a superintendent who didn’t have full board, staff and community support?”

Even if the electorate decides to remake the board, the district’s troubles may not be over.

Last month, the board hired Sherianne Cotterell, a school administrator from West Sacramento, as the district’s new superintendent.

Board members Ron Mosqueda and Henrietta Macias voted against the appointment.