Low Turnout in 3 Ventura County Races Predicted

County election officials are predicting a low voter turnout in the Nov. 3 election of candidates to three eastern Ventura County school boards, including a race to fill four of five seats in the Moorpark Unified School District.

“We are looking at about a 16% to 18% turnout because there aren’t that many contests for voters to decide,” Ventura County Registrar Myron Kampfer said.

Most school districts in the county now hold their board elections in conjunction with the statewide general election, he said.

Moorpark voters will elect three board members to four-year terms and fill the unexpired term of Dennis Hatlin, who resigned from the board last spring.

Two elementary schools were opened this fall in the Moorpark district, temporarily easing crowded classrooms in the fast-growing 4,000-student district. Officials expect to add another elementary school by the 1989 school year, Supt. Michael Slater said.

The school board will decide next year whether to sell or lease the site of the district’s 29-acre Moorpark Memorial High School, which will be closed in June, Slater said. A high school is under construction and is expected to open next fall, he said.

Candidates running for four-year terms are incumbent Patty Waters, attorney Stephen Anderson, former Moorpark City Councilman James Hartley and teacher Cynthia Hubbard-Dow. Also running for full terms are business manager Lindal (Lin) Graf, research and development consultant Tom Baldwin and photographer Amado Reynoso.

One candidate, Barbara A. Johnston, has withdrawn, a county elections officer said.

Those competing to fill the two years remaining in Hatlin’s term are board member Carla A. Robertson and salesman James D. Stueck. Incumbent William J. McMahon is not seeking reelection.

Thousand Oaks voters will elect two board members to four-year terms and fill one unexpired term in the Conejo Valley Unified School District. The district, which also includes the Newbury Park area, has an enrollment of about 17,500 students in kindergarten through 12th grade, district officials said.

Running for four-year terms are incumbent Dolores Didio, Verne Bauman, an educational software designer, and George Hatcher, a retired teacher. Also running for the full-term offices are E. H. (Ed) Breitung, a retired teacher, and J. Frank Turner, a college professor.

Running for the two years remaining in the unexpired term of Kate Cox, who resigned last spring, are board member Ellyn Wilkins and Marjorie J. (Peggy) Kelly, a free-lance writer.

Voters in the Oak Park Unified School District, which serves 1,000 students in an unincorporated area east of Thousand Oaks, will elect two board members to four-year terms and one board member to a two-year term.

Candidates Pat Manning, an appointed board member, and Jim Kalember, a personnel manager, are running unopposed for the two full-term seats. Board member Patricia Kavulic is running against Diane Milavetz, a certified public accountant, for the two-year term. Incumbent Kathy Hueber is not seeking reelection.