Las Virgenes School Board Race Focuses on Fiscal Problems

The three people elected to the Las Virgenes Unified School District’s board Nov. 7 will face the prospect of tough fiscal challenges in the district.

The challenges range from long-term projections that growth in the 80-square-mile district, which stretches from Calabasas to Westlake Village, will increase school crowding to immediate concerns about a $1.4-million deficit in the district’s $32-million 1989-90 budget, with negotiations to begin in May on a new contract for district’s 420 teachers.

All five candidates refuse to rule out cutting district programs if necessary to give teachers a salary increase, although none is specific about what programs might be cut.

Labor relations have been calm in the district since a three-year contract was negotiated in 1986; teachers are paid an average of about $42,000. But pressure for including a substantial raise in the upcoming contract is mounting, partly because Los Angeles teachers this year negotiated a 24% raise over three years, said Barbara Bowman, board president and sole incumbent in the race.

Regarding growth, the district earlier this year said Los Angeles County was ignoring its own general plan for development, putting the district’s growth projections out of whack. But county officials maintained that they are following the general plan.

The Las Virgenes district’s enrollment of 9,300 is projected to increase to 13,000 by 2000. Twelve of the district’s 35 portable or modular classrooms were added last summer alone, and eight of its 12 schools are considered overcrowded, said Assistant Supt. Donald Zimring.

The candidates are:

* Jack Bethel, 31, of Calabasas, a commercial bank loan officer. He proposes more computer-aided instruction to “mitigate the student-teacher ratio.” Bethel said he and his wife are planning to have children and thus he would represent a “vote for the future.” He sees the district’s biggest problem as a lack of involvement by parents.

* Bowman, 47, of Calabasas, the incumbent who is a part-time manager of a beauty salon. She proposes reviving an advisory committee of parents, teachers and board members to help identify budget cuts if they become necessary. The district has been seeking private sector funds for some programs, but its long-term fiscal position “is going to have to be addressed by the state,” she said.

* Iraj Broomand, 57, of Westlake Village, a psychologist and executive director of a school for emotionally disturbed adolescents in Reseda. Broomand said the board should mobilize parents as a political force if county officials do not heed the district’s concerns about development. The board should more actively seek private funds, he added.

* Judy Jordan of Calabasas, a homemaker with a master’s degree in education from Stanford University and background as a social studies and English teacher. Active in parent-faculty groups, Jordan has served on committees dealing with school curricula and AIDS policies. She proposes a more varied curriculum to better motivate and challenge students.

* Roger Wakefield, 56, of Agoura Hills, a special education coordinator at Chatsworth High School. He served on the Oak Park Unified School District board before moving to Agoura Hills. Reducing class size is the district’s most pressing problem, he said. Wakefield is a former aerospace engineer with 20 years of teaching experience at levels ranging from kindergarten to college. He said he was less impressed by computer-aided instruction than others. “Teaching takes place between a teacher and a child, not between a program and a child,” he said.

Board members Betty Noling and Ron Jauch are not seeking reelection.