New Board Seeks to End College Spats

Pledging a renewed focus on classroom instruction and an end to internal divisiveness, the Ventura County Community College Board of Trustees this week seated two new members and elected a new president and vice president to oversee the 33,000-student, three-campus district.

In the November election, Dr. Gregory Cole, 38, a Newbury Park dentist, handily defeated Thousand Oaks attorney Joel Bryan for the seat representing Thousand Oaks, Westlake Village and Simi Valley. Peter Tafoya, 40, an Oxnard engineer, narrowly defeated Timothy B. Flynn for the seat representing Oxnard and Port Hueneme. Running unopposed, Gregory Kampf, 37, a Ventura elementary school principal, was reelected to the seat representing parts of Ventura, Oxnard and unincorporated areas between the two cities.

Timothy Hirschberg was elected vice president.

Kampf, who replaced James T. Ely as board president, heralded the changes as a significant turning point for the five-member board that oversees Ventura, Oxnard and Moorpark colleges.

“This is the first time in eight years that we’ve had three new board members,” said Kampf, who also served on the board from 1981 to 1984. “I think there’s an extremely positive attitude. We’re really concerned about working together.”

That has not always been the case. In recent years, trustees have publicly squabbled over a range of issues, arguments that led the Ventura County Grand Jury to criticize the board for “excessive parochialism.” As recently as June, a special election was called after four trustees deadlocked over a replacement for a fifth member who resigned.