SIMI VALLEY : Roth, Newcomer Vie for School Board

A 22-year incumbent and a political newcomer have pulled papers to run for the Simi Valley Board of Education in November, officials said Monday.

Lew Roth said he is seeking a sixth term to see a middle school plan implemented next year and to enhance the nonprofit Simi Valley Education Foundation, which he helped start to encourage businesses to donate to schools.

Roth, 56, said his experience will help the school district meet its challenges in the upcoming year, including finding a superintendent and weathering cuts forced by an $8-million budget shortfall.

Roth was appointed in 1968 and won reelection five times, each time for a four-year term. A public relations director for American Flyers, a flight-training school in Van Nuys, Roth has lived in Simi Valley for 26 years.

Carla Kurachi, 37, who holds a master’s degree in educational psychology, has pulled papers to run for office for the first time. She became interested in the school board after serving on a middle schools task force in the summer of 1988. Last year, she volunteered as a counselor at Simi Valley High School.

On Monday, Kurachi called for reductions in the district dropout rate, currently at 14%, and a lower counselor-student ratio, now set at one counselor for every 750 students. She suggests the money to reduce both statistics come from inside and outside the district.

“The district has to be more assertive in applying for grants,” she said, adding that a tutoring program should be established.

Kurachi, who owns a self-service carwash, moved to Simi Valley two years ago. Board President Helen Beebe, also up for reelection, has said she will retire after nearly nine years on the board.

Candidates for the school board have until Aug. 10 to file.