Judgment Day Approaches for Vista Schools : Education: A new Christian right majority tries to reassure the community it will do a good job. But some fear there may be controversial changes.

Aglow with victory, Joyce Lee toured the school halls the day after winning a seat on Vista’s school board.

A new era had been born. But the school “felt like a morgue.”

“People are really scared,” said Lee, a substitute teacher and pastor’s wife. “They think we’re three weirdos coming out of the sky to destroy public education.”

With the election of Lee and John Tyndall last week, the Christian right captured a majority of seats on the Vista Unified School District’s board of trustees, marking the first time in at least a decade that religious conservatives have dominated any school board in San Diego County, county school officials said.

“I think the Lord helped me get in there,” Lee said. “I spent the least money and got the most votes.”

After a campaign aimed at the city’s churches, Tyndall and Lee easily ousted moderate incumbents Lance Vollmer and Marcia Moore, joining fundamentalist Christian Deidre Holliday to form a majority whose newfound power turns many in the district cold with fear.

“There’s apprehension because (teachers) aren’t sure what agenda they bring,” said Paul Metivier, vice president of the Vista Teachers Assn. “If they’re a workable board, fine. If they’re not, fine. We’re going to have plans to deal with all the scenarios that might come down.”

Remaining on the board are moderate incumbents Linda Rhoades, who barely retained her seat, and Sandee Carter, who was not up for reelection.

“This has been very upsetting to me,” Rhoades said. “But I’m going to have to get along with them. I have no choice.”

As Dec. 10--swearing-in day--approaches, many in the district envision a new era in which sex education classrooms serve as pulpits for preaching against abortion, and science courses teach that God created Earth in seven days.

They fear the new board will censor books, dismantle programs for immigrant children, try to institute school prayer, oppose racial integration and abolish services such as school breakfast, self-esteem and drug abuse programs, which religious conservatives view as government intrusion into family life.

They’re “not supportive of a free lunch or a free bus ride to a kid who can’t afford it,” Vollmer said.

But in interviews this week, Lee, Tyndall and Holliday advised people to relax. They pose no danger to the schools, the three promised. They just want what’s best for the kids.

“People are scared to death,” Holliday said. “You guys (the media) are whipping up a lot of fear. Come watch what we do and make your decision before you categorize us and put us in a box.”

“I am conservative,” said Lee, who laces her conversation with references to Jesus and the Bible. “But I think people are going to be pleasantly surprised. The important thing is, I care that all kids are learning.”

Although Holliday, Tyndall and Lee say they don’t have well-established goals for their district, they acknowledged that the board’s new slant will affect curriculum and district policies.

They’re advocating changes such as:

* Reducing access to library books.

Lee favors placing an asterisk on the front of any library book that a parent complains about, and thereafter requiring all students to have signed parental permission to borrow the book.

* Teaching that the biblical theory of creation has as much scientific merit as the theory of evolution.

“I’m obviously sympathetic toward creation science,” said Tyndall, accounting director at the Institute for Creation Research, a Santee-based organization that gathers information to validate the Bible’s account of creation. “I think it would be beneficial to have both of those theories in the science classroom, with neither one being presented as the truth.”

Lee agreed: “If evolution is a theory and creationism is a theory, and we’re teaching our kids to be creative, thinking adults, why do we give them only one theory to think about?”

Lee also recommended a visit to the Institute for Creation Research, saying a friend of hers toured the place and was transformed from an atheist into a Christian.

But Jorja Austin, head of the science department of Rancho Buena Vista High School, said she would quit before teaching creationism in a science class.

“I wouldn’t do it,” Austin said, doubting that such a drastic curriculum change would be leeally possible. “I wouldn’t teach it. As a scientist, we look for physical evidence to support our theories. With creationism, we don’t have any proof other than people’s internal belief systems.”

* Remolding sex education to exclude information about how AIDS is spread through homosexual sex and reducing opportunities to learn about contraceptives.

Lee said she wants to delete all mention of homosexuality from sex education courses and teach that abortion can cause “sterility and mental trauma.”

She also proposes removing information about contraceptives from sex education courses and instead offering the birth control information in an annual voluntary class for students and their parents on a Saturday.

Further, she and Tyndall said they want students to present permission slips to “opt into” sex education courses; currently, students need permission to be excused from the courses.

Vollmer said the “opt-in” approach was earlier rejected because teachers can lose their teaching credentials if a student who has not “opted in” for the day’s lesson inadvertently sits in.

The new majority might also replace sex education materials with a book called “Sex Respect,” Vollmer said, a move by Holliday that was rejected by the current board.

Vollmer opposes the book, saying it promotes sexism and shame and “doesn’t deal with sexuality.”

“You have to tell people (that) if you’re going to have sex it could kill you and there are ways to protect yourself,” he said. “It also blames women--if you dress immodestly, you’re inviting an assault.”

* Changing the district’s bilingual program and school integration policies.

Lee and Tyndall say they see flaws in the district’s bilingual program and feel it needs to be revamped and possibly reduced.

But opponents claim the conservative duo’s true objective is to water down programs for immigrant children. The bilingual program eases students into English, while providing instruction in their native language to keep them from slipping behind academically.

Lee and Tyndall have also proposed counting the district’s undocumented immigrants--which school officials say is illegal--then asking the federal government to subtract the cost of their education from U.S. aid to Mexico and diverting the money to the school district.

“I think we should close the border and take care of the ones left,” Lee said. “People used that as a political ploy to make me look like a bigot.”

On integration, Lee says creating ethnic balance in schools is tantamount to “social engineering,” and shouldn’t be undertaken unless the school stands to receive federal aid for doing it. The school district recently has made significant progress in creating racially balanced schools by opening two magnet schools.

Opponents also fear the new majority will use its position to promote the state voucher initiative, a 1994 ballot measure that would allow public funds to be funneled into private and religious schools.

Although the public education establishment says the initiative could devastate public education financially, Tyndall, Holliday and Lee all say they favor it.

To David Pascoe, all the talk in Vista of sex and censorship, integration and school prayer, rings familiar. And foreboding.

Between 1964 and 1968, Pascoe served as assistant superintendent in the La Mesa-Spring Valley School District, whose board was then composed entirely of fundamentalist Christians.

“It was horrible,” Pascoe said. “We had some really weird things going on. Can it happen again? Yes.”

During its short-lived reign, Pascoe said, the board abolished sex education; approved a policy requiring teachers to lead prayers in school, an action later declared illegal; worked toward teaching creationism in science classes and instituted strict behavior codes, including having students stand up whenever an adult entered the room.

The board also banned a nationally standardized test from the schools because it contained an “unpatriotic” cartoon drawing of the Supreme Court, Pascoe said.

Teachers left in droves, 14 out of 18 at one school. The board asked the top administrators to resign, but they refused. Then the FBI mysteriously arrived, acting on a tip that the administrators were communists.

School board meetings lasted well into the night and riots broke out. Pascoe said he received threats and hate mail because he carried out the board’s unpopular policies. He stayed through the board’s regime, but now is a financial planner.

“The effect of their actions was so demoralizing that the school staff was in shambles,” Pascoe said. “The damage extended for a long time afterward.”