ELECTIONS / SCHOOL ISSUES : Year-Round Attendance Plan Failing in Ventura : Rodrigues, Walker lead candidates vying for three trustee positions in that district. A library funding measure is losing in Santa Paula.

Showing a desire to stick to a traditional school calendar, Ventura voters were poised to reject a ballot proposal to put all 25 local schools on a year-round schedule, according to late election returns.

And in the Ventura school board race, bilingual educator Cliff Rodrigues and incumbent John B. Walker led four other candidates, appearing ready to capture two of the three open seats.

“People saw I was serious,” said Rodrigues, who lost his first bid for the school board in 1991. “The name recognition helped.”

With most of the votes counted, PTA President Velma Lomax and former Buena High School Principal Michael Shanahan remained locked in a tight battle for the third available seat.

Meanwhile, Santa Paula supporters of Measure W were falling short of the 66.7% approval needed to pass the ballot initiative that would charge every property owner $25 to fund the local library, according to early returns.

In Ventura, the passage of Measure U would have made the Ventura Unified School District the largest district in Ventura County to go off the traditional nine-month school calendar.

The Fillmore Unified School District and the Oxnard Elementary School District are the only districts in the county now on a year-round schedule. At year-round schools, summer breaks are typically cut from 12 weeks to about six, with the other six weeks of vacation spread throughout the year.

“I don’t think people are ready for a change,” said Joe Vaughan, the athletic director of Buena High School who helped lead a spirited campaign against Measure U. “In my opinion, I don’t think there is enough evidence to support it.”

Ventura school officials put Measure U on the ballot in an effort to end the long-running debate over converting local schools to a year-round schedule.

Although it is only an advisory measure, school officials pledged to abide by the will of the voters.

Supporters of year-round education argued that spreading vacations throughout the year improves the performance of students and teachers. They pointed to year-round schools that have lowered dropout rates, improved attendance and boosted teacher morale.

But opponents, who printed bumper stickers and signs against Measure U, maintained that the benefits of year-round education are unproven. They said the new calendar would not work for Ventura’s high school students, who depend on long summer vacations to take jobs, attend summer school or prepare for fall sports.

In the Ventura school board race, voters chose from a field of six candidates to fill the three seats.

Board members May Lee Berry and Terence Kilbride decided not to run for reelection, leaving only one incumbent in the race: Walker, a GTE executive who was first elected in 1989.

The field of candidates was far less crowded compared to the last election in 1991, when 16 contenders battled for two board positions.

But most of the candidates in the race mounted aggressive campaigns, spending thousands of dollars apiece.

Rodrigues ran the most expensive campaign, spending more than $5,500 on newspaper ads, brochures and political mailings.

The 53-year-old Rodrigues, a former Spanish teacher at Cabrillo Middle School, has been an administrator with the county superintendent of schools office for the past 21 years.

Like Rodrigues, Shanahan is also a professional educator.

Before retiring in 1991, he spent 37 years as an employee in the Ventura school district, first as a teacher and dean at Ventura High School and then as principal of Buena High.

Some present school board members have expressed concerns about Shanahan becoming the second retiree from the district on the school board. Board member Diane Harriman, a retired Ventura teacher, cannot vote on retirement benefit issues and some school officials are concerned about the prospect of two board members abstaining from votes on important financial matters.

While Shanahan and Rodrigues campaigned as professional educators who could put their experience to public benefit, Velma L. Lomax, the sole woman candidate, sought to capitalize on her position as a parent of a child in Ventura schools.

Lomax’s 16-year-old daughter is a junior at Ventura High.

Lomax also pointed to her record of volunteering for various school efforts and committees over the past 12 years, including her present role as president of the Ventura High parent-teacher association.

The other two candidates, optometrist Michael B. Boggs and insurance agent Jim Oliver, had little experience with Ventura schools.

In Santa Paula, a majority of voters sought to increase property taxes by $25 a year to subsidize their cash-strapped local library. But Measure W appeared in early returns to be slightly short of the required two-thirds vote needed for passage.

“We have to support the library,” said 32-year-old Steve Neese, who brought his 7-year-old son with him to the polling place at the Santa Paula Community Center. “People are growing up without the ability to read. Closing libraries just makes it worse.”

The parcel tax would raise an estimated $175,000 for Blanchard Community Library, helping to make up for state funding cuts over the past two years that have forced the library to cut its hours, scale back book purchases and reduce janitorial services.

Times Staff Writer Scott Hadly and correspondent Kay Saillant contributed to this article.