ELECTIONS SCHOOL ISSUES : In Moorpark, Cabriales Holds Strong Lead in School Board Race : In Oak Park, two incumbents fight to retain their positions. Voters appear to overwhelmingly reject school voucher proposal.

A onetime Moorpark High School valedictorian held a strong lead over two challengers in a race for an open seat on the school board, and two incumbents in the Oak Park school district appeared headed for reelection, according to early returns Tuesday.

Early balloting also showed Ventura County voters overwhelmingly rejecting Proposition 174, the school voucher initiative that has been the subject of a $20-million campaign battle. The measure would make California the only state in the nation to provide parents with tax-funded vouchers for private education.

And county voters were giving a big thumbs-down to the campaign’s other major education issue, Proposition 170, which would allow school bond issues to pass with a majority vote rather than the two-thirds now required, according to early returns.

In Moorpark, Gary Cabriales, 37, a commercial airline pilot, held a commanding lead over Ted Green and Helen Taylor in a school board race that has grown increasingly heated, with all three candidates trading personal attacks. Cabriales was criticized because his wife works as a part-time aide for the district, and Taylor because she is a strong supporter of Proposition 174.

“One of my big goals all along was to bring this community together and not divide it,” said Cabriales, who gathered with dozens of supporters late Tuesday at a Moorpark restaurant to monitor returns. “I think people saw the other candidates as wanting to divide it.”

Cabriales, who graduated as valedictorian of Moorpark High in 1974, was briefly appointed to the board in June. But he had served less than a week when Taylor and other residents gathered enough signatures to force a special election.

The vacant school board position was created when board President Sam Nainoa resigned from the 5,600-student district because of work obligations. The term runs through November, 1994.

Cabriales, who moved back to Moorpark in 1989 after serving 10 years in the U.S. Air Force, said he is running for the school board because he wants to contribute something to the community he grew up in.

Taylor, 34, a registered nurse and community activist who campaigned for neighborhood elementary schools and magnet schools, all but conceded defeat late Tuesday.

“It doesn’t look good for me, but I did the best I could,” she said. “I feel like I ran a very good and clean campaign and I’m satisfied with that, even if I don’t win.”

Green, 46, an auditor with the Internal Revenue Service and education chairman of the Ventura County NAACP, was trailing both Cabriales and Taylor. An outspoken critic of the district, he has challenged the school board to hire more black teachers and to rid its libraries of what he considers racist reading materials.

In the Oak Park school district, incumbents Wayne Blasman and Bob Kahn were fighting to hold onto their board seats. Both were expected to run strong because theirs is a district that has received numerous accolades for its academic achievements and nonexistent dropout rate. Two of its schools have won National Blue Ribbon awards.

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Blasman, 40, president of an insurance brokerage firm, and Kahn, 64, a sales and marketing manager, said their board experience and community involvement set them apart from the other candidates.

Although encouraged by his lead, Kahn stopped short of declaring victory Tuesday night. “My guess would be--if I was an impartial voter--that people would vote for the two incumbents,” Kahn said. “I don’t know why not, unless we’ve made a personal enemy of someone.”

It was too close to predict the race for the third school board seat, but Jeri Fox, 38, a two-time PTA president at Brookside, was leading four other candidates in early returns.

The other candidates are Kevin Ketchum, 41, chief executive officer of a real estate management firm; Tami Lawler, 31, a community activist; Howard Levy, 40, an ophthalmologist, and Wayne Sterling, 43, owner of his own insurance company.

Proposition 174 has been the most publicized and hotly debated of all the ballot initiatives.

Supporters said the measure offers a historic change by giving parents a $2,600 voucher if they want to send their child to a private school.

But opponents said the measure would drain funding from an already ailing public education system.

“It would help me personally,” Thousand Oaks resident Michelle Ganon, 35, said. “I would be able to send all three of my children to private school. But I’m not in favor of taking money away from public schools. I think we have a responsibility to the community and all of our children’s future as a whole.”

Ventura County voters also appeared to be rejecting Proposition 170, which would allow a simple majority of voters to approve an increase in property taxes to repay bonds for construction of new schools.

Opponents of the measure, proposed by Assemblyman Jack O’Connell (D-Carpinteria), said the initiative would override a key provision of 1978’s tax-slashing Proposition 13 that now requires a two-thirds vote for bond issues. They said the measure would make it easier to raise property taxes.

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But backers said the measure would give local residents more say in local school construction projects. They said it would also help the economy by keeping housing prices down, because schools are now forced to charge more developer fees.

Times correspondents James Maiella Jr. and Robin Greene contributed to this story.