Latinos Turn Out to Back Embattled Schools Head : Oxnard: Anglo colleagues had accused Mary Barreto of sowing racial division among trustees through insensitivity.

Oxnard’s Latino community rallied around school board President Mary Barreto on Wednesday in the wake of accusations by the district’s three Anglo trustees that she has divided the board along racial lines.

Nearly 100 Latino students, parents and teachers crowded the district office during the regular board meeting to criticize the three members responsible for the accusations. Most were responding to flyers posted around the district urging the community to support Barreto.

Last week, Barreto publicly read a letter she received from her fellow board members of the Oxnard Elementary School District accusing her of being “overly accommodating to those who do not speak English.”

The letter, signed by board members Jack Fowler, Jim Suter and Dorothie Sterling, said Barreto snubbed them at a recent dedication of a school renamed in honor of Latino labor leader Cesar Chavez because she only introduced fellow board member Susan Alvarez.

It also said that Barreto spoke at length in Spanish at board meetings and was not sensitive to the fact that the other board members are not proficient in the language.

At Wednesday’s meeting, the opposition to the letter was forceful and unanimous.

“I felt that the reprimand was absolutely uncalled for,” said Nina Duarte, an Oxnard businesswoman whose daughter was a student at Fremont School. “I can remember what it’s like to be picked on for not speaking English.”

Oxnard parent Teresa Orozco-Archuleta was also outraged.

“I certainly hope that the message is not one that prohibits my daughter from being proud of her culture.”

In an interview before the meeting, Barreto said she found the accusations reprehensible. “What did I do wrong? Speak Spanish? It’s crazy.”

Responding to the criticism Wednesday, the three board members defended their letter.

“I don’t think most of these people have the facts straight,” said Suter, who called the letter “constructive criticism.”

Last week, after reading the letter in open session, Barreto read a response that suggested that the drafting of the October letter violated state open-meetings laws. The Brown Act prohibits elected bodies from meeting in secret.

Barreto said she called the Ventura County district attorney’s office to alert the agency to the alleged violation. A spokesman for the district attorney declined to comment on the complaint and would not say if the office had begun an investigation.

According to Fowler, the three did not meet to draft the letter. Fowler said he wrote the letter and discussed it with Sterling. Suter said he did not see the letter until he was asked to sign it after a board meeting in October.

The three who signed the letter denied there was any violation of the open-meetings law and said they resorted to the action because Barreto had refused to listen to their complaints.

“Every time we would raise something like this, she would get up and run out of the room,” Fowler said. “It was childish.”

Duarte said she expects the letter to be an election issue next November, when Barreto, Suter and Fowler’s seats will be on the ballot.