School Board Recall Feud Heats Up : Simi Valley: An activist accuses board member Carla Kurachi of moving out of town. She issues an angry denial.

A spokesman for a group trying to recall three Simi Valley school board members said Friday that board member Carla Kurachi has permanently moved out of town and no longer qualifies for local office. Kurachi angrily denied the charge.

Don Otto, spokesman for Parents Aligned for Children’s Education, said he found after requesting Kurachi’s change-of-address form from the Simi Valley post office that Kurachi had her mail forwarded to an address in Granada Hills.

“I would consider someone who moves out of the area, into another county, basically is removing themselves from office,” Otto said.

Kurachi countered that she and her husband and two children were staying for about a week at a Granada Hills rental home they own until they could move today into a Simi Valley apartment.

The Kurachis sold their home on Azure Hills Drive in Simi Valley and moved out last weekend, Kurachi said. The last-minute move was prompted when escrow closed sooner than expected and the family had not lined up an apartment accessible for her wheelchair, Kurachi said.

“It’s a smear, it really is,” Kurachi said. “I’m not trying to hide anything. Good grief!”

Otto has said that the recall group targeting Kurachi and board members Diane Collins and Debbie Sandland has between 200 and 300 members. The group is circulating recall petitions, he said.

To qualify the recall for a special election, the group needs to gather 8,232 signatures of registered voters on each of the three petitions by next spring.

The parents’ group is upset about the board’s decision not to convert junior high schools to middle schools. They also oppose a proposal to include information about birth control in the sex education curriculum.

Otto said he did not ask Kurachi whether her family’s move was permanent or temporary. Instead, he simply raised the issue for local and state officials to decide, he said.

“This is not a witch hunt,” Otto said. “I’m just looking for a ruling on whether or not she’s still qualified to sit on the school board.”

Otto released to the press a letter addressed to Supt. Mary Beth Wolford in which he asked that she and the school board publicly acknowledge at Tuesday’s board meeting that a vacancy exists on the five-member panel.

“Any vote (Kurachi) makes would put into doubt the validity of the decision and hinder the legal implementation of the decision,” Otto wrote to Wolford. “Any document she signs as a presumed board member could be legally questioned.”

Otto said he forwarded a copy of the same letter and Kurachi’s change-of-address form to the state attorney general’s office for a ruling on whether the move bars Kurachi from continuing on the board.

Collins, another recall target, said Otto’s actions constituted harassment.

“We are being harassed by Don Otto and a group of people who refuse to be named,” Collins said. Otto has declined to identify other members of the recall group.