PRIVATE LESSONS: Ojai has a larger percentage...

PRIVATE LESSONS: Ojai has a larger percentage of children enrolled in private schools than any other Ventura County city. Bill Prather, business manager at the 104-year-old Thacher School, said the Ojai Valley, with its agreeable weather and rural surroundings, is the ideal private school location. . . . “It’s the biggest industry in this valley,” Prather said of the private school business. Of Thacher’s 225 students, fewer than two dozen come from Ventura County.

GIVE A HOOT: At schools in beach communities across Ventura County, students and teachers are coming under attack from squadrons of dive-bombing sea gulls (B1). But an Oxnard restaurant may have found a way to duck the pesky birds: life-sized plastic owls. The decoys have served to scare gulls away from Furr’s Family Dining in Oxnard, general manager Al Madle said. . . . “One day I came in and the parking lot was wall-to-wall sea gulls,” he said. “They even used to attack our customers.”

RECOVERY TIME: While the Oxnard unemployment office where three people were shot dead earlier this month reopened Monday (B1), most employees won’t return for at least a few more days. But some, including Irma Lopez, aren’t sure they ever will go back. . . . Lopez, the wife of Oxnard Mayor Manuel Lopez, was shot while fleeing from the gunman. “We work under constant threat,” said Lopez from her hospital bed. “We’ve had employees’ tires slashed and (workers) called at home and threatened. The fear was always with us.”

FACE TO FACE: Kinko’s Service Corp. plans to offer video-conferencing at its newly opened store on Main Street in Ventura (Valley Business, Page 10). Customers will be able to meet face-to-face with people in other Kinko’s stores and in other locations. . . . The first phase of the video-conferencing system will become operational in April. “Our goal is to have the system available in 100 stores by then,” spokeswoman Tammy Gentry said.

Private Schools

Percentage of children enrolled in private schools: Ojai: 12.6% Thousand Oaks: 11.9% Ventura: 10.6% Simi Valley: 9.9% Camarillo: 9.2% Moorpark: 8.9% Oxnard: 7.9% Santa Paula: 7.5% Port Hueneme: 7.1% Fillmore: 6.7% Source: U.S. Census