Bid to Recall 3 School Board Members Fails : Simi Valley: Backers miss deadline for filing petitions. Trustees say public support was lacking.

An attempt to recall three Simi Valley school board members officially died Tuesday when proponents missed the deadline for filing the signatures needed to qualify for a ballot measure.

Since declaring their intentions in the fall, backers of the recall had 160 days to gather 8,232 signatures on each of three petitions targeting board members Carla Kurachi, Diane Collins and Debbie Sandland.

The last day for filing those petitions was Tuesday and, by the close of the business day, county elections officials said they had not received any petitions.

“We haven’t heard from them at all,” said Jenny Harrison, deputy county clerk. “It’s about like they died on the vine.”

The recall effort was launched in October by a group of parents upset over criticism of fundamental schools, changes to a sex education curriculum and the defeat of a plan to establish four-year high schools in Simi Valley.

Don Otto, spokesman for the pro-recall group Parents Aligned for Children’s Education or PACE, said the dissatisfaction was also driven by deeper ideological differences.

“There’s no question that PACE was a more conservative group of people,” he said. “You definitely had a difference of opinions.”

Otto said the recall drive fizzled initially because of delays in getting petitions printed, and then because of the Jan. 17 earthquake and the fatal stabbing of a Valley View Junior High student.

Those who would have canvassed the city for signatures turned their attention to repairing shaken residences and trying to improve campus safety throughout the Simi Valley Unified School District, he said.

“Those two things have affected this community like nothing else,” said Otto, who would not disclose how many--if any--signatures were gathered on the recall petitions.

The school board members who were targeted, and a group that formed in their defense, held a different view on why the recall effort faded. They said it simply failed to attract public support.

“I think PACE never had any firm basis in the first place,” said Linda Jordan-O’Connor, a leader of Simi People Against Recall. “When they found out the facts, people in Simi Valley could not support it.”

And Sandland blasted Otto for blaming the demise of the recall on the earthquake and the stabbing, which prompted the district to form several committees to study campus safety.

“For them to use the earthquake and that horrible stabbing on one of our campuses is pretty sickening to me,” she said. “It was a big excuse.”

Sandland also attacked the members of PACE for being secretive and, she said, for not caring what a special election would cost the district, especially when Kurachi and board member Doug Crosse are up for reelection in November.

“It was so frustrating for these people not to step forward,” she said. “It’s very difficult as an elected official to go through such a trying time, especially when it’s so unwarranted and unjustified.”

Otto said the other parents involved in PACE never spoke out publicly because it was decided that a single spokesman would be more effective.

As for the cost of staging a special election, Otto said PACE members were more alarmed with the views of the three school board members.

Both Otto and Sandland did agree on one thing: The subjects that fueled the short-lived recall attempt are very likely to surface in November’s school board race.

“The message to the community is that even though the recall didn’t work, the issues are still there,” Otto said. “I would hope as a result of all this, we end up having a more understanding group of parents that knows what’s going on in our schools.”