UP ON THE ROOF: Students at Banyan...

UP ON THE ROOF: Students at Banyan Elementary School drove their principal out of his office and onto the roof. . . . From 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Wednesday, George Coyle worked on top of the Thousand Oaks school to fulfill a pledge to his students. They met his challenge of collectively reading at home for 200,000 minutes this year. “It was a great motivator,” Coyle said. Classrooms of kids took turns during the day to make sure he stayed on the roof and out of the dreaded principal’s office. “I assured them if anyone got in trouble I’d come down off the roof.”

TAXING ISSUE: California voters have a national reputation as tax haters. After all, this was the state that launched a nationwide tax revolt with Proposition 13 in the late ‘70s. . . . But cash-strapped Port Hueneme hopes its voters will abandon tradition and hike their own taxes to save the city’s Police Department (B1). Measure Z has sizable support. “It has absolutely brought us together,” said resident Valorie Morrison. But under Proposition 13 rules, Measure Z must win two-thirds of the vote to pass.

TEEN QUEENS: The beauty pageant in Moorpark isn’t quite what you think. (Ventura County Life, Page 8). The bathing suit competition is out. Writing tests are in. So are grade point averages. Personality gets emphasized over beauty. . . . “I feel very strongly,” said director Mickey Stueck, “that we do young people, girls especially, a disservice when we have a standard that says looks will get you everything.”

COURTROOM DRAMA: The child abuse trial of Charlotte Russo had some of its most dramatic testimony Wednesday when a Thousand Oaks neighbor recounted how she saw Russo kick her teen-age daughter, punch her and pummel her with a gym shoe (B4). The girl did not resist or defend herself. . . . “After a while, I just yelled for her to stop, that ‘You’re going to kill her! Stop!’ ” the neighbor testified. Russo admits she once bit her daughter, but denied she ever used an object to strike her.