MISSION VIEJO : School Trustees Clash on ‘Extremist’ Candidate Label

Emotions flared this week on the Saddleback Valley Unified School District board as Trustee Frank L. Ury pressed colleague Dore J. Gilbert to identify conservative candidates whom Gilbert has described as “extremists.”

Ury, who does not face reelection, said Gilbert had made several references in news stories to candidates who were “intolerant” and harbored a religious-right agenda. Ury has been accused of holding the same views but shuns the label, saying he is a conservative seeking to improve schools.

“I think that it’s imperative that we all know exactly who these extremists are that are taking over our schools,” Ury said at the close of the board’s meeting on Tuesday night.

But Gilbert said the session was not the appropriate place to discuss campaign issues.

“If you want to have a debate about the election, then you resign from the board and run against me or you resign and run again, OK?” Gilbert said. “But this is not where I’m going to debate you on issues that really have nothing to do with the agenda of this meeting. And I think that you have really overstepped your bounds.”

In the Nov. 8 election, Ury and Trustee Debbie Hughes have endorsed a pair of candidates among six who are challenging incumbents Gilbert and Bobbee Cline.

While campaigning, Gilbert and Cline have warned of a threat from “extremists” who if elected would shift the power balance of the board and make drastic changes to curriculum.

Ury said such characterizations were inaccurate.

“What’s getting me is that we have this vague innuendo being thrown out there, it’s a bunch of hogwash,” Ury said.

“I could care less what you think,” Gilbert responded.