County School Group Endorses Newcomers

Ventura County school employees overlooked two incumbent school board members and endorsed, instead, two newcomers intent on defeating conservative Christian candidates.

In the race for the seat representing Ventura and Oxnard, the Ventura County Federation of School Employees gave the nod to Jeffrey Moss, a college teacher, instead of incumbent Juanita Sanchez-Valdez.

The 200-member union did not consider Angela Miller, a conservative Christian, who declined the union’s request for an interview.

In the Simi Valley district, the group chose attorney Daniel Gonzales over incumbent Al Rosen.

Candidate Walt Madrid belongs to the conservative Christian group Citizens for Truth in Education. Madrid failed to show up for an interview with the federation.

The federation opted against endorsing any candidate in the race for the Thousand Oaks district board seat when union representatives split in their support for candidate Marty Bates and incumbent Doylenne Johnson, union president Larry Keegan said.

But support was unanimous for both Moss and Gonzales. The board oversees the 13 county-run schools and helps set policy for teacher training throughout the county.

Although Sanchez-Valdez is a former school administrator in the Oxnard School District, union members were impressed by Moss’ background in education, Keegan said. Moss is a part-time English teacher at Cal State Northridge who is working toward a Ph.D. in education at UC Santa Barbara.

Gonzales won support, Keegan said, because of his background in business and economics and his record of community volunteer work in Simi Valley. Incumbent Rosen is a former teacher.

Early in their campaigns, both Moss and Gonzales said they were motivated to run partly out of concern that conservative Christians could gain control of the county school board.