ELECTIONS / MOORPARK SCHOOL BOARD : Budget Problems Called Top Issue

Four contenders for two seats on the Moorpark school board are all talking about money--or the lack of it.

A projected $1-million annual deficit and protracted salary negotiations with angry teachers have two incumbents and two challengers all playing up their abilities to manage Moorpark’s $23-million budget.

Incumbents Pam Castro and Gary Cabriales are competing for new four-year terms against longtime school district activists Ted Green and David Pollock.

Echoing the rest of the field, Castro, a 42-year-old director of a Moorpark preschool, said the financial woes of the nine-school district are impossible for the candidates to ignore.

“Whoever is elected will have to have the temperament and understanding to deal with the financial constraints we are now under,” she said. “Really anyone running for a school board in California is going to have to deal with declining revenue from the state and federal government.”

Just how they will deal with money matters is where the candidates start to part company. Castro cites her five years of school board experience, saying that she knows where to look to make cuts.

Cabriales, 38, who has served on the board since a special election last year, points to his leadership experience. A former Air Force captain and now an airline pilot, he said he would keep the board focused on solving the district’s fiscal problems.

He said he can find compromises during the difficult budget process and during negotiations with teachers.

The district’s rift with teachers has become a particularly sensitive local issue since the school year started with teachers on the picket line, demanding a contract and a raise.

“I think we’ve been diverted from focusing on the real issues,” he said.

Cabriales’ comments were a subtle swipe at conservative challenger Ted Green, 47, an auditor for the IRS who has repeatedly attacked the board for allowing what he calls racist and sexually explicit books on student reading lists.

Green, who was recently endorsed by the local chapter of the California Republican Assembly, said that while he still decries books he finds offensive, his number one priority would be to improve the district’s finances.

Rounding out the race is David Pollock, 33, a corporate planner for Rockwell International. Pollock, who along with Cabriales was endorsed by the Moorpark teachers union, said he plans on pushing for better long-range planning to deal with budget woes.