Local Elections : COUNTY SCHOOL BOARDS : 2 Candidates Endorsed by Conservative Groups Win

Candidates backed by conservative Christian groups knocked two incumbents off the Ventura County Board of Education, giving the board a 3-2 majority of trustees endorsed by the religious right.

And one of the newcomers voiced hope Wednesday that the new board will set an example for school districts statewide to reverse what she called the influence of liberals on public education.

“With a conservative majority, I entertain high hopes of our board being a leader in the state in putting the brakes on what the liberals have been doing to our children in public schools,” Angela N. Miller said in a written statement.

Although county schools trustees have direct authority only over the 17 county-run schools and programs for disabled and troubled youths, Miller said she hopes that the board will set “groundbreaking precedents” for school trustees across the county and state.

One of the first issues Miller may take on, she said, is a proposed sex education program for severely disabled students.

Miller beat incumbent Juanita Sanchez-Valdez and educator Jeffrey Moss for the seat representing Ventura. The other new trustee is Marty Bates, a Thousand Oaks businessman who won over incumbent Doylenne Johnson.

Although Bates said Wednesday that he is a fiscal conservative and not part of the Christian conservative movement, his election bid was endorsed by the Southern California Christian Times and backed by a local leader of the religious right.

Miller and Bates will join Wendy Larner, a conservative Christian incumbent representing Ojai. The other trustees are Al Rosen, who won reelection Tuesday in Simi Valley, and John McGarry.

Another candidate who embraces conservative Christian causes won a seat on the county’s college district board.

Orthodontist Norman J. Nagel narrowly beat university counselor Annette B. Burrows in the race for the seat representing Thousand Oaks, with psychologist Donald W. Kingdon and attorney Donald E. Stevens placing third and fourth.

Of the four candidates, Nagel was the only one to respond to a survey by the local Christian Coalition that was published and distributed to churches countywide.

“I’m a Christian,” Nagel said Wednesday. “I feel strongly about family values.”

Even with Nagel’s victory, the board of the Ventura County Community College District will have one less conservative voice. Nagel won the seat being vacated by trustee Gregory Cole. And one of Cole’s biggest allies was appointed trustee Karen Boone, who lost Tuesday to former Ventura College administrator John Tallman.

Boone’s election bid won the endorsement of the Southern California Christian Times, a newspaper published in San Diego and sold locally; it also listed Miller and Bates in its roster of Ventura County candidates.

But Tallman was backed by college employee unions. He also raised more money, outspending Boone by 2-to-1.

Tallman said Wednesday that his first priority will be to address the district’s $800,000 deficit. “The first item on my list is the budget,” he said.

Boone was not the only school trustee in the county to be tossed out.

In races from Oxnard to Santa Paula, a total of seven incumbent trustees lost their seats.

Janet Lindgren, a 22-year trustee for the Oxnard Union High School District, lost to challenger Robert Q. Valles.

And Santa Paula voters ousted former mayor Joe Bravo from the board of the city’s elementary school district, electing in his stead librarian Dan Robles.

Santa Paula trustee Ben Saiz said he believes that Bravo suffered voters’ wrath over a failed proposal earlier this year to change the name of Glen City School to Joe Bravo School.

Other defeated incumbents are Donald G. Barnes in the Rio School District and Ralph Ramos in the tiny Briggs district.

A local representative of the California Teachers Assn. said trustee elections are becoming increasingly contentious as various political factions come to view school boards as steppingstones to higher office.

“What’s happening is school boards are an area of activism for all groups, from . . . minority representation to the radical-extremist right,” John O’Looney said. “It’s an entry level of activism.”