Dispute Over Sex Education Panels May End in Court : Schools: Questions of banning workshop speakers and on policy-making may force county Supt. Charles Weis and conservative board members into costly legal fight.

Strained relations between Ventura County schools chief Charles Weis and conservative members of the County Board of Education over sex education workshops may spill over into the courts, a move that could cost taxpayers thousands of dollars in legal fees, conservative members said.

The narrow question facing the board and Weis concerns banning speakers from workshops. But the broader issue underlying that debate is who has the final say on policy.

Each side is armed with legal briefs and will state their positions at a special board meeting May 8. Although both sides have received free legal advice thus far, board President Wendy Larner said she is prepared to dip into the county schools’ $36-million annual budget to resolve the matter in court, if necessary.

Larner will ask the board to approve any legal fees incurred in a court fight at next week’s meeting. Trustee Angela N. Miller said she will support the request, even if it costs “thousands of dollars.”

“We have got to find out for once and for all who controls this office,” Miller said. “And once we determine that, the lawyers will no longer be necessary.”

At issue is whether the board has authority to ban speakers from teacher-training workshops sponsored by the county superintendent of schools office. Although the county school board has no direct control over local school districts, teachers from across Ventura County attend dozens of training seminars sponsored by the county schools office each year.

Conservative board members, who voted 3 to 2 in March to temporarily ban Planned Parenthood and AIDS Care speakers from sex education workshops, say the law gives them power to limit who is invited to participate in the county-sponsored training sessions.

But Supt. of Schools Weis disagrees, saying the board overstepped its bounds with the March 27 vote. His office traditionally has determined who will speak at the sessions and that should not change, Weis said.

The bottom line, said Miller, a Ventura homemaker who voted to ban the two groups, is that there has to be “some recognition of who has power over what.”

“It is my understanding that it is the board’s power to set policy and the superintendent’s duty to carry it out,” Miller said.

“And when you have a superintendent who won’t do that, what can you do? We can’t fire him.”

Unlike the superintendents of local school districts, Weis is elected and cannot be replaced unless he voluntarily steps down or is thrown out by voters. But Weis, whose term expires in January, 1999, has already pledged he will not quit.

Instead, he has begun to fight back. In the past month he has addressed at least two community forums, warning that the conservative majority on the county board are “extremists” attempting to impose their Christian beliefs on all students in public education.

In recent days, however, Weis has softened the rhetoric and taken a more conciliatory tone. On Thursday, he sent a letter to Larner, an Ojai resident, pointing out where they agree on many issues, such as the need for parents to take responsibility for their children’s education, Weis said.

“I hope we can find common ground so we don’t have to resort to the legal system,” he said. “It’s a real waste of taxpayers’ money.”

Weis said he is willing to compromise on some issues, such as the sex education curriculum offered to all teachers in workshops and to the 2,000 special education students who receive their education through the county schools office.

For example, Weis said, instructors could offer two types of sex education classes: one that teaches abstinence as the only method of birth control and another that emphasizes abstinence but also includes information about birth control pills, condoms and other methods of contraception.

Parents could then choose which curriculum they want their child to receive, Weis said. But he will draw the line on anything that is unconstitutional, such as mandatory prayer in school, Weis said.

And he objects to the majority’s effort to ban Planned Parenthood and AIDS Care from any training workshops, calling it unnecessary censorship. All three of the conservative members--Larner, Miller and Thousand Oaks businessman Marty Bates--have said they favor making the ban permanent if they have legal authority to do so.

“If you eliminate the information Planned Parenthood can provide, how will parents be able to select that as one of the options?” Weis said.

But even as Weis publicly has toned down his remarks, other opponents of the conservative majority have begun organizing recall campaigns. At a meeting last week, they said they will target Miller and Larner.

Although they are also critical of Bates, recall coordinator Richard Weston-Jones said they will not go after him because there is not enough support for his removal among constituents in his Conejo Valley district.

Recall petitions have not yet been filed with the county elections office, a clerk said.

Although the board’s actions thus far have had little effect on local school districts, Weston-Jones, a minister at the Ventura-based Unitarian Universalist Church, said he is concerned that could change.

Weis’ office is also responsible for providing the payroll and other fiscal services for 16,000 public school employees in Ventura County’s 21 school districts and three community colleges, Weston-Jones noted.

In addition, the county schools office coordinates several popular academic events that students throughout Ventura County take part in, such as the academic decathlon, mock trials and the Ventura County Science Fair.

Those functions could be affected if the infighting continues, Weston-Jones said.

“This is absurd, the kind of pressure they have put on (Weis),” Weston-Jones aid. “I think they are trying to force his resignation so they can take over fully.”

Larner, Miller and Bates have said they are not retaliating against Weis for his criticism. But board scrutiny of the county schools office has intensified since Miller and Bates were elected to the board in November, joining Larner to form a new majority.

The two other trustees on the board, Al Rosen of Simi Valley and John McGarry of Oxnard, are more moderate and have not challenged Weis.

In recent actions, the conservative board members have:

* Asked for information regarding the salary and benefits paid to Weis.

* Questioned Weis’ approval of a $1,200 wooden sign for a reception area in the county school office’s spacious new quarters in Camarillo.

* Stepped up review of allegations that taxpayer dollars earmarked for students in trouble with the law or expelled from other schools have been improperly spent by the county schools office.

Miller said review of operations in the county schools office is appropriate and long overdue. And it has nothing to do with any personal problem with Weis, she said.

“Until we came along, nobody ever questioned the superintendent,” said Miller, a political novice who won her seat with backing from conservative Christian groups. “This is what the public wants done.”

Larner also denied that she has any personal beef with Weis. But Bates said he dislikes Weis because “he’s a Democrat.” And he is part of what Bates, a Republican, sees as a bloated public education bureaucracy.

“In my opinion, he’s an Educrat,” Bates said. “And an Educrat does everything possible to say the reason California test scores are going down is because we don’t spend enough money on students. That’s just not true.”

Bates said he is determined to take any cuts that may be necessary in the county schools office’s 1995-96 budget from Weis’ $112,000 annual salary.

“I refuse to take it from classrooms,” Bates said. “If we’re going to cut dollars, we’re going to start at the top.”