VENTURA : Recall Petition Filed Over School Official

Backers of a campaign to oust Ventura resident Angela N. Miller from the county Board of Education filed a petition Wednesday stating their intention to begin a recall effort.

Miller was one of three county school board members who voted in March to temporarily ban the use of Planned Parenthood and AIDS Care from teacher-training workshops sponsored by the county superintendent of schools office.

Miller and two other board members who received endorsements from conservative Christian groups during their campaigns have said they favor making the ban permanent if they have legal authority.

According to the recall petition, Miller has violated her duties as a public educator by “putting the interests of (her) own particular political/religious agenda ahead of the students, parents, teachers, staff and community.”

But Miller said Wednesday that she is not worried about the effort and welcomes the attention to public education she hopes it will bring.

“Because of the recall, more parents are starting to question what’s going on in their children’s classrooms, and that is good,” she said.

A grass-roots group of Ventura, Oxnard and Ojai residents began organizing recall campaigns against Miller and board President Wendy Larner shortly after the March vote.

The third trustee who voted to ban Planned Parenthood and AIDS Care, Thousand Oaks businessman Marty Bates, will not be targeted, said organizer Richard Weston-Jones. The recall petition against Larner should be filed later this year.

Ventura City Councilmen Gregory Carson and Gary Tuttle were among the 13 Ventura residents signing the recall petition targeting Miller.

“She has a very closed mind,” Tuttle said. “I want somebody out there who would be more representative of the people.”

Organizers hope to qualify the recall election for the March 26, 1996, state primary ballot. Once the recall petition is certified by elections officials, Miller’s opponents will have 160 days to collect about 11,800 signatures needed to qualify the recall for the ballot.