WISE WORDS: As City Manager Lin Koester...

WISE WORDS: As City Manager Lin Koester leaves Simi Valley to become the county’s top administrator (B6), his predecessor talked of lessons learned from years of answering to five bosses on the Board of Supervisors. . . . “I learned how to duck and cover. I learned how to tap dance,” quipped Richard Wittenberg, the county’s top executive until moving to Santa Clara County in January. “And after all is said and done, you’ve got to remember they’re the people who make policy.”

COMPUTER BABIES: A novel Santa Paula High School class has taken its real-life approach to child care off campus (B1). . . . Next year, students may also get computerized dolls. . . . “I remember one student saying, ‘I want to have a baby. They’re so sweet and they smell good.’ But that’s about 1% of it,” said Eloise Eakins, a retired teacher who will buy five of the $225 dolls for the school. “The computer keeps track of how long it’s been since [the doll] was tended to, so it’s like having a real kid.”

JUST LIKE ME: Yolanda Benitez, a migrant farm worker as a child and the new superintendent at Rio School District, understands the troubles of Spanish-speaking children in her new district (B1). . . . Ventura County’s first Latina superintendent keenly remembers the harm a thoughtless teacher did to her with a racial slur. . . . “I’m not saying you have to be a migrant person to understand,” she said, “but it gives you a lot more empathy for the migrant families.”

SHOW TIME: It is the season for Ventura County’s prep all-stars to strut their stuff without the tensions of playoffs, but still under the eye of college recruiters and professional scouts (C10). . . . Boys and girls basketball stars play tonight at Ventura High. Football’s best perform Saturday evening at Moorpark High. And baseball stars play Sunday at 1 p.m. at Oxnard College.