School Races Enroll Few Challengers : Elections: Only two file papers to run against six incumbents on boards countywide. Ocean View district cancels vote.

Just two challengers have stepped forward to compete for six school board seats up for election in Ventura County in November, officials said Monday.

In the Ventura Unified School District, private schoolteacher Jeffery McCann was the only person to file candidate’s papers for one of two seats. Incumbents Diane Harriman and Jim Wells also are running.

Across the county in Oak Park, Paul Schroeder is the sole challenger for one of two seats held by incumbents Jan Iceland and James Kalember. Both incumbents are running.

And in the tiny Ocean View School District in south Oxnard, the election has been canceled because nobody is running except the two incumbents, said Deputy County Clerk Olivia Lopez.

The filing period for all school districts closed Friday, Lopez said.

While the lack of challengers in a small district such as Ocean View is nothing new, a low candidate turnout is unusual in the larger Ventura and Oak Park districts, said Charles Weis, Ventura County superintendent of schools.

“Those districts must be working very well,” Weis said. “They must be serving their districts terrifically.”

Wells, 53, a funeral director, said he feels his Ventura constituents are happy with the record from his first four-year term.

Labor disputes that in the past have split educators have been resolved, Wells said, and no unpopular cuts in programs or staff have been necessary this year because an easing recession has brought more dollars to the 15,200-student district.

And the school board is on the verge of approving a plan that will bring $1 million worth of new computers to administrative offices, libraries and some classrooms, Wells said.

“Obviously, people are content with what is going on in the district,” he said. “And if the wheel ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”

Harriman, 66, who taught in Ventura schools for 24 years, said she also believes that parents are satisfied for the most part.

“My platform last time was to get rid of [former Superintendent] Cesare Caldarelli,” she said. “That was done. And people are pleased with the curriculum, particularly with the character traits program.”

That program requires teachers and students to focus on a different virtue, such as honesty, each month in an attempt to stress moral behavior in student development.

McCann, the third candidate in the Ventura district, was not available for comment Monday. He is a teacher at a Christian school in Ventura, officials said.

The Oak Park Unified School District also has had much success in recent years, Weis said. Students in the 2,700-student district consistently outperform their peers in nearly every measure of academic success, he said.

“They are a young, energetic board,” Weis said. “And people there seem quite happy with their schools.”

Challenger Schroeder agreed that the district is performing satisfactorily for most parents. But there is a small contingent of parents who think improvements can be made, he said.

“This district has doubled its size in the last four years,” he said. “It’s going to take a different kind of board to keep up with that growth and roll into the 21st Century.”

As an administrator for a Los Angeles law firm, he has a background in financial planning and operations management, Schroeder said. That is the kind of experience the school board needs, he said.

The two incumbents, Iceland and Kalember, could not be reached for comment.

Schroeder, 44, has been a member of the Oak Hills Elementary School site council, the California School Leadership Academy and the district’s budget advisory committee.