4th Time Fails to Be Charm for School Bond in Camarillo : Education: Proposal is again short of two-thirds majority, disappointing officials. Ventura incumbents retain seats.

Camarillo voters went to the polls Tuesday for a fourth time over a $55-million bond measure for school expansion, but once again the proposal fell short of the two-thirds majority needed for passage.

“I’m very disappointed,” Supt. Shirley Carpenter said. “I can’t imagine going under after all we’ve done. It doesn’t seem possible.”

Meanwhile, two incumbents on the Ventura school board defeated their sole challenger, and two incumbents on the Oak Park school board also held a solid lead over their lone opponent.

After failing in three previous elections, officials in the Pleasant Valley Unified School District had made an all-out push to secure the 66.7% vote needed to pass a school bond measure.

“I’m disappointed,” school board President Dolores [Val] Rains said. “I don’t know what else we could have done. We covered every possible avenue. We gave it our best shot.”

Last June, it was low support among absentee voters that ultimately killed the initiative, which lost by a mere 119 votes out of 9,968 cast.

This time, school volunteers aggressively reached out through phone calls and flyers to residents who signed up to vote absentee for Measure M, but never turned in their ballots.

“We really went after getting these people to vote by mail,” Carpenter said.

Bruce Bradley, county assistant registrar of voters, had predicted a 30% voter turnout in Camarillo, with a little more than half casting absentee ballots.

School volunteers worked right up until the 8 p.m. closing of the polls trying to drum up support. About 100 people--including Assemblyman Nao Takasugi, whose district includes Camarillo--walked precincts over the weekend. Dozens more manned phone banks Monday and Tuesday, while others provided voters with free transportation to the polls.

Pat Eichenhofer, 64, who lives in a retirement housing complex in Camarillo Springs, was the kind of voter whom bond backers needed to influence. Eichenhofer said she voted yes on the bond measure because she had toured some of the deteriorating school buildings.

“That’s what changed my mind, actually visiting the school rooms and seeing the need,” she said.

The outcome was especially disappointing to supporters because the bond measure had received increasing support each time it appeared on the ballot. In June, 1991, 59.9% of the city’s voters favored approval. In November, 1991, the figure jumped to 64.4%. And last June, 65.7% of voters supported the bond measure.

With state funds continuing to shrink, the district had sought the bonds to renovate some of its 13 schools, many of which have gone without major repairs for three decades.

The 7,000-pupil district, which serves students in kindergarten through eighth grade, also was seeking to build two new schools to help ease crowding. Officials estimate that enrollment will reach 10,000 by 2009.

For the average property owner, repaying the school bonds would have meant about $50 a year for 30 years.

In the school board races, Ventura members Diane Harriman and Jim Wells held off a single rival--Jeffery McCann--as each secured a second four-year term.

McCann, who is in charge of leadership training at Trinity Community Church in Ventura, has been critical of the district’s approach to sex education. He said teachers should teach abstinence, and talk less about methods of contraception.

In the Oak Park Unified School District, incumbents Jan Iceland and James Kalember were joined by challenger Paul Schroeder in pursuit of two seats.

Schroeder, an office administrator for a West Los Angeles law firm, acknowledged that the district has a superb academic reputation and is well run. He said his primary goal was to build on the district’s accomplishments.