Teacher to Seek School Board Seat

Tom Stafford, a substitute teacher and Green Party member, has decided to run this fall for the Ventura County Board of Education seat now held by conservative Wendy Larner. Stafford, 62, becomes the second candidate to vie for the post occupied by Larner, one of the targets of a failed recall campaign last year after she voted to ban AIDS care and Planned Parenthood presentations from teacher-training workshops.

Former Oxnard Union High School District trustee Janet Lindgren announced her bid for the the 3rd District seat in April. Larner could not be reached for comment. She told The Times in April that she had not decided whether she would run again.

Stafford, who holds a bachelor’s degree in English from UCLA, said he wants to use the post to help teachers get more books, materials and equipment needed to teach. A full-time substitute teacher in several Ventura County school districts, Stafford said he disagrees with many of the views of the board’s conservative majority represented by Larner, President Marty Bates and board member Angela Miller.

“I don’t like the fact that they are introducing religious and moral ideology into the job of the board of education,” said the Oak View resident, who has also worked as a school bus driver, social worker and manager of an Ojai recycling facility. “They seem to have an agenda of their own.”