Oxnard Union High Board Candidates Take Sides on Issues

All seven candidates competing for the two open seats on the Oxnard Union High School District board agree that Camarillo needs a second high school, but they disagree on who should build and pay for it.

To construct the new campus, board members must first cope with a couple of variables. First, will Camarillo voters decide to bring the one high school there into the Pleasant Valley Elementary School District? And second, will voters statewide approve Proposition 39, which would lower the percentage of the vote needed to pass a bond issue from two-thirds to 55%?

Five of the candidates said they would campaign to get all voters in Oxnard, Camarillo and Port Hueneme to support a school bond, and say the district should begin looking for sites and gathering support immediately.

“The citizens of Oxnard are notorious for their generosity,” said candidate Sandy Bieler Rao, a parent of four. “I think we can rely on them to help us build our next school.”

Two candidates, substitute teacher’s aide Sheryle Milmont and travel agent Kathryn Nowok Estomo, said a bond would place a major financial burden on Oxnard residents. In the past four years, voters there have passed two $57-million bond issues, one for a new high school, which will open next year, and the other to build elementary schools.

Passing a bond would be easier if California voters approve Proposition 39. Five candidates--Rao, Robert Rexford, Dick Jaquez, Steve Stocks and Milmont--support the initiative. Benito Juarez is undecided, and Estomo opposes it, saying, “Bonds stay on your taxes for a long time.”

The issue of placing Camarillo High School under the control of the Pleasant Valley district has been debated for years and should arise again after the election. Milmont and Estomo said the outcome of the unification debate should determine the fate of a bond for a new high school.

If Camarillo citizens decide to break away from the high school district, they should pay for the new campus, Milmont and Estomo said.

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Most of the candidates said they would let Camarillo residents decide on unification, but a few said they would discourage it because it would segregate Oxnard schools and be expensive for Camarillo residents. Rao and Rexford live in Camarillo, while the others live in Oxnard.

Designed for 2,216 students, Camarillo High School now serves 2,575. It has added 20 portable classrooms in the past five years to hold the growing student body, but hundreds of Camarillo students are still bused to Rio Mesa High School in Oxnard. Parents of many of those students said they want their children to attend the neighborhood school and argued that they may be receiving a lower-quality education at Rio Mesa. Camarillo High usually has the district’s highest test scores.

Business owner Rexford, whose daughter attended Rio Mesa, said the district needs to ensure that the curriculum and the facilities meet the same standards at all five schools, and that students everywhere have the same opportunities.

Candidates stressed the need for teachers at all five schools to prepare students for the coming exit exam. State law requires the class of 2004 to pass the test to graduate. With that in mind, Rexford, Stocks and Jaquez said the district should concentrate on improving students’ knowledge of language arts and math and should consider removing some classes from the list of graduation requirements. Estomo, however, said the district shouldn’t teach for the exam: “We’re not thinking of learning, we are thinking of exams.”

Rao, Jaquez and Juarez also said the district should reduce class sizes in English and math to no more than 25 students.

“With the new amounts of money coming down from the state, I think we can do that,” Jaquez said.

State money is available to reduce class sizes in ninth-grade English and one other core subject, but the district hasn’t applied for those funds because there isn’t room for more classes.

Both Rao and Milmont said the district needs more parent participation. Milmont, 49, has two grown children, and has been involved with the PTA at several schools during the past 17 years. She decided to run for the board after trustees transferred Principal Daisy Tatum from Oxnard High to the district’s new alternative school. Milmont and other parents protested that decision, and unsuccessfully tried to recall three board members.

“I just felt that this board had no interest in parents and that they weren’t going to listen to us,” Milmont said.

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Milmont, who is training to be a substitute teacher, wants to get a parent appointed to every district committee, to see board meetings televised, and to publish a ranking of all teachers.

Rao, 46, has also volunteered in her children’s classrooms and has served on school site councils and parent-teacher associations. If she is elected, Rao said, she wants to ensure that the district doesn’t use toxic chemicals to control pesticides on campus, and that the schools are recruiting and retaining the best possible teachers.

Three of the candidates are current or former teachers. Incumbent Stocks is running for his fourth term on the board, and has worked as a teacher, principal and assistant superintendent. Stocks, 73, said he wants to continue hiring qualified teachers, raising test scores and bringing technology into the district.

“I’ve been around here a long time,” said Stocks, who has four children, 15 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. “People know I care about education. I still have a lot of energy, so I want to give it another whirl.”

Jaquez, 57, has also worked in the Oxnard high school district for many years, teaching, coaching and coordinating independent-study programs. He is the parent of two grown children, who graduated from local schools. Jaquez wants to focus on raising student achievement and improving the use of technology in the schools.

Estomo, 52, taught both at the high school and community college level. She said she wants to reduce crowding, bring morals back into the classroom and improve student discipline. She also hopes to improve relations among parents, students, teachers and trustees, and to promote more cooperation between the school district and the city.

Rexford and Juarez say they would bring other expertise to the board. Rexford, 56, runs a fast-food franchise and has experience in telecommunications and hospital administration. He was on the Pleasant Valley Elementary School District board for four years before running unsuccessfully for the Oxnard high school district board in 1998.

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Rexford, a Camarillo resident, plans to improve basic-skills instruction and to expand job-skills training, so that high school graduates are ready for the work force.

Juarez, 43, directs a substance-abuse intervention program in the Santa Clara Valley, and wants to bring more drug prevention and education to the high schools. The father of four also wants to raise teachers’ salaries, hire more classroom aides and reduce crowding.