ELECTIONS / SIMI VALLEY SCHOOL BOARD : Candidates Focus on Looming Deficit

The six candidates seeking two open seats on Simi Valley’s school board agree that the city’s school district is facing some of its most crucial issues in recent years.

Administrators are searching for ways to balance the district’s $75.5-million budget without hurting classroom programs. Parents and school leaders are pushing for ways to bolster safety in the wake of a fatal on-campus stabbing earlier this year. And the district is looking to improve the overall quality of education in the city’s schools.

Of the six candidates, all but the one incumbent agree on another point: Internal bickering and divisiveness have dogged the five-member panel the past two years, they say, hampering the district’s efforts to resolve some of its most pressing problems.

“I would describe the current school board as five individuals unable to decide what are the priorities of the school community,” candidate Sharon Hushka said. “I really believe the board has to find ways to work together and set the tone for the whole district.”

Hushka, Janice DiFatta, Jacquie Richardson, Norm Walker, Glenn Woodbury and incumbent board President Carla Kurachi are seeking seats in the Nov. 8 election.

The five challengers hope to monopolize what they call the board’s tarnished reputation by assuring voters that they will put an end to the political squabbling and listen to parents’ concerns.

DiFatta, 42, a homemaker, is a member of the Simi Valley PTA Council. She wants to make schools safer by sending “troublemakers” to alternative school sites, and advocates a “back-to-basics” style of education, which emphasizes core academics.

Hushka, 35, who writes children’s literature, has opposed the school board’s decision to charge parents for bus service. She supports conflict resolution programs as a method of curbing campus violence. A critic of back-to-basics education, Hushka advocates teaching critical thinking.

Richardson, 43, an employment and training consultant, ran unsuccessfully for the school board in 1992. She said she decided to run again this year because she is frustrated by the current board’s bickering. Her top concern is the budget, which she would reduce by seeking government grants and restructuring employees’ health benefits packages.

Walker, 43, a minister and administrator of a private Baptist school, describes himself as a conservative candidate. He criticized board members at last week’s meeting for opposing Proposition 187, saying the board should not take positions on social issues. He also supports a back-to-basics approach to education.

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Woodbury, 40, who owns a weather-stripping company, is a former test supervisor for Natel Engineering Co. Inc. He was a whistle-blower in a 1990 federal lawsuit against Natel stemming from reported problems with the defense firm’s electronic circuit testing. The suit was settled last year when the Simi Valley company pleaded guilty to defense-contract fraud and paid $2.2 million in fines.

Woodbury has been involved in several local issues, including leading a community effort to remove pornographic magazines from local news racks. He describes himself as a politically conservative candidate who advocates strict academic programs and school safety.

The incumbent candidate, Kurachi, 41, is a career counselor at Cal State Northridge. She supports programs that encourage critical thinking and says her experience on the board will be valuable in addressing a new round of budget cuts next year.

All six candidates say a projected budget deficit of $3.2 million is the biggest crisis facing Simi Valley’s schools.

At a public forum last week, Walker blamed board members for the district’s financial crisis and accused them of mismanaging funds. “I think the current board has to be held accountable for the budget problems,” he said.

But Kurachi defended the board, blaming the district’s financial woes on diminishing state funds. She later shot down suggestions to streamline employee health care packages, saying, “We’ve already reduced health care benefits packages by 20%.”

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Searching for other creative solutions to balance the budget, candidates have suggested selling surplus district property, freezing salaries and travel expenses, and pursuing state and federal education grants.

The school district has operated four years without a cost-of-living increase for its employees, and has run a deficit for about the same period of time, officials said.

In July, Ventura County school officials told district leaders they must show specific steps being taken to balance the budget by Dec. 31, or the county would take over management of the district’s finances.

Supt. Mary Beth Wolford said the district has already moved to close the budget gap, taking measures such as transferring about $450,000 from the adult school budget to the general fund.

But school board candidates have seized on the warning from the county as an indication of the board’s financial problems.

“Without making cuts in our budget we will lose all local control,” Richardson said.

Another issue the candidates have raised is school safety.

The Simi Valley community was stunned earlier this year when a 14-year-old Valley View Junior High School student was fatally stabbed in the school’s parking lot.

Valley View has since adopted a conflict-resolution program and a strict dress code in an attempt to make the campus safer.

The candidates have generally agreed that similar programs and, dress codes as well as strict enforcement of school rules will promote safe campuses.

“I think we have a problem with a small percentage of the youth in the community,” DiFatta said. “I think the schools need to do their job by providing consistent enforcement of the rules.”

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Before any steps are taken to balance budgets or curb campus crimes, candidates say the board must improve communication with the community and stop its internal bickering.

“We need to stop the finger-pointing and bickering,” Richardson said during a forum last week. “We have to rebuild trust and respect on our school board.”

Critics point to the unsuccessful recall effort launched last year to oust board members Kurachi, Debbie Sandland and Diane Collins as an example of parents’ frustration over the board’s inability to agree on subjects such as school configuration and sex education.

But Kurachi said trustees have set their differences aside this year, eventually coming together to unanimously approve a new birth-control curriculum--one of the most volatile issues the group has tackled.

“We are a very passionate group and things sometimes do get heated,” Kurachi said. “We might bicker now and then, but people were sick and tired of a rubber-stamp board.”

As the Nov. 8 election nears, the dissension characteristic of past board meetings has emerged in the campaign.

Hushka and Kurachi refused to participate in a forum sponsored last week by Citizens for Truth in Education, a conservative parents’ group, saying it was politically biased. DiFatta refused to be interviewed by the Simi Educator’s Assn.’s endorsement committee.

Also last week, anonymous flyers tagging Hushka and Kurachi as liberals and weak leaders were placed on parents’ cars during a PTA-sponsored forum. Kurachi said she believes the attack was launched by the “radical right,” conservative residents she says are trying to discredit her.

In recent years, conservative Christian groups across the state have launched political campaigns to get like-minded people elected to public office.

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In the Simi Valley school board race, some candidates contend that conservative Christian groups are campaigning behind the scenes to get candidates elected who share their positions on issues such as sex education.

All six candidates in the race were surveyed by the Pro-Family Caucus of Ventura County and the Christian Coalition of Eastern Ventura County for a voting guide published late last week by the two groups.

Woodbury and Walker were the only two Simi Valley school board candidates who responded to questions posed by the group on issues such as condom distribution, the California Learning Assessment System and school vouchers.

In an interview, Walker said he is not a member of either of the organizations that sponsored the guide. “I am conservative, but I am also independent,” Walker said, adding, “I am not a part of any slate or any faction.”

Woodbury has said he is a Christian and politically conservative but is not a member of any organized Christian political group.

As the election nears, some parents say they are weary of the discord that has characterized the school board and the campaign.

“I’m looking for a board that won’t embarrass me,” said parent Debbi Mjoen, who attended the PTA forum last week. “I think the Simi Valley parents are ready for a change.”

So, apparently, are some students. Although they cannot vote on Election Day, about 10 Simi Valley teen-agers attended the Citizens for Truth in Education’s forum last week to learn more about the candidates.

“I haven’t heard anything I think is very positive,” said Katie Hall, a junior at Royal High School who believes class size and students’ rights are issues that have not been addressed.

“They are not going to serve my needs,” she said. “They are going for what the voters want to hear.”

Simi Valley Unified School District

Six candidates, including one incumbent, are running for two seats on Simi Valley’s Board of Education. Among the key issues are school safety, raising academic standards and balancing the $75.5-million budget in the 27-campus district, which has about 18,500 students.

Janice DiFatta

Age: 42

Occupation: homemaker

Education: high school graduate

Background: Past president of the Parent-Teacher Assn. Council in Simi Valley; served on various school district committees, including middle school reconfiguration and principal selection.

Issues: Wants to put more emphasis on teaching core academic subjects through a back-to-basics approach, supports establishing four-year high schools, emphasizes parent involvement.

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Sharon Hushka

Age: 35

Occupation: writes children’s literature

Education: bachelor’s degree in home economics from Cal State Northridge

Background: Served on school safety task force committee in the spring, member of the Parent-Teacher Assn. since 1990, four-year member of American Assn. of University Women.

Issues: Opposes charging parents for school busing, supports starting cultural awareness and conflict-resolution programs to address campus violence, advocates teaching students decision-making but opposes teaching moral values.

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Carla Kurachi

Age: 41

Occupation: career specialist at Cal State Northridge and owner of a Simi Valley self-service carwash

Education: bachelor’s degree in psychology and master’s degree in counseling from Cal State Northridge

Background: Elected to school board in 1990, current board president; served on committee to study middle school reconfiguration; one of three board members targeted in a failed recall effort last year.

Issues: Wants to improve school safety through conflict resolution and in-house suspension programs, criticizes back-to-basics education as narrow and restrictive, advocates demanding more from students and setting high academic standards.

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Jacquie Richardson

Age: 43

Occupation: employment and training consultant

Education: two years at University of Minnesota; teaching credential in business from Cal Lutheran University

Background: Ran for the Simi Valley school board in 1992, board chairwoman for the Ventura County Job Training Policy Council.

Issues: Emphasizes financial stability; recommends restructuring employees’ health and welfare plans, and seeking additional grant funds to cut costs; wants to improve communication between the district and the community.

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Norman Walker

Age: 43

Occupation: Administrator of Cochran Baptist school; pastor of Cochran Street Baptist churchEducation: attended Fresno State University; earned associate of arts degree in social science from College of the Sequoias; attended Los Angeles Baptist College and Luther Rice Seminary

Background: Served on school boards for private schools in Santa Clarita and Visalia; president of the Simi Valley Republican Assembly.

Issues: Emphasizes financial stability, wants to improve school safety, stresses back-to-basics education and a sex-education curriculum based on abstinence, criticizes board for taking positions on such issues as Proposition 187.

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Glenn A. Woodbury

Age: 40

Occupation: small business owner

Education: associate of arts degree in industrial management from Goldenwest College

Background: Formed a parent group to combat campus violence after the fatal stabbing of a 14-year-old junior high school student, led anti-pornography campaign in Simi Valley five years ago, former supervisor at Hughes Aircraft Co. and Natel Engineering Co.

Issues: Supports abstinence-only sex education curriculum, wants to improve school safety, opposes school board taking a position against Proposition 187.