The Ventura County Office of Education is a mysterious entity to many voters. The County Office doesn't focus on supervising local school districts but instead helps to run programs that multiple districts use. There is an elected board but unlike other local school districts there is a directly elected Superintendent. Their program areas include some teacher training, running Gateway schools, working on charter school issues, managing internet connections, some special education programs and a few other programs. To many observers a position on a local school board is much more influential.

I teach in Ventura County and in that role I have very little direct experience with the county office.

Examine their website to learn more about what they do. In the past Governor Schwarzenegger proposed eliminating County offices of education to streamline the education bureaucracy.

Rachel Ulrich is running to replace Mary Louise Peterson ( Who often goes by ML ), who isn't running for re-election to the Board. Judging by her biography, campaign team, and list of people endorsing her I expect she won't draw a tough challenger.

I have requested to interview her on an upcoming Thursday night. I will ask her questions on charter schools, the proposals to eliminate the position she is running for, her qualifications and more.

( Maybe we can put together a volunteer lobbying force using former candidates from both parties? Just a thought.)

Do you remember when Arnold Schwarzenegger said he wanted to blow up the boxes and he pushed to eliminate county boards of education?

Anyways, the Ventura County Board of Education voted to end the contracts for lobbyists to work with the state legislature and the US Congress.

Click here for the story.

There goes the proposed earmark to construct a building for Ventura County students on a Christian High School campus in Indiana. Who was supposed to put the earmarks into the budget? Rep. Elton Gallegly or Rep. Lois Capps? Some other representative?

I never did understand why the board needed lobbyists to begin with. I am sure if they were worthy projects some of our local representatives and their staff would have been willing to help.

If there really was a need for these contracts the incumbents did a poor job educating the public of the value for the expenditure.

This race hasn't had the highest profile but it seems Mark Lisagor has run a very energetic and effective campaign against an incumbent. Do you think it has been enough to put Mark Lisagor into office?

The consultant for the campaign is Marc O'Hara. This will be a test case to see how effective Lisagor is in Ventura County. If O'Hara helps win this race for Lisagor he will be the hero of many of the rapid Anti-Tony Strickland activists in Ventura County.

I want Mark Lisagor to win so that he can bring nonpartisan and common sense governance to a board that has been mired in controversy after controversy since about the time I started this blog. Scandals including trying to get a federal earmark to build a facility in Indiana for Ventura County youth to announcing they were looking for a conservative Christian to join the board, to a for profit charter school being approved, to trying to get creationism taught in the very few schools they directly control and much much more. Lisagor will help end the games.

Has he run an effective campaign? Seems to me he has a focused message and the resources to communicate it. Have you seen mailers, yard signs, or been called by his campaign?

Click here to see his website.

I don't live in Camarillo but it seems like Mark Lisagor's campaign to remove Chris Valenzano from the Ventura County Office of Education has been very effective at getting endorsements, raising money, and putting out a consistent message.

If you live in the Camarillo area what are seeing?

Click on continue reading to see a mailer from both campaigns.

Thanks to my readers who have been scanning and sending in mailers.

If you want to see a mailer posted on my blog, send it to me quickly.

The Ventura County Board of Education has hired lobbyists to help get funding from the state and federal government. The more I find out the worse it sounds. At the state level wouldn't Assembly Woman Audra Strickland be working for us if we are asking for funding for valid and needed projects? Who exactly are we lobbying? State legislative Democrats? At the federal level the Republican board has been trying to get an earmark. Do Republicans only think earmarks are bad when other people get them?

The earmark has been held up thus far by "partisanship" according to the lobbying firm. What was the Republican dominated board thinking when they hired a lobbying company that had Republican ties to lobby a Democratically controlled congress?

The Ventura County Democratic Party is now helping county board of education candidates coordinate their attacks on the contracts for lobbyists. To read their latest press release click on continue reading. Here are some excerpts:

According to an article in the Jan. 16 edition of Roll Call, Anchor Consulting dreamed up a plan for the VCOE to partner with another one of its clients, Grace College, an evangelical Christian college in Indiana, to obtain No Child Left Behind (NCLB) money to fund a project for at-risk youth in Ventura County.

VCBE member Chris Valenzano, a former legislative aide to Tony Strickland when he served in the Assembly, proposed in September of 2006 that the board consider hiring lobbyists, according to board minutes.

"The unwarranted spending by the current board on dubious lobbyists with little or no accountability must stop. As a trustee, I will be an effective advocate for public education in Sacramento and our nation's capitol," Lisagor said.

The $396,000 contract is one of the largest expenditures for educational lobbyists in the state. Only a handful of other county offices have hired lobbyists.

Do you think it has been a wise use of resources to hire lobbyists to lobby are own elected officials?

Mark Lisagor has been sending out great updates that show his thoughts behind different campaign moves he is making. I like transparency as it makes me think he might be more transparent then the current board has been in the past.

Click on continue reading for his latest campaign update.

This is refreshing. Mark Lisagor, who is running for County School Board, sent out an email to remind his supporters that he intends to keep the office nonpartisan. Here is his email:

Dear Friends, As you know, I am very grateful for the endorsements this campaign has received from Republican, Democratic and Independent supporters. We have been focused on appealing to voters from all parties by demonstrating my experience, judgment and commitment to education. I have learned that the Ventura County Democratic party has decided to include my name on a slate that will probably be published in the VC Star. This was a decision they made on their own and separate from our campaign committee. Under election laws, the local Democratic committee is an IEC or Independent Expenditure Committee which means they can spend their money however they want as long as they do not coordinate with candidates. If we had been consulted, we would have preferred to receive a cash donation and not be included on a partisan slate. I'm sharing this with you, my supporters, so you'll know this was not something we sought. I'm very respectful of the support from my Republican friends and want you to know that I'm 100% committed to respecting that this is a non-partisan office. Thank you for your support. Mark Lisagor

( Connect the name of this band to this entry as a challenge.)

The California Association of Political Centrists ( CAPC ) working with The Star and CLU is putting together some great events locally. To see a full press release you normally need to click on continue reading, but to thank Katie Teague, Leslie Cornejo, Joe Howry, and all the other people volunteering to put together these public forums I am posting the full press release on my main page.

Here is the press release from CAPC:

For Immediate Release

California Association of Political Centrists (CAPC) has joined forces with the Political Science Department of California Lutheran University and the Ventura County Star newspaper to put on a series of candidate forums for the citizens of Ventura County . The second forum is going to be held at the CLU Oxnard campus. It will be moderated by CLU's Jose Marichal, PhD, Political Science and Sociology Department. All questions will be vetted by Joe Howry, Editor, Ventura County Star. It will take place at the CLU Oxnard Hall at 7:00 pm on Wednesday, September 24. The Gold Coast Hispanic Chamber will be a participating organization.

Thursday, September 25 at CLU Oxnard Campus at 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm

Oxnard Center

2201 Outlet Center Drive Suite 600

Oxnard , CA 93036

Board of Supervisor - Debate ( Ventura County Star will provide questions)

John Flynn, Incumbent

John Zaragoza, Candidate

Ventura County Board of Education (10 minutes each)

Dr. Mark Lisagor- candidate for 3rd District

Dr. Ramon Flores - candidate for 5th District

Proposition 11 - Redistricting (10 minutes each)

Pro Argument - Leslie Cornejo, CAPC

Con Argument - Dave Rodriguez, LULAC

Measure U - Unification (7 minutes each)

Pro Argument - Camarillo Unified

Con Argument - John Alamillo (former PVSD trustee), 4Allthekids

No Response

Chris Valenzano, Incumbent, Ventura County Board of Education, 3rd District

Dan Miller, Candidate, Ventura County Board of Education, 5th District

Leslie Cornejo, State Chairman of CAPC believes, "It is important to become informed and engaged as voters so that we have a truly representative government acting on behalf of the people and our priorities. These candidate forums will assist us to do just that. We hope everyone will take this opportunity to become better informed."

Forum proxies will be allowed but they may not be elected officials or candidates seeking other office.

More information can be found on the CAPC website, www.PoliticalCentrists.com

###

Conejo Valley Unified School District Candidate Dennis Hatland has launched his campaign website.

Click here to see it.

Ventura County Office of Education candidate Mark Lisagor has launched his website too.

Click here to see it.

What do you think of it? What do you like about it and what improvements do you think should be made?

If you or a candidate you support for a position on a school board launches their website email me a link and I will put up an entry on it.

What candidate websites have you seen for an education campaign in Ventura County? Leave a link to it and a review of the website.

( New Ventura County Superintendent of Schools Stan Mantooth.)

What do you think accounts for the different memory about what happened at the interview for the position of Superintendent of Ventura county Schools?

Here are the two positions:

1. Leslie Frank says Board Member ML Peterson asked her about her husband Steve Frank's political activities.

( For some fun go back and read about Operation: Eagle Defense! )

She wrote a letter to The Star on the subject. You can read it by clicking here.

2. ML Peterson said she asked no such questions. She sent a letter to The Star with a transcript of comments made. You can view it by clicking here.

It looks like ML Peterson has the stronger argument here. She didn't ask any questions about politics, but she did make a comment about it. I wasn't there but maybe she was responding to some of the earlier speakers that brought it up.

I have heard mixed reviews over Leslie Frank's leadership but GS, a frequent poster on my blog that supports many Democratic candidates has said very kind things about her professional capabilities. GS, tell us more about what brought you to support her as a professional.

So, what do you think? Is this story over with yet? Did ML Peterson prove herself?

Is this story going to keep on going past this entry?

I was tipped off to a new website:

http://www.drflores4vcbe.com/index.html

I also found this website.

Have you seen either of them out campaigning?

Keep the tips coming in.