To Tim Keaney,

I am seeking election to the Ventura County Board of Education, Governing Board Member, District IV. I appreciate the opportunity to inform the voters of Simi Valley and Moorpark of my candidacy.

Below is my official press release. If you have any questions please contact me at 805-404-0914 or tprenta@aol.com. I have two events scheduled on Wednesday, August 23rd or Thursday, August 24th where interested parties may have the opportunity to meet me. Please contact me directly if you are interested in attending either events.

Thank you Tim, for helping voters learn about The County Board of Educaiotn and my candidacy. More importantly thank you for raising awareness about the Ventura County School's programs that are one of the Countie's best kept secrets.

I contacted the League of Women Voters. They have not listed any canididates for this filing period. Candidates that were in the primaries profiles have been archived.

LWV is verifying all qualified candidates and then sends them a password in the mai to post their profiles. LWV will have it ready the end of this month or early September.

Sincerely,
Donna Prenta

Here is my official press release:

It is with great pleasure and enthusiasm that I am announcing my candidacy for Governing Board Member for the Ventura County Board of Education, District IV.

I want to give back to our wonderful community! My husband of twenty-eight years, Tim and I have raised our four children Scott, Jeff, Alex and Laura in Simi Valley. Our children received their education from SVUSD, our son’s are now alumni and attending community college while Laura is entering high school. We appreciate the quality of education our children received. We want to make sure that all children in Ventura County continue to receive a quality education.

Our community NEEDS my help on the Ventura County Board of Education. We have been under-represented for many years. In the last four years there have been four different representatives for District IV, one representative was removed for committing a felony, two others were temporary appointments. East Ventura County needs strong and consistent representation. This is self-evident by the fact that most people I speak with do not even know that we have a County Board of Education or what they do. I want to change that and I will work hard to build community partnerships to ensure that East Ventura County receives their fair share of County resources and programs.

Ventura County School’s has a map of the County with twenty-five stars illustrating programs and services that they provide throughout Ventura County. There is not one single star on the map for Simi Valley, I want to work with you to rectify this inequity. Let’s put East Ventura County on the Map.

An educated workforce is critical to ensure Ventura Counties economic security. Local youth need local opportunities. We need to stop the migration of our future workforce seeking employment and affordable housing. The County schools can help. County Schools are responsible for vocational training of all youth throughout the County. Presently there are no programs available to students in Simi Valley other than a couple of classes at SSHS. Our students have to go to other cities to pursue vocational training. Only 2.4% of Ventura County students have an opportunity to receive vocational training. The average percentage of vocational training opportunities to students in other counties is 25%. My goal is to work with our community leaders, City Council, Chamber of Commerce, Community Colleges and major employers to develop internships, vocational and technical opportunities for students.

We need to keep our students engaged and excited about their education. Students learn and are engaged in a variety of ways. Innovative programs for students at all levels of skill and talent are needed. Our students need to receive practical learning experiences on how to become successful independent adults; whether they pursue higher education or vocations. Let’s work together as a community and provide mentorship’s to help our young adults make good financial decisions for their future and help them with their long and short term plans.

Safety is paramount in our schools! I will strive to build better community partnerships to ensure student’s success and safety in our school’s. Educators need to be informed of how to identify students at risk for educational and behavioral challenges. Early intervention is critical to circumvent their failure and provide necessary support to assure all students receive an education and that they make healthy and productive decisions that lead to their success.

I am not the type of person to self-promote; I was not raised that way. I understand that it is necessary for you to know me and make an informed decision to vote for me. I have been volunteering for more than two decades for a broad spectrum of children and adults. I am a proven leader with the support of community leaders throughout Ventura County. I want you to be assured that my motivation to serve our community is all about helping our children to thrive and succeed.

My strength is building coalitions and consensus with a special emphasis on healing damaged relationships. I have been a tireless and passionate children’s advocate and case manager throughout Southern California in our schools, courts and public agencies for fourteen years. More recently I have been providing advocacy for elderes to procure services.

For the past two years I have been providing advocacy to children in Ventura County pro bono as a public service resulting in resolution for all parties and significant savings in attorney bills for schools and other public agencies.

I am presently the President of the SVUSD, Special Education Advisory Committee (SEAC) for the SVUSD. During my tenure on SEAC I have helped to raise more than $50,000 for student scholarships and teacher grants. I have also served on the GATE advisory committee, PTA and two school site councils. I have been a past leader for AWANA and Boy Scouts.

Our family is a large supporter for the arts and sciences to our schools. We have donated a significant amount of high fidelity equipment to schools art and technology programs, sponsored a program to promote attendance and provided science scholarships for students.

I am not new to serving the county I have been volunteering at the County level for twelve years. I was appointed unanimously to the Ventura County Mental Health Board, (MHB) by the Board of Supervisors; during my tenure I was able to identify a federal funding source that brought millions of dollars of services and programs for children’s and young adults mental health services with the help of the Mental Health Board, County Board of Supervisors and Ventura County Behavioral Health. As a result County foster youth were provided transitional housing and work training services to assist them in adulthood. The funding also provided ntervention and therapeutic services for students with emotional disturbances that were at risk of being removed from their homes or incarcerated. This has provided significant savings for schools and the entire public. I continue to be involved in the VCBH, Children’s Committee which is now twenty members strong.

I also served on the County School’s Local Inter-Agency Coordinating Council for Early start. I was then appointed unanimously by our the SVUSD School Board to represent Simi Valley on the County School’s Community Advisory Committee (CAC). While I was on the CAC I concurrently served on the MHB. During that time we developed several memorandums of understanding’s (MOU’s ) to assure cooperative and collaborative relationships between, County School’s, VCBH, Probation, County Colleges and many other public agencies.

I would appreciate your support in my candidacy to become your next Governing Board Member for the County Board of Education, District IV. Together we can continue to make Ventura County a wonderful place to live, work and raise a family. I can be reached at 805-404-0914 or tprenta@aol.com. Thank you!

These are parties given by my supporters to support my campaign. Other candidates will not present but they will be there to ask questions and get to know them individually. I have invited a number of candidates for other offices that may attend. Graduates of Leadership Simi Valley, Kim Rubenstein and Jacquie Richardson will host the fundraiser on Wednesday a number of candidates for local school board will attend; they can all attend if they wish they only need to contact me. I do not have all of their information. Rob Collins, Trustee, SVUSD and Marcia Schneider, RN, CPNP and a numer of other school nurses are hosting the other event on Thursday at Aileen Archibald's house. The CSEA is interviewing local school board candidates Thursday night so I doubt any will attend that event.

Ferial Masry, candidate for Assembly, 37th District plans to attend each event if anyone would like to meet her.

Brett Mikels (Judy Mikels son) will be performing songs from his new CD Deep Enough at the August 23rd event at Kim Rubenstein's.

There will be a silent auction at both events. Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee, Dave Mason has donated VIP tickets and an autographed CD for his show on September 29th at the Canyon Club (he's a big supporter). A few of the other items that were donated will be JBL speakers, golf packages, tickets to see Simi Valley Police Officer's perform Alley Cats at the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Center and a limited edition bottle of Foster Cellars wine donated and made by Craig and Michelle Foster. These are just a few of the items.

Hope you can be there!

Thank you,
Donna Prenta

Tim,
I have had the chance to meet Donna and speak with her, and I am very impressed by her knowledge of the issues and her support for education. She is already talking about, and planning, County Ed programs for Simi/Moorpark. Kunicki has done nothing for Simi/Moorpark and has not made himself available to voters, unless they were willing to drive out to Camarillo. Keith Richman used to hold regular meetings in Simi where any voter could come and see him. Kunicki was quoted in the Star during the Special Election saying "No one pays attention to the County Board". Kunicki finally made a showing at the last Simi Board meeting where a staffer showed a video by Chuck Weis. Afterwards Kunicki was asked about Vista Real Charter School. Kunicki said he only voted for it because Vista Real could have come into the County without the Board's permission. Let me ask you Tim, does it make sense to you that Vista Real would pay Tony Strickland $20,000 to lobby Ventura County School Board members to vote for Vista Real if they could have come into the County without the Boards permission? Vista Real is a for profit and they guaranteed investors 10% return first year, so why would they give 20k away for something they supposedly already had the right to do? Also why didn't Strickland ever tell the County Board he was being paid?

I don't see the point if the current guy pretends he doesn't read this blog.

If he really doesn't read the area's #1 education focused website isn't that kind of sad? If he hasn't heard of it, someone drop him an e-mail so we know if he is ignoring this website or is just in the dark.

Useless,

I want to have this debate and Kunicki is welcome to join or not join. That will help the voters decide.

Arleigh, I question why the voters of the 37th paid Strickland for 6 years, let alone Vista Real.

Arleigh endorses (or supports - whatever) and that tells me all I need to know! Thank you, Arleigh. And, nice to hear from you again! Hope you had a nice summer.

Tim,

To answer the question of the need for County Boards and whether the Governor was right to call for the elimination of the office I am running for?

If our current CBOE was doing their jobs and reaching out to constituents you would not have asked this question.

You would need to understand the programs that the County offers to answer this question.

No this Board should not be eliminated otherwise the local school boards will have to take responibility for the education of incarcerated youth, court and community schools such as Gateway. Gateway is for youth that local school district's have expelled. Keeping our school's safe is extremely important we also want to keep kids off the street's and help them to get back on track to circumvent recidivism. SVUSD expels on average 70 youths per year.

County schools also offer's an education to youth at Casa Pacifica which is a shelter for abused and neglected youth as well as a level 14 residential treatment center for youth with emotional disturbances. (the next highest would be a lockdown psychiatrict hospital)Many of these kids we are trying to keep from being incarcerated. Others kids are afflicted with the onset of mental illnesses they need support to understand how to cope with their illnesses and continue to be productive adults embracing wellness and treatment. If you visit Casa Pacifica you will notice that when you come to the reception room there is bullet proof glass, there is a reason for this we do not want to have this level of security in all schools it is not practical.

Our society demands safe schools, and our cities demand safe streets County Schools offers programs to make that a reality.

County schools acts as a safety net to offer programs and services to school district's that would not be able to offer them individually for fiscal reason's. One example are specialist that are needed such as behaviorist, physical, occupational and speech therapists, technology specialist to name a few. School district's can contract for a portion of a specialist's services. County schools also provides bussing for many school district's.

Not all students are pursuing college degrees County school's offers Regional Occupational programs for students. Simi Valley/Moorpark students have to go to Camarillo for ROP except for one program that is in SSHS for stagecraft, web design and computer repair. We have a brand new mall why are students that are studying fashion merchandising going to Thousand Oaks, OUCH!

There are special education programs and day classes that are operated within school district's by County schools as well. These school district's either choose to have the County run the programs or they are unable to, especially small school districts. Again this is a safety net offered to school district's for fiscal reasons.

Ventura County has on average 25% less for vocational training than other County's. In other County's 25% of students on average have vocational/education available to them in Ventura County our students average 2.4% available to them and for East County they have to go to Camarillo for the majority of programs.

Simi Valley and Moorpark have not had consistent representation. The current representative is not reaching out to the public to let them know what services are available worse yet if you look at a map of services there is not a single one in Simi. We need to form community partnership's to put Simi Valley on the map and make sure we receive our fair share of County resources.

Chris,

I'm sorry you feel that way. When you ran for office I was the Preisdent of the SVUSD, SEAC and we hosted a candidates forum for all candidates, we did the same thing when Tim ran. Chris we sent our 2500 invitations to give you the opportunity to speak to parents or teachers in special ed. These invitations were paid for by the hard earned fundraising dollars that our Board raised, our family is a major donor for SEAC. Tim can attest to the fact that we have been fair and objective. SEAC does not endorse candidates to be fair. I hope you will take some time to get to know me individually. I desire to represent all constituents.

I have been endorsed by (partial list);
County Supervisors Judy Mikels and Linda Parks

All of the MUSD, Trustees Mindy Yaras, David Pollock, Greg Barker, Bruce Thomas and Ron LaGuardia

SVUSD, Trustees, Collins, Sandland and Difatta
I have not been endorsed by any unions yet.

Donna: I'm sure with endorsements like that you will be endorsed by the union. You certainly can't win without the union endorsement so things look good for you. Congrats. I wish you well. There's no reason to believe that the union's total control of the District is going to change.

Chris,

The County School Board does not vote on labor negotiations in case you wondered. Dr. Weiss does all labor negotiations. County teachers are part of the American Federation of Teachers Union. I have not had any union leaders ask me to make promises or impose ideas upon me. They have all wanted to know my qualifications and I gave them my resume and a list of community service. I made it expressly clear that I was gong to campaign hard for this position regardless of a union endorsement. I also shared my platform and postion on issues that I brought up not them. I have not been formerly interviewed. For all I know they could end up endorsing my opponent.

CHAMILTON: Is it possilble that teachers care about this board for reasons beyond money?

You can't vote for or against someone because of one endoresment. She has reached out to Dantona and Mikels. She ahs reached out to many people.

I would like to know if the incumbent knows about this website so we can know if he is ignoring the discussion, or just doesn't know about it.

Can someone let us all know that they e-maled him a link?

As a graduate, I don't like how Ms. Prenta is using LSV to make herself look like a Simi Valley Leader. She hasn't been through the program.

I resent it.

Dear LSV Graduate,

You are absolutely right I am not a graduate of LSV and I never claimed to be. Kim Rubenstein and Jacquie Richardson, Janice Difatta, Sue Martinez are graduates and they are hosting the party for me to introduce me to other LSV graduates that they thought would like to get to know me better and learn of the leadership roles I have held throughout the community for for eighteen years.

I am sorry if you thought I implied I was a graduate. I would never make a claim like that and I respect those of you that have taken the time and committment to go through the program.

My leadership has been in other capacities which I have outlined before, I can do it again if you want further clarification.

To the alum who posted. I don't know much about the program. How hard is it to get in? How hard is the program? I imagine both question answers are "very" if you are sweating someone for what you think is them looking like they were in it.

If she said Harvard, The Marines, Iron Man, or maybe scuba diving I would see your point.

Chris,
I feel sorry for you that you are such an angry and bitter man. I support Donna because she is the best candidate and I want Simi Valley represented on the County Board by the best person and I want our kids to have access to County programs. To say you oppose anything I support is ignorant on your part. I invite your friend Greg Statton to come on the blog and give his views of "union control". He was endorsed by myself and the teachers union, that means by your own statement you oppose him. Ask him if anyone ever told him he had to do anything. The Association speaks with Board members because by law it is our job to represent our members, Greg gets this, too bad you never will. I would say I will pray for you, but then you would be opposed to prayer I guess, and I don't want to be responsible for that.

Sorry, typo above, meant "Greg Stratton".

Trustee Kunicki has been invited to join the debate. The invitation went via e-mail.

Tim

To my Supporters,

I am asking all my supporters to remain positive and on the issues. I signed the Fair Campaign contract from the County Elections Division that states that I should also inform my supporters to run a fair campaign and stick to the facts.

I believe that my qualifications and my tireless devotion to our children and the community will speak loud and clear on why I am the best candidate and we will prevail in this race.

Thank you for your support, energy and commitment.

Donna

How many days until Dean reaches out to people online. Let us count the days!

One.

Of course, If he is on vacation this counting thing would be really silly.

Who could possibly be on vacation, when they are in a RACE! Who takes a break in a race! I am 24/7 as are my supporters who want the best possible candidate to support them and more importantly help our children!!! They know what is at stake and they are working hard to support me for the sake of the community!!!

To All my Supporters,

I want to thank all of you for coming out to my events Wednesday and Thursday night. This community is so awesome. My supporters (who I refer to as Prenta Partners)are deeply committed to the quality of life and education for our children.

We had around fifty attend each event for a total of over 100 people who all want to work hard for my campaign. Thank you very much to all the donors at these events but more importantly thank you for your support. There is more to a campaign than money I appreciate and place great value for your time and help. Everyone is helping in whatever capacity they can, and we are having fun while we do it.

Wednesday night's event was held at Don and Kim Rubenstein's house and Hosted by Kim & Don, Jacquie Richardson, Rob Collins, Trustee, SVUSD, Debbie Ballinger, Aley Casillas, Wendy among others. Kim and Jacquie did an ouststanding job, the wine tasting and appetizers were great and the silent auction was a huge success!

A big thank you to Brett Mikels who performed music from his new CD "Deep Enough". Brett, I am confident that you will go very far with your amazing talent and great personality and charisma. I appreciate your dedicating the song "Blown Away" to me to show your confidence that I will do just that to my opponent. Thank you County Supervisor Judy Mikels for coming out and supporting my campaign, I appreciate the confidence that you have in my representation.

Thank you also to Bruce Thomas, MUSD, Trustee for coming to show his support. I appreciate that David Pollock, MUSD, Trustee has volunteered to host an event and Bruce Thomas has agreed to co-host and invite community members of Moorpark to give me the opportunity to meet people throughout the community.

For Thursday night's event Thank you To Aileen Archibald for having the party at your house and to Rob Collins and Marcia Schneider for being Hosts (hope you weren't to lonely Rob sitting by the sign in table) A huge thank you to all the great School nurses and aides that helped out. Jean Borowsky, Polly Vlasic, Mary Wrightson, Susan Johnson and Mary Carol Sorrells. Many of you have helped my children throughout the last fourteen years , you all hold a special place in my heart! Laura would not be able to walk or eat independently without all the help she has received from you and other school personnel.

I appreciate the effort you made to introduce me to so many school district employees throughout the entire school district, including principals, teachers, classified, administrators and support services staff.

The best support you can offer is to get the word out and offer your time, I will be calling and giving you details on all the fun events we have planned. It is very important to me that you all have a great time working on the campaign and it is a positive experience for you.

Wow, between the two events we used up 500 peices of stationery, it's time to order more! I noticed you even made up some of your own, you guys are really getting the word out! You guys ROCK!

Another big thank you to all the donors for the silent auction, you guys ROCK! (literally):

The Legendary Dave Mason, Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee- for donating VIP tickets and inviting us to be his personal guests at his next show, along with an autographed CD.

JBL/Harman Consumer Group-Paul Bente, President for donating JBL iPod systems and all the great t-shirts and JBL swag.

Simi Hills Golf Course-For donating a Foursome green fee and Golf Cart.

El Patio-for the gift Certificates.

Brett Mikels-For his autographed CD (Brett you have some new groupies, but Elizabeth regrets to tell you that she already has a boyfriend)

Prenta Partners for making up the great baskets and donating all the goodies that made it so much fun.

I am honored and humbled by all of you and I will work very hard as your representative on the Ventura County Board of Education! Together we will make a difference in our children's quality of life and education. It is time to carry the torch together!

Donna Prenta
404-0914

Tim,

Even when you are on vaction you can check your e-mails remotely. My opponent can stop in a Starbucks with his laptop, use a blackberry, most hotels have hookups, geez.

Donna

Day 2 of waiting for The Incumbent to admit he recieved Mr. Keaney's e-mail.

Why would a candidate for office run away from an open dialogue about their job?

Donna,

I'm not sure what you're getting at with your last comment? Which "tim" is that directed to?

Tim

Sorry Tim Keaney,

It should have been directed to "Dean Watch" who said:

"How many days until Dean reaches out to people online. Let us count the days!
One.
Of course, If he is on vacation this counting thing would be really silly.

Posted by: Dean Watch at August 24, 2006 01:24 PM"

I am responding to the fact that someone is running for office and could be on vacation!

I lost count of the days. Tim did he respond, or do you know if he got your e-mail?

Mr. Keaney, can you send the e-mail again? I think it might of gotten lost.

Anyone who wants to contact Dean to tell him there is a campaign going on, or to come to the blog to debate can click on the link below, and then click on his name, and send him an e-mail.

Though I think his e-mail address tells you a little more about where he's spending his time nowadays.

My opponent has not reached out to the public to let them know about services available to our community. His ignoring multiple requests to speak out is consistent with his representation over the last two years.

Only within the last couple weeks has he been visible using a program made by Dr. Weis and presented by a staff member to make the community aware of County programs.

Dean,
I've heard that your major contribution to the VCBOE is helping them to build a new conference building? Is that so Dean? Can you explain to us why this is necessary for the County and how our children, teachers, school district's and community will benefit from it? What other contributions and strengths do you bring to the VCBOE?

I have been answering all of the questions that have been thrown my way. How about you answering my questions?

Dean,

It is important to understand programs in order to make intelligent and prudent financial decisions. If you know about programs and the children that they serve and have met with those that run the programs them you will have a better grasp on how to budget with limited resources. You do not need to know everything but you do need to know who to reach out to, to help you make intelligent and informed decisions or do you rely on staff reports?

Why are our students taking a van to Thousand Oaks shopping mall for fashion merchandising vocational program that you govern? Have you reached out to our new mall to develop programs to give students local opportunities? Why do students in East County have less opportunities to participate in workability? Do you know what workability is? Do you know about collaboration with DR to deliver TPP? Do you know what I am talking about?

Why are all the closest vocational programs in Camarillo? Have you been meeting with businesses to develop internships and help our economic security? Are you concerned with the migration of our workforce seeking employment and affordable housing elsewhere? If so are you working with developers to provide affordable housing to give our local young adults opportunities?

I have taken time off from my profession to dedicate myself 100% professionally to the VCBOE in order to represent the constituents! I am fortunate to not need to work and my family has comprehensive medical benefits already. I am not running for this office for health benefits. I guarantee I will always be availble and easy to reach. I have had parents call me at 2:00 AM in the morning, asking me to meet them in a psychiatric hospitals or prison when I was on the Mental Health Board parents still call me and I am happy to guide them. If they are within Ventura County I assist them pro bono.

Parents know I will understand, be patient and non-judgemental and help them through their crises with their children. The very children that County school's educate and represent.

Dean,

Do you have experience working with traumitized and abused children or children with mental health issues? These are the children you represent that attend Casa Pacifica and the Phoenix schools. What do you know about children with special needs and disabilities, are you aware of best practices in their education? Do you know what IDEA, LRE, FAPE, PBIP, FAA, ATAC are if you don't you better start doing your homework. These are all within your responsibilites to understand. Do you know who to contact to help you understand everything I am discussing?

What have you done to bring a Gateway School to Simi VAaley or has it been the local school board that has pushed for it?

Do you take under consideration when you consult with developers to build housing in Moorpark and Simi Valley if it will burden our schools? When you are working with developers? Do you meet with school officials to collaborate on how the project will affect our schools and traffic congestion?

I am not against development I am just curious about your track record? These are all legitimate questions. Please let us know your answers.

Have you visited the prisons, or helped desperate families in the court system and advocated for the most vulnerable children in our community? What do you know about Casa Pacifica, and the Phoenix schools more importantly how to help children that attend the schools?

Do you understand the crucial inter-agency relationships with County School's? Have you met with VCBH, Probation, PD, DA, TCRC, CCS, Action, Impact, United Parents, NAMI, SEAC, SELPA, ITCC, CAC do you know what these acronyms means? I have for the last twelve years, how long have you? Can you tell us? We have inter-agency agreements with all these public agencies have you read them, are you aware that they exist?

I participated in drafting these agreements over the last twelve years. I am happy to inform everyone of my accomplishments but first I would like Dean to let us know his answers.

I know all the answers to the above questions I have been spending a lot of time informing the public of County Programs on this blog. I was a bit concerned that Dean would parrot what I was saying and use my platform. It occurred to me that what I have shared does not even scratch the surface.

I apologize that I may be overwhelming the public with too much information to absorb. I usually explain programs more simply. The public does not need to understand the intricacies of these programs but Dean does. Does he? The public only needs to understand that those that govern do and be able to put their trust in them.

Dean,

Please answer all of my questions, I have answered everyone else's questions. I took care of the other questions for you already. Now it is your turn to answer a few of mine, believe me this is second nature to me, it is my entire life and what I am committed to.

My husband Tim is committed to the same mission as I am. Tim supports me to follow our mission and purpose in life. We believe that this is our calling. We believe that we have been blessed with children with special needs so that we could learn and help other children. We believe that our daughter with special needs is an ambassador for the community.

It is time that District IV to have strong, consistent, passionionate and knowledgable representation with our children's and communities best interest in mind.

I am a child advocate I am sure that comes through loud and clear. It upsets me when people benefit on the backs of our children. I promise I will never take for granted what is at stake and the depth of my responsibilities while I am your representative on the VCBOE.

Dean, I am waiting for your answers.

Donna Prenta

Dean,

BTW, I will know it if your friend the school psychologist for LAUSD answers these questions for you, and so will the public.

No, I have never been told to do anything by the union, but I'm not sure my vote was ever needed.

I believe firmly in keeping comunication lines open - even if we disagree. Some people take disagreement personally - I don't. It's part of the process. Unfortunately, I don't see that belief followed much.

To the point of access, I have to say that Dean Kunicki has been very available to me to discuss issues facing our boards. He just briefed our Board on the status of county board issues, and specifically on Occupational Education. Rob Collins brought those issues to our Board from the County, and Dean has been helpful in coordinating them.

On the other hand, Donna Prenta has never breifed the board on what her group is doing, other than announcing scholarships. I have never seen a committee with as much visibility and input that does not have a more formal relationship to the elected Board. Appearantly this committee is responsible to staff only and thus does not have to follow the Brown Act.

I am always nervous about groups that are involved in government that don't follow the Brown Act. Even if they are not doing anything wrong, openess is important. Yes, it's a little more work, but it's a good thing. The City bends over backwards to apply the Brown Act to almost every group, but the School Distict doesn't. Maybe Villagarosa has the right idea.

Dean has a very lengthy editorial today in the Acorn about the Ventura County Board of Education. Click below and comment.

Tim

Mr Stratton,

The Special Education Advisory Committee does not advise on policy.

Dennis Carter, Director of Student Support Services is on the Board for the Special Education Advisory Committee. He also attends all of your Board meetings, he is our representative. He recently gave a very good presentation to your Board about how we collaborate with the school district.

Trustee Carla Kurachi, Trustee Janice Difatta, Trustee Rob Collins and Trustee Debbie Sandland understand what the Special Education Advisory Committee does, that is why when parents call them about their child with special needs or disabilities because they need another parent to talk to that needs support they refer them to a member of SEAC.

We are more of a support group made up of parents of children with special needs. We understand the struggles and how hard it is to educate our children with special needs. When my daughter was very young a senior member of SEAC helped me learn how to educate my child. Now that I am the senior parent I now reach out and help other parents educate their child with special needs or disabilities.

Supervisor Judy Mikels knows about SEAC and also refers parents to me when they need help for their children that need special education or mental health services. She also knows that sometimes a parent needs another parent to talk to for support. When I was her appointee on the Ventura County mental health board she always sent families to me in crises.

Jacquie Richardson of Safe Harbor,who works for the District Attorney refers parents to me to explain how to access special education or mental health services for children that have been abused or neglected. Jacquie knows that people need support when they are going through a crises.

SEAC explains the process for special education and how to access services when parents contact us.

SEAC makes ourselves extremely visible because that is part of our by-laws, to reach out to the community and make them aware and more accepting of children and adults with special needs. Our mission is to break down barriers and have our children accepted and become productive, happy and healthy citizens that give back to the community.

SEAC is more of a parent to parent group that helps students in special education. We also do training's for parents and teachers.

When parents contact us because they are having difficulty with the school district services we try to offer resolution between the district and the parents. SEAC members have volunteered to attend IEP's to offer resolution. We have helped the school district to save a lot of money on attorney fees that would have been spent on Due Process Hearing's.

SEAC has awarded over $50,000 in teacher grants and sholarship's over the last six years. We send out grant applications to all special education teachers at the beginning of the year. It helps us to know how to support the needs of the teachers in the classroom and to enrich programs.

We also give out peer tutor scholarships for students that volunteer to work with students in special education. We want to promote leadership and give back to the community. Many of these peers are now studying to become teachers, therapists etc. Several of them now work for the school district.

We also give out scholarship's for students in special educaiton who rarely qualify fr scholarships.

I hope this clears up your concerns.

Mr. Stratton,

Thank you for your compliment:

"I have never seen a committee with as much visibility" Greg

Apparently we are accomplishing our mission.

It's nice that Dean talks to you. Where's he been the last two years?

Greg,
I'm really surprised to see you attacking such a fine group as SEAC. They do incredible work for our special education students. In terms of Mr. Kunicki briefing the Board he actually just showed a video that Chuck Weis ceated a year ago. I also noticed you were not at that meeting, maybe you saw it on t.v. as I did. He was then asked some questions about the Vista Real Charter School. He said that he only voted for it because they could have come into Ventura County with no oversight had they chosen to. But let me ask you Greg, does it make sense to you that Vista Real would pay Tony Strickland $20,000 to lobby Ventura County Board members like Dean Kunicki, if they already had the right to come into the County? Because they are a for profit school that has promisd investors 10% returns the first year, why give away $20,000 for something you already had the right to do? Also, why would Vista Real give Strickland a $7,000 donation to his campaign account and then why would Strickland then give Chris Valenzano his former aide a $7,000 donation from his campaign account? (source The Star)Remember, the SVUSD sent a rep to that Board meeting to say Simi did not want the Charter School, why would Dean vote for it over the objections of Simi? I don't recall Dean ever coming to a Board meeting to speak about it and I believe this is the first Board meeting he has attended since being appointed to the County Board. Why did he wait over a year?

Greg,
I'm really surprised to see you attacking such a fine group as SEAC. They do incredible work for our special education students. In terms of Mr. Kunicki briefing the Board he actually just showed a video that Chuck Weis ceated a year ago. I also noticed you were not at that meeting, maybe you saw it on t.v. as I did. He was then asked some questions about the Vista Real Charter School. He said that he only voted for it because they could have come into Ventura County with no oversight had they chosen to. But let me ask you Greg, does it make sense to you that Vista Real would pay Tony Strickland $20,000 to lobby Ventura County Board members like Dean Kunicki, if they already had the right to come into the County? Because they are a for profit school that has promisd investors 10% returns the first year, why give away $20,000 for something you already had the right to do? Also, why would Vista Real give Strickland a $7,000 donation to his campaign account and then why would Strickland then give Chris Valenzano his former aide a $7,000 donation from his campaign account? (source The Star)Remember, the SVUSD sent a rep to that Board meeting to say Simi did not want the Charter School, why would Dean vote for it over the objections of Simi? I don't recall Dean ever coming to a Board meeting to speak about it and I believe this is the first Board meeting he has attended since being appointed to the County Board. Why did he wait over a year?

It's a little too late and a lot too cynical coming out in support of "openess" after building a political career on closed door meetings and backroom politics, isn't it Mr Stratton? If you really did advocate "openess" you should have demanded that Kunicki and the other County School Board members fessed up about WHY they voted for Vista Real charter school and about WHO the real backers of that school are (though I suspect its the same east coast money men that are involved in other controversial projects around here), especially after so much money changed hands just before that vote. But you didn't. Those crocodile tears you're shedding now, Mr Stratton, are a joke, and your support of Dean Kunicki, is laughable.

When you're ready to start discussing the charter school vote and the people behind it, then we'll listen. Until then you have no credibility.

I wanted to thank Dean for making his presentation to the Moorpark Unified School District.

What took you so long to reach out to Moorpark? That is what the MUSD Board Members wanted to know also.

Two days after Dean made his presentation I received three donations from MUSD Board Trustees and an offer to host a fundraiser.

I have been meeting with the MUSD Board members over the last several months to find out how to best represent their district. I contacted some members as far back as January to duscuss the possibility of representing them.

I have been endorsed by the entire MUSD Board, Trustee Mindy Yaras, Trustee David Pollock, Trustee Bruce Thomas, Trustee Greg Barker and Trustee Ron LaGuardia.

Every year we invite Greg to attend our scholarship reception's and teacher grant awards and he has never come or even acknowledged the very hard work that we do.

SEAC is made up of parent's of special needs children and we still find time to give back to the community. When I spoke at the VCBOE, in January Dean did not even know who SEAC was (despite our high visibility Greg refers to) he made no attempt to learn either.

SEAC has had dozen's of article's in the Star over the year's including this past year. You would think that a man that has a big responsibility governing the student's that we support would take an interest in our group enough to read the newspaper article's.

SEAC had 100 volunteers come out during the Holiday's, I organized the event, bought the gifts, party supplies etc. We had many school teachers and aides volunteer, two church groups, two scout groups, Rotary of Simi Sunrise members, The Amanda McPherson's Foundation members. We visited eight group homes and brought presents and gave children with disabilities parties. We have had volunteers continue to go back monthly.

My family has been going to the group homes for more than a decade I always felt sad that more people never visited.

It had been my dream for a very long time to raise awareness about the homes and the extremely isolated children. SEAC brought the community together.

My family has donated many thousands of dollars to SEAC, including family members in Illinois. This year our extended family decided rather than exchange gifts we would donate to SEAC. We have been given awards by Senator McClintock, Congressman Gallegly, Assemblyman Richman, Assemblyman Tony and Audra Strickland, Supervisor Mikels recognizing our family and our extraordinary commitment and charitable donations to the children in our community.

You GO, Girl!

Mr. Stratton,

DR. Scroggin has talked to school district legal counsel regarding your concerns. You can read her response below.

I appreciate that you are looking out for the best interest of SEAC and the children in our community.

Donna Prenta
SEAC, SVUSD President

Donna - FYI - Kathy's response to my e-mail
Rob Collins

-----------------
Forwarded Message:
Subj: Re: Opinion on SEAC Greg Stratton
Date: 9/1/2006 3:46:38 P.M. Pacific Standard Time
From: kscroggin@simi.k12.ca.us
To: ROBDISIMI@aol.com
Sent from the Internet (Details)

Rob,

No, they do not. They are not appointed by the Board and do not advise the Board. Therefore, they do not fall under the Brown Act. I verified this with Bob Thurbon this afternoon.

Kathy

P.S. Have a great Labor Day weekend!
----- Original Message -----
From: ROBDISIMI@aol.com
To: kscroggin@simi.k12.ca.us
Sent: Friday, September 01, 2006 2:51 PM
Subject: Fwd: Opinion on SEAC Greg Stratton

Kathy
Does SEAC fall under the Brown Act Requirements?

Rob Collins

Hi all,

I have asked Dr. Scroggin to consult with SVUSD legal counsel on this matter. If SEAC is a committee that must follow Brown Act requirements, than we will be advised of that and can start to comply immediately.

Michelle




In a message dated 9/1/2006 1:12:47 P.M. Pacific Standard Time, TPrenta writes:
Dear SEAC Board members,

Trustee Greg Stratton has raised some concerns regarding us violating the Brown Act. I would like to have some discussion from members regarding this issue.

Donna Prenta

Written by Greg Stratton on a Ventura county Star Blog:

On the other hand, Donna Prenta has never breifed the board on what her group is doing, other than announcing scholarships. I have never seen a committee with as much visibility and input that does not have a more formal relationship to the elected Board. Appearantly this committee is responsible to staff only and thus does not have to follow the Brown Act.

I am always nervous about groups that are involved in government that don't follow the Brown Act. Even if they are not doing anything wrong, openess is important. Yes, it's a little more work, but it's a good thing. The City bends over backwards to apply the Brown Act to almost every group, but the School Distict doesn't. Maybe Villagarosa has the right idea.