Activist Unseats Incumbent in Moorpark School Board Race : Ventura County: The future of an old, closed high school plays a pivotal role in a close election.

Preschool director and community activist Pamela Castro emerged a victor after a close race in Tuesday’s Moorpark Unified School District election, edging out Lynda Kira, one of the incumbents Castro tried to recall last year.

Moorpark Parks and Recreation Commissioner Sam Nainoa also captured one of two openings on the five-member school board, garnering the most votes among six candidates.

“I congratulate the winners and hope they all work together for the education of kids,” Kira said Wednesday.

In other Ventura County elections, incumbents on the Oak Park and Ventura County boards of education also were defeated. The elections drew about 18% of the county’s 253,497 eligible voters.

Castro, a 1970 graduate of Moorpark’s former Memorial High School, grounded her campaign on a crusade to save her alma mater, benefiting from her ties to the city’s downtown section--the old high school’s location and Castro’s own neighborhood.

The future of the old high school, which was closed last year in favor of a new, larger facility, has been the center of a bitter dispute between the school district and city. The growing school district wants to lease the majority of the Casey Road property to a private developer and use the money to build new schools. But the city wants to turn the most desirable portion of the 26-acre site into a public park that would mainly serve downtown residents.

Concern over the old high school prompted Castro and others to launch a recall movement against four school board members last year--including two members, Tom Baldwin and Patty Waters, whom Castro now will have to work with. In turn, Castro used the recall effort as a springboard for her own successful candidacy. With 744 votes, or 22%, she topped Kira’s 683 by less than two percentage points.

Nainoa, who said he will resign from the city’s parks and recreation board at its regular meeting Monday, captured about 24% of the vote with 819 ballots.

Nainoa, a 45-year-old engineering manager at a GTE Corp. subsidiary, said his top priority would be smoothing relations between the school district and the city, which have been involved in two lawsuits since August.

Castro could not be reached for comment, but she has favored retaining the old high school property as either a school or the district’s central office, and allowing residents to continue using its ball fields and basketball courts as they do now.

Election returns show Castro did best in downtown polling districts where voters would be most affected by the old high school’s redevelopment. In addition to their desires for a park, downtown residents have expressed concern about the traffic that could be created if the old high school is redeveloped, according to plans, for 352 apartments and a business park.

How those plans might be affected by Castro’s and Nainoa’s presence on the school board was unclear Wednesday. Both winners have strong ties to the City Council, which sued the school district over the old high school and opposes dense development of the site.

The other losing candidates were construction manager John Roberts, with 483 votes; college professor Thomas Bryan, 316 votes; and finance executive James Stueck, 314 votes.

In a special election for the Thousand Oaks City Council, attorney Bob Lewis trounced seven other candidates for the unexpired term of Lee Laxdal. Laxdal, who appointed Lewis to the Thousand Oaks Planning Commission and worked with him on the city’s slow-growth ordinance, moved to Australia last summer. Lewis is expected to resign from the commission to complete Laxdal’s term, which ends in 1992.

Lewis received 4,173 votes, followed by K. Reed Harrison, 2,946; Elois Zeanah, 2,168; Phyllis Ellis, 599; Gregory Spencer, 365; Jim Donovan, 227; Grant Peterson, 210; and Norm “Blackie” Jackson, 129.

In the Conejo Valley Unified School District race, incumbents Mildred Lynch, William Henry Jr. and Dorothy Beaubien recaptured their seats. Newcomer Richard “Dick” Newman--a Conejo Valley parks commissioner, school volunteer and retired police lieutenant--not only won a fourth opening on the school board but was the election’s top vote-getter.

None of the Conejo Valley’s board members have school-age children, an issue raised during the campaign by candidate Jeanie Mortensen Savage, a mother of three.

Newman received 4,843 votes, followed by Lynch with 4,655; Henry, with 4,059; Savage, 3,909; Martha deBurgh, 3,852; Charles Rittenburg, 3,164; Michael Sean Markey, 2,194; Ken Penchos, 816; Vance “Skip” Rodgers, 692; and N. Chuck Castaing, 685.

In the Oak Park Unified School District race, Patricia Kavulic was the only incumbent to win reelection. Incumbents Richard Daley and David Ross were defeated by newcomers Wayne Blasman and Robert Kahn in a close race for three openings on the five-member board.

Blasman received 516 votes; Kahn, 494; Kavulic, 453; Ross, 436; Daley, 283; and Sharon Catcott, 277.

And in countywide Ventura races, the son of Supervisor John Flynn was narrowly defeated by engineer Pete Tafoya for a seat on the Ventura County Community College District board. Tafoya received 2,572 ballots, or about 53% of the vote, while Timothy B. Flynn, an account executive, received 2,298 ballots, about 47% of the vote. Tafoya will represent Oxnard and Port Hueneme on the five-member board.

In another community college board race for the seat representing Thousand Oaks, dentist Gregory Cole of Newbury Park defeated Thousand Oaks attorney Joel Bryan with 61% of the vote. Cole received 6,889 ballots and Bryan 4,342.

In the Ventura County Board of Education race, incumbent Fauvette Bean Rollyson was challenged for the first time in 15 years and defeated by opponent Al Rosen. Rosen received 3,092 votes, while Rollyson got 2,829. He will represent the district encompassing Simi Valley, Moorpark, Fillmore and Piru on the five-member board.

VENTURA RESULTS: J8