Putting Their Past to the Test

EL RIO —  Ernie Almanza remembers when things were different.

When he attended grade school in the 1940s, El Rio had but one school. The few students who used foul language had their mouths washed out with soap. And, to the best of Almanza’s recollection, none of the teachers looked like him.

“When I was a little guy, there were no role models for me,” said Almanza, now 63 and president of the Rio school board. “I couldn’t say to myself, there’s Mr. Garcia, he’s a teacher. . . . My father was a farm worker. His friends were farm workers. I thought that was all I could be. I thought that was the only way to fly.”

These days, schoolchildren in this tight-knit, working-class community north of Oxnard have a few more role models to pick from: Latino teachers and principals, as well as a Latina superintendent.

And, as of this month, all five Rio school trustees--a tax accountant, retired construction foreman, lawyer, community affairs representative for Southern California Edison and an accounting clerk--are Latino.

Without fuss, but with a hearty helping of community pride, the Rio School District Board of Trustees has become what is believed to be Ventura County’s first all-Latino governing board.

But that’s not what gives Almanza, who became the district’s first Latino trustee 33 years ago, and his colleagues the most pride. They’d rather brag about the fact that all of them--Almanza, Simon Ayala, Ron Mosqueda, George Perez and Anthony M. Ramos--graduated from the school district they now represent.

“I’m not happy that we’re all Latinos, necessarily,” said Ayala, 40, a tax accountant. “I’m happy we’re all from the same area. We know this community. We know what it’s about. We were born here, raised here. We want what’s best for our community. And we want our schools to be the best they can be for the children.”

Mosqueda, 43, an accounting clerk at a Camarillo corporation who was sworn in earlier this month, agreed. “When you grow up here, your actions come from the heart,” he said. “You work harder; you try to dedicate yourself more.”

By most accounts, things are going well for the 3,000-student district. Under the direction of Supt. Yolanda M. Benitez, traditionally low student test scores are improving and community pride is swelling.

Residents in 1997 approved a $20-million school bond to build a new school, add portable classrooms for class-size reduction and modernize the district’s five campuses. And their decades-long dream of building a community gym will become a reality, thanks to recently secured state funding.

The Rio trustees have a handful of challenges to tackle as well:

Rapid growth in the Oxnard Plain has left schools bulging to capacity. About a third of the area’s students are not fluent in English. Teacher salaries are not competitive with those of larger school districts nearby. A recent study found that many of the district’s students are exposed to potentially dangerous levels of the pesticide methyl bromide.

Trustees say these long-standing issues defy simple answers, but they are working toward resolving them.

To ease crowding, district officials have purchased land for two schools to be built in coming years, pending state approval of plans. While waiting for further direction from the state about Proposition 227, school administrators notified parents that they could move their children back into bilingual classes. Trustees are also working on increasing teacher salaries.

Having grown up with many of the same issues, Rio trustees are well-equipped to handle them now, said Edward Vega, vice president of Rio Lindo Elementary School’s Parent-Teacher Assn.

“It’s unique that they’re all products of the Rio School District,” said Vega, a father of two. “The school board members are people you can talk to: You see them at ballgames, at the grocery, on the street. If you ask them what’s going on, they really tell you. I don’t think you get that anywhere else. They make you feel at ease, and they don’t look down on you if you ask a stupid question.”

The lives of the men who now oversee the five-campus Rio School District seem to reflect the community itself.

A strip of tidy bungalows, churches and agricultural fields, the unincorporated area of El Rio is scrappily independent. The community of 12,000 is about 80% Latino, as is the elementary school district.

With no City Council to assist them, El Rio residents largely do for themselves, despite the limited financial resources of those who labor in the fields. School sites double as parks, and family recreation largely revolves around the community’s renowned Little League and Bobby Sox ball teams.

Most of the trustees said they experienced bouts of poverty as children but didn’t realize it, because their extended families pulled together in tough times.

Now, the trustees are involved in the community groups that form El Rio’s core: baseball and softball leagues, Jaycees and Lions Club, parks commission, United Way and youth football. The trustees’ tradition of community service originated with their parents and siblings. Several got their first taste of politics as class presidents or officers in elementary and junior high school.

After getting a law degree at Loyola University, trustee Ramos stayed in Los Angeles long enough to realize that the anonymity of the big city chilled him. The youngest trustee, at 31, Ramos returned to El Rio, where neighbors know each other and family members live a short walk away.

“Now that I look back on why I got involved in politics, it’s because I have a lot of pride in El Rio,” said Ramos, who works at an Oxnard law firm. “At the risk of sounding Pollyannaish, I wanted to give back to the community. . . . I also got involved because I had heard things about El Rio that I didn’t like: ‘Don’t expect too much from El Rio kids.’ I thought, ‘Wait a minute, that can’t be.’ ”

Now Ramos, the youngest child of six, visits schools not only to attend holiday concerts but also to tell students about the wide range of jobs available to Rio graduates. He believes they are being encouraged to achieve more.

Such dedication is heaven-sent, said Maria del Refugio Villalpando, principal of Rio Real Elementary School, which draws many students from the largely poor, migrant Nyeland Acres area.

“I’ve had teachers at other school districts say to me that El Rio is the place to be, and will we have any openings next year . . . ?” she said. “Teachers at my school come up and say, ‘Gosh, it’s wonderful that our school board members are products of the local schools and they represent the clientele we have here.’ I’ve also had non-English-speaking parents come to me and say, ‘Here we can talk to [the trustees] and they understand us. We’re invited to board meetings, and we know they’re listening to us.’ ”

Despite the trustees’ obvious devotion to the schools, their status as the county’s first all-Latino board has made at least a few teachers nervous, according to a union official.

Latinos make up about a third of the district’s teaching ranks. In contrast, the student body is about 80% Latino. A third of students are involved in bilingual classes, and another third have graduated and are now fluent in English after receiving a bilingual education.

“El Rio is clearly not a place where racism is rampant, but there are some unfair things going on,” said Rio Teachers Assn. President Rebecca Mendoza-Barbetti. “It seems that being bilingual is more important here than having [a state-issued teaching] credential.”

Trustee Ayala acknowledges that a shortage of qualified bilingual teachers leaves his district with little choice but to hire some who have not yet received credentials. However, he added, the student body requires bilingual teachers, and those without credentials are given a strict timeline for gaining them.

“We have to think about what’s best for the children,” Ayala said. “These teachers are proving very qualified, both in and out of the classroom.”

The trustees add that, having experienced discrimination themselves, they are more sensitive to such matters. If they make a misstep, chances are they’ll hear about it on the ball fields and from their brothers’ and sisters’ children in the schools.

“Kids are not a racial thing,” said Perez, 35, a father of four who works as a community affairs representative for Edison’s Redondo Generating Station.

“A Latino kid, an Anglo kid, a child of color--education comes first for all of them. We’re working for all the kids. As far as I’m concerned, when I vote, it’s with the entire school district in mind--not any particular ethnicity.”

Francisco J. Dominguez, executive director of the Latino advocacy group El Concilio del Condado de Ventura, said any apprehension about the board amounts to fear of the unknown.

Although all-Latino governing boards were previously unheard of in Ventura County, they are becoming more common across the state as Latinos grow as a percentage of the population and the electorate.

“I think people are reading too much into this,” said Dominguez, who is a school trustee in the nearby Oxnard Elementary School District.

“You have five individuals making decisions based on their own personal experiences. They are very different agewise, they have different experiences and different opinions based on their individual backgrounds.

“What they share in common is that they’re all Latino. That might help them deal more sensitively with issues that affect Latinos,” Dominguez said. “You’re not going to see a common agenda. Even among Latino families, there are disagreements.”