Seven qualify for first district-based Ventura Unified election

Seven candidates have qualified to run for three Ventura Unified School District board seats in November, which will be the district’s first election since deciding to move to area-based elections.

The districts for the school election differ from the districts for the Ventura City Council election. The school district is split into five areas.

MORE:Ventura County ahead of state in graduation rate

Area 1 encompasses the west end of Ventura and Saticoy area; Area 2 consists of the coastal, midtown and downtown portions of Ventura; Area 3 is the hillside area and central Ventura; Area 4 consists of the majority of the east end of Ventura; and Area 5 is the Montalvo area and portions of east Ventura.

Area 1, 4 and 5 each has a seat up for election. Velma Lomax is the incumbent in Area 1, and she’s seeking another term. Challenging Lomax will be Tomas Luna and Anthony Krzywicki. In Area 4, incumbent John Walker will not be seeking another term. Jerry Dannenberg, Deborah Meyer-Morris and Madhu Bajaj qualified to run for the open seat.

Area 5 has no incumbent and only one person has qualified to run. Matthew Almaraz was the only person to qualify as of Monday.

Since an incumbent isn’t running, the filing deadline for Area 4 has been extended to Wednesday.

The board voted to move to district-based elections and approved a map last spring. The school district opted to make the change from at-large elections after the city of Ventura made the same move after a letter threatened legal action for alleged California Voting Rights Act violations.

The map the board selected, in a 3-2 vote, pushed out current trustee Mary Haffner. Haffner, who lives in Area 2, isn’t able to seek another term because trustee Sabrena Rodriguez also lives in that area and isn’t up for re-election until 2020.

The school board filing period will end Wednesday. The deadline to register to vote in the Nov. 6 election is Oct. 22. The voter guide for Ventura County elections will be sent out at the end of September and the period to vote by mail begins Oct. 8.

The candidate list can be viewed here.