State to wait until 2008 to hear issue on unification
Consultant says she was not paid for report submitted to Sacramento
By Michelle Knight knight@theacorn.com

A state board hearing on whether county voters can bring all Camarillo and Somis students under one school district won't take place this year, an official said last week.

Because the California Board of Education received documents too late for its November meeting, the matter will not appear on the review body's agenda any sooner than January.

It had been expected that the board of education, which meets every other month, would hear two appeals on a county committee's decision to allow voters to decide whether Pleasant Valley School District should add high school students to its kindergarten-through-eighth-grade district.

The Ventura County Committee on School District Organization decided in December to send the matter to voters. The Oxnard Union High School District and a group of 11 Camarillo residents filed separate appeals following the decision.

Larry Shirey, spokesman for the department of education, said the board had expected to hear the issue in July. But Pleasant Valley asked that it be delayed, because it had lost its superintendent and wanted additional time to submit more information.

The department of education could hear the appeals in January. Shirey said although the review board intends to hear both appeals at the same time, wishing to prevent involved parties from making multiple trips to Sacramento, he could not guarantee it.

He added that his department would not allow the matter to be delayed indefinitely but would make a recommendation on the information it has at some point. Shirey did not say at what point that would occur.

Although the State Board of Education is the body that will ultimately decide the appeals, the department of education reviews the information first and gives its recommendation to that body.

One of the late documents submitted to the review board came from Jacqueline Brownlee, a retired Sacramento department of education consultant. Brownlee wrote an analysis in support of Pleasant Valley.

When asked if she was paid for the 32-page report, Brownlee distanced herself from the document.

"I did not submit a report," Brownlee said. "I was not paid, and it should have been withdrawn."

She would not comment further.

Shirey confirmed that Brownlee asked to have her report withdrawn but that she was told that it was not possible because it had already been sent out to all parties involved in the appeals.

Pleasant Valley officials have said the district has spent about $300,000 on the unification effort from 2003 to 2006.

Joel Kirschenstein, president of public policy consulting firm Sage Institute, also submitted a report to the board in September supporting unification. Kirschenstein declined to say if he was paid for the report.

Kirschenstein, who is also president of the Sage Realty Group, was hired recently by the Pleasant Valley School District to make recommendations on its surplus property.

When asked if he saw a conflict of interest consulting with the district in two separate areas, Kirschenstein said no. "Those are two specialties of mine. One has nothing to do with the other in regards to a conflict," he said.

Luis Villegas, Pleasant Valley School District superintendent, said the district did not pay Kirschenstein or Brownlee for their reports.

It was unclear whether Pleasant Valley attorney Marguerite Mary Leoni paid for the reports.