Pete Rogalsky

Nobody knows the rules like Pete Rogalsky. Backward and forward, from the obvious to the obscure, every rule in high school and college football is Rogalsky's specialty, has been seemingly since leather helmets were legal. As assistant instructional chairman for the CIF, the 62-year-old veteran referee teaches new officials, tests experienced officials and is the last word on rules interpretation.

Nobody knows the rules like Pete Rogalsky. Backward and forward, from the obvious to the obscure, every rule in high school and college football is Rogalsky's specialty, has been seemingly since leather helmets were legal. As assistant instructional chairman for the CIF, the 62-year-old veteran referee teaches new officials, tests experienced officials and is the last word on rules interpretation.

Allan Jacobs, associate superintendent of the Simi Valley Unified School District, said Tuesday that he will resign, although he doesn't know when. Jacobs, who has worked for the district for 18 years, said he wanted to inform the school board and the district's new superintendent, Robert Purvis, of his intentions well before his departure. "It could be at the end of this year," said Jacobs, 60, "or it could be at the end of next year."

The 17th Ventura County Lions & Coaches All-Star football game was halted late in the third quarter Saturday when a brawl erupted on the playing field at Thousand Oaks High. The East was leading, 21-6, with 2 minutes 40 seconds left in the period when a fight broke out in front of the West bench. Several more fights ensued during the next 10 minutes, and officials called the game when the West team could not be restrained by officials and the four security guards present.

With a new superintendent and two new school board members now in place, officials of the financially beleaguered Simi Valley Unified School District say their primary focus will be to improve relations with teachers. How successful they will be may be determined next month when teacher contract negotiations begin. The negotiations come at a time when Ventura County's largest school district--18,000 students and 26 campuses--is still grappling with the effects of $8 million in budget cuts.

With a new superintendent and two new school board members now in place, officials of the financially beleaguered Simi Valley Unified School District say their primary focus will be to improve relations with teachers. How successful they will be may be determined next month when teacher contract negotiations begin. The negotiations come at a time when Ventura County's largest school district--18,000 students and 26 campuses--is still grappling with the effects of $8 million in budget cuts.

Anyone who says Jim Benkert had his head in the clouds when he devised Westlake High's bizarre double-forward pass play is absolutely correct. He was 30,000 feet up in the air at the time, on a flight to San Francisco. "I had a rule book and decided to read it on the flight," Benkert said. "I saw a rule that interested me, sat back and thought how I could make it work for us."

There were about 200 sheriffs and police officers gathered at Camarillo High last weekend, making Ackerman Stadium either the safest spot in the County or the most unsafe, depending on your perspective. If you happened to be on the football field, it was a dangerous place, indeed. For the past six years, members of the sheriff's department and officers from five County police agencies have played in the Pride Bowl, a tackle football game to benefit a local charity.

Indy cars don't run in reverse and neither should revved-up high school quarterbacks whose engines have been purring for 47 minutes 48 seconds. Sure, Hart's Travis Carroll was supposed to continue backpedaling Friday night, out of the end zone, out of the stadium and all the way to the soda shop for a victory pop, but it was backward thinking by his coaches that handed Thousand Oaks a 36-35 victory. The coaches knew what Carroll was capable of.

Two weeks into the new academic year, Ventura County schools are scrambling to hire more teachers, even out class sizes and find space for unexpected students. Mirroring a statewide trend, enrollments are increasing this year in many of the county's school districts, in some cases faster than school officials anticipated. "We're bulging at the seams," said Supt. Pete Rogalsky of the Rio Elementary School District.

Hundreds of children from some of Ventura County's poorest areas go to class hungry when school districts could feed them through a federally funded breakfast program, community workers and parents say. Students of low-income families in Oxnard, Fillmore, Port Hueneme and Santa Paula need a free morning meal, said Jesus Lopez of the California Rural Legal Assistance office in Salinas. Lopez is scheduled to meet in August with school administrators and nutrition directors to discuss the problem.