PORT HUENEME : Science Room Design Heads for Bulgaria

High-tech classrooms meant to make studying science more fun will be built in Bulgaria under an agreement approved by the Hueneme School District.

The district, which straddles the cities of Port Hueneme and Oxnard, has designed and built two of the high-tech classrooms at Blackstock and O. E. Green junior high schools in Oxnard.

Used by the district’s 1,720 junior high students, the classrooms contain equipment such as satellite dishes for watching educational television programs from around the world, built-in computers for researching science subjects and robotic arms for demonstrating tasks such as assembling electronic equipment. They were built with about $200,000 in state funds, including lottery money.

The district, which is trying to patent the classroom design, has agreed to let the Bulgarian Academy of Science of Sofia, which is a junior high school, market and distribute the high-tech classroom in Bulgaria. The district has an exchange program with the Bulgarian academy that began in the fall.

“We first want to help them get an edge on education, and it’s a way to bring hard currency into the district,” said Don Cody, an administrator for the district.

If the Bulgarian school makes money from selling the design, then the Hueneme district would share in the profits, Cody said. Details of sharing the profits will be worked out later, he said.

Supt. Ronald Rescigno added that the district is trying to set up a similar arrangement with other governments.