A Walk on the Wild Side : High School Officials Want Poli Street Closed Through Campus

Saying that heavily traveled Poli Street presents a “daily possibility of death on campus,” Ventura High School Principal Robert Cousar is pushing to have a section of the street that cuts between school buildings closed to traffic during the day.

Cousar said he has seen near-collisions and gang signals flashed from cars that pass through the campus along Poli between Seaward Avenue and Catalina Street. Squealing tires and screeching brakes are a daily background noise in classrooms with windows facing the street, he said.

Most Ventura High students must cross Poli at least once during the day to get to classes on the other side of campus.

“I would give drivers probably an ‘A’ because we haven’t had an accident,” Cousar said. “But, unfortunately, I think we’re just waiting for something to happen.”

Cousar, joined by parents and teachers, said the quarter-mile length of Poli that divides the campus should be closed, at the least during school hours. He said he would prefer to see the street closed permanently and the land given to the school district for expansion of the campus.

“In total, it’s a bad situation,” Cousar said.

A committee of Ventura High teachers, administrators and parents--formed in the spring to review campus conditions for the Western Assn. of Schools and Colleges--recommended closing the street for safety reasons.

Cousar and teacher David Meyer told Ventura Unified School District board members Tuesday that committee members have met with Ventura city officials about the issue and plan to meet again to talk about closing the street.

Board members said they would back school officials in their efforts.

The issue of closing Poli Street on the campus has come up before.

The street was closed on a trial basis in the early 1970s, but was later reopened because of the impact on neighborhood traffic flow, district officials said. Traffic lights have also been installed in the middle of the block, but students did not obey the signals, city and school officials said.

School board member Vincent Ruiz said past school boards had also discussed putting a tunnel under the street, but dismissed the idea because of complaints that students might loiter there.

Ventura City Manager John Baker said he last met with school officials about the problem more than a year ago. He said any proposal to change the traffic flow would require detailed city reports because Poli is one of the city’s major east-west thoroughfares. Any change would affect traffic flow on surrounding streets.

“We would wait to see what it is they’re proposing,” Baker said.

Some students said that crossing the street is a hazard, but that they have grown used to it.

During lunch breaks and before and after school, large groups of students often cross Poli, sometimes causing traffic to back up.

“If you use the crosswalks, it’s not too terribly dangerous,” said ninth-grader Amber Brown, 14. “But sometimes in the morning, the sun shines in the drivers’ eyes and they can’t see us. Then it can be dangerous.”

Although there are two crosswalks along the quarter-mile length of Poli crossing the campus, students often cross on unmarked portions.

Senior Chrissy McKendry, 17, said many students take shortcuts to avoid being late for class.

“If you have a class here,” McKendry said, pointing toward Catalina Street, “you aren’t going to walk all the way down to the crosswalk.”

Students said Ventura High students with cars, as well as students from other schools, cruise through at lunchtime. Some students said they fear drive-by shootings or other gang activity on the street.

“I don’t go out there,” McKendry said. “I stay right here by this tree.”

School board member Barbara Myers suggested that the committee look at conditions at other schools divided by city streets. In Santa Paula, the high school is divided by 5th Street, but the street was temporarily closed to traffic this year. Five portable classroom buildings have been placed on the street while classrooms elsewhere are renovated.

At Whittier High, students have access to an underground tunnel to cross to the other side of campus, an official said.

Ruiz said part of the problem is that when Ventura High was built in the 1920s, Ventura was a much smaller city and Poli Street was the city limits.

Despite failed efforts to solve the problem, Ruiz said he was hopeful that a permanent solution could be found.

“We have pretty good cooperation with the city,” Ruiz said. “We should be able to come up with some kind of solution.”