West Issue / Moving Oxnard High School

Officials are planning to build a new Oxnard High School, moving the school from its present site on 5th and H streets, which is considered too near the airport for safety, to Patterson and Gonzales roads. But residents near the proposed site say the school will attract gangs and crime. Should the school be moved to the new site?

Bedford L. Pinkard, Oxnard Union High School District Board of Trustees

Yes. No. 1, definitely the school should be relocated because of the hazard of the location and the deterioration of the school. And No. 2, the original site that had been planned for was killed by the City Council. It is impossible to find 50 acres of land suitable for a high school site at random on the Oxnard Plain. I live in the area, and I feel it’s a fallacy when people say they don’t want a high school in their neighborhood. I welcome the high school myself, and I really don’t think it’s the high school. It’s bottom-line racism, because the Oxnard High School is typical of the ethnic makeup of the city of Oxnard. It is what the high school is going to bring to the community as far as the students. It bothers me to know that people are wanting to declare war on high school students. I’m a native, and basically I went through this same kind of thing trying to buy a home in Oxnard 35 years ago. I’m seeing the same flyers I saw then. “Do you want a high school in your back yard?” Those same words, negatives, about Negroes moving into Oxnard, I saw 35 years ago.

Christopher J. Kingsley, Resident near the proposed school site

Our biggest fear with the school is not gangs and crime! It is this: The proposed high school site is outside the city limits. It is on agricultural land that the owner does not want to sell. The building of a high school and football stadium at this site and the traffic congestion that it would cause would destroy the rural character of this area. It would open the door to more development in the adjacent agricultural land and the green belt areas. To quote County Supervisor Maria VanderKolk: “The county must act immediately to preserve the dwindling agricultural lands in Ventura County.” Certainly people are worried about crime, but it is not the major issue. We live in a multicultural area. One of the reasons my family moved here from Ventura is so our children could live in a multicultural area. I think things have been misconstrued. I would be just as vehemently opposed to a shopping center. I am reacting to the urbanization of the area. Anything that would bring in cars or businesses outside the city limits I would be opposed to.

Janis L. Johnson, President, Oxnard PTA Council

I don’t think it makes any difference where the site is, as far as being concerned about homeowners. Schools have been built all across the country near homes! We need a new Oxnard High School simply because of the age of the school. I have a concern for the students just because of the number of the students on the campus. They simply need another school. I would rather see the “growth” school built first. I believe it is projected in the Gonzales and Colonia area. We need to remove some of the students from the Channel Island school and the Oxnard High School to relieve overcrowding. As far as the homeowners’ concerns, I feel schools do not attract gangs. That is just something that occurs in an area regardless of where you’re at. There are beach gangs. If you have an active community and a good police department, it is not a problem. Right now I live across from Oxnard High and I haven’t had a problem. If that is their only concern it is immaterial.

James W. Potts, Resident near the proposed school site

As a homeowner in the River Ridge area I strongly oppose the proposed high school site. This issue is clearly political. The state has some money to spend, the school board wants to spend it, and the City Council has seized the moment to endear themselves to local developers by deciding the site. I am not convinced that the present high school facility is unsafe. If it is, then so is the surrounding community. If we do need a new school, however, other sites have been suggested but don’t seem to meet the City Council’s development objectives. The council is trying instead to put the school adjacent to a development that is next to an active landfill that the city may keep active into the next century, and a closed landfill that daily spews unburned methane into the atmosphere. All these things I blame on the City Council. By design, the environmental impact study did not take into account homeowners’ wishes. A high school and its inherent gang, drug and traffic problems should be situated in an area other than River Ridge, which is already hurt by ill-conceived City Council decisions.

Robert A. Brown, Business Manager, Oxnard Union High School District

The issue of relocating the school is critical. We’ve had state agencies, including Caltrans, say we’re currently in an unsafe location. They say they would not allow us t build a school at this location if it were requested today, due to air safety. The school is 1,700 feet from the runway. In addition, it is an old site and a small campus of 33 acres. We couldn’t build a high school of this size on 33 acres today. The state would not allow it. Given these facts, we set out to determine an appropriate location. We had an offer from a developer to donate 50 acres of land, but the City Council ultimately said that location was not acceptable, and they relocated it to the corner of Gonzales and Patterson roads. The wanted it adjacent to the city so they can “bubble out” to provide city services. Our board is not concerned over which one of those two sites to build a school. And, I think it is really an affront to our students to categorize them as gang members or the ones who vandalize neighborhoods. That just doesn’t happen in our neighborhoods.