Hundreds Say Last Goodbys to Ramona School : Oxnard: Former students, teachers and staff turn out to mark the closing of the 51-year-old building.

Robert J. Hinostro of Oxnard was there at the beginning, and he was there at the end.

Hinostro, 76, was the custodian at Ramona School when it officially opened in 1940, and he attended the Oxnard Elementary School District’s festival Saturday to mark the closing of the La Colonia school.

“It’s like losing an old friend, “ Hinostro said.

He worked as custodian at the school until 1943, when he went to work at the Oxnard Police Department where he rose to the rank of captain. He later taught adult education classes at Ramona, he said.

About 300 people attended the festival that featured food, door prizes, entertainment and speeches by school board members and other officials, including County Supervisor John K. Flynn. District Supt. Norman R. Brekke, who was principal of Ramona from 1966 to 1968, acted as master of ceremonies.

The 51-year-old school is being closed a year earlier than originally planned because of district budget problems. But its replacement, Ritchen School, is not scheduled to open until August, 1992. Ramona’s 674 students will be transferred to other schools until Ritchen is completed.

Saturday was a day for memories. Organizers assembled a wall of students’ school photos from 1945 to the present so former students could pick out themselves and their old friends.

Oxnard resident Leo Ysais, 60, spent second and third grades at Ramona in the early 1940s. “It brings back a lot of memories. I’ve seen three of the people that sat in the same classroom right here,” he said, pointing to Room 6.

“I know they have to make some changes, but I kind of hate to let go of something that’s been here my whole life.”

Jerry Serros, a longshoreman from Oxnard, was at Ramona when he first heard about the attack on Pearl Harbor that drew the United States into World War II.

“They brought us--all the little kids--under the flag over there and told us what happened,” he said.

Louise Chaparro of Oxnard, who was a student at Ramona in the 1950s, still lives in La Colonia and is a community liaison for the Oxnard Elementary School District. She helped organize the festival.

“It’s so sad,” she said. “But, we really don’t have a choice. The termites have taken over the school. It’s time to move on.”

At about 2 p.m., trustees Jack T. Fowler, Mary L. Barreto, Jean M. Harris and James J. Sutter, along with Brekke and others, took down the Ramona School sign--officially closing the school.

Dennis Johnson, who has been the principal at Ramona for five years, said he will move on to become principal at Rose Avenue School.

“On one hand, it’s very sad,” he said. “But at the same time, the children who are attending school here today will have an opportunity in the future to attend a state-of-the-art school with computer labs and sophisticated educational equipment that we are unable to offer here at this time.”

Hinostro remembers when Ramona was a state-of-the-art school. In 1940, he was there for the opening ceremony of the school that was built on a former vegetable field.

“We had the parents all come over,” he said, “and we took them through the rooms.”

Roger Lanove, a teacher at Ramona for almost 20 years, said the festival brought back some great memories.

“You hate to see it come to an end. But, the great memories are not a building, not a blacktop, or a playground,” Lanove said. “They’ll always exist in your mind.”