OXNARD : Expansion Begins School’s Semester

Rose Avenue School, which opened its doors in Oxnard 26 years ago, will start a new semester Tuesday with a new $1.8-million expansion.

The 1,051 Rose Avenue students on learning tracks A, B and D in the year-round Oxnard Elementary School District will find nine new classrooms, an expanded kindergarten facility and a computer lab, a total of an additional 15,500 square feet.

Students on Track C finished their 1990-91 school year last week and will return in September after a one-month vacation.

On Friday, the school’s new principal, Dennis Johnson, said workers were still putting up bulletin boards and doing last-minute painting and carpeting.

Johnson was the former principal of Ramona School, which was recently closed by the district because of severe 1991-92 budget constraints.

Several Ramona School teachers who moved to Rose Avenue School are elated with the new facility, Johnson said.

Former Rose Avenue principal Ernie Morrison will become principal at Harrington School.

“It’s like they died and went to heaven,” Johnson said.

“Coming from a 50-year-old school, this is a tremendous contrast.”

The nine new schoolrooms for grades one through three have new marker boards instead of the old-fashioned blackboard, as well as color-coordinated tile, carpeting and bulletin boards in a soft color scheme.

The computer lab, with a WICAT computer system, will be up and running in several weeks, as will the kindergarten rooms, Johnson said.

For Johnson, who has been with the district for 25 years, his transfer to Rose Avenue School is a new challenge.

Ramona School had only about 700 students, while Rose Avenue has total of 1,200 in all four tracks.

“It’s very exciting,” Johnson said, “and a very challenging situation because the contrasts of the two schools is very great. Although Rose Avenue is not totally new, Ramona School did not have the amenities this school does. It’s like night and day.”