CAMARILLO : District Asked to Help Pay for Signal

Camarillo school officials have objected to a county request that the school district pay 25% of the $100,000 cost to install a traffic signal in front of Santa Rosa Elementary School.

Parents and school officials, worried about speeding motorists and high traffic volume, requested that the county install the signal in front of the school, in the 13000 block of Santa Rosa Road, a narrow, two-lane highway.

But county officials asked the Pleasant Valley Elementary School District to pay a portion of the cost.

“I personally have a problem with that,” Associate Supt. Howard Hamilton said of the county’s request.

Pleasant Valley trustees asked Hamilton on Thursday to inquire whether any other school district has been asked to make such a payment.

While acknowledging the county’s fiscal constraints, the trustees said the school district has its own financial problems.

“Funding is very limited,” Hamilton said.

Michael Orr, county assistant traffic engineer, said he didn’t know whether this is a new county policy.

A traffic signal has four approaches, and in the case of Santa Rosa Road, one of them is the school driveway.

The school district is being asked to pay for 25% of the project because it owns one of the four approaches, he said.

Howard said he has received numerous phone calls and letters from parents worried about the safety of their children because of the traffic volume. The road has no sidewalk or shoulder, he said.

“It’s a hazard” for buses and children crossing the street, Hamilton said.