SIMI VALLEY : Changes Planned for Student Service

Citing a low level of student participation last year, Simi Valley Unified School District officials plan to launch a new effort to draw students into a program that awards academic credit for community service.

The school board decided Tuesday to promote the community service program primarily to 10th- and 11th-grade students, with an emphasis on students who are not high achievers in academics and who do not traditionally participate in extracurricular activities.

In 1991-92, the program’s first year, high school career counselors promoted the program mainly to 12th-grade students.

Only 44 students completed the 45 hours of community service required to get high school credit under the program. The students’ service work included volunteering at local hospitals, police stations and nonprofit agencies.

Some high school students did volunteer work on their own without applying for academic credit. And an unspecified number of students enrolled in the community service program but didn’t complete the 45 hours necessary for credit.

Sophomores and juniors may be more receptive to the program than seniors, who may not need the extra credit, board members said.

Normally, it is the high-achieving students who make good grades and are already involved in extracurricular activities who perform community service after school, board President Diane Collins said Thursday.

“My concern is . . . just the average kid that isn’t involved in academics and isn’t involved in other activities,” she said.

Performing volunteer work could boost the self-esteem of such students, she said.

The school board has a long-range goal of making community service a high-school graduation requirement, Collins said. The program could become mandatory in two to three years, she said.