Board Rejects Year-Round Schooling : Pleasant Valley: Officials will consider creating a pilot program that would run all year and moving sixth-graders to middle schools.

Under strong attack from irate parents, the Pleasant Valley school board backed down from plans to convert the district to a year-round schedule starting next year.

After several hours of angry public comment and barbs among trustees, the board voted 5 to 0 at 1:23 a.m. Friday to reject mandatory year-round schooling for all students starting in fall 1993.

Instead, the board decided to consider creating a pilot school that would operate year-round and moving sixth-graders from elementary to middle schools. Parents and teachers would be involved in reviewing any changes, district officials said.

Because of concerns of overcrowding and a belief that year-round schools improve academic standards, the board had asked the district’s staff in May to decide how to implement the year-round schedule. Under the schedule, students would still go to school 180 days a year but instead of a long summer vacation, they would take off three other months of the year.

In eastern Camarillo, where the city has seen a boom in housing construction, district officials considered putting students on a multi-track system, where they would attend school at staggered times.

But at Thursday night’s meeting, district officials announced they had reached a tentative agreement with Pardee Construction Co. to help finance the construction of a school in eastern Camarillo. The district now buses 200 students from eastern to western Camarillo.

The agreement gives the district a leg up on building the Woodcreek school after voters twice defeated school bond measures to build it last year, district officials said.

Board members declined to release any information about the new school until an agreement is finalized between the district and the company.

But board member and Mission Oaks resident Jan McDonald said the construction would “take the pressure off as far as facilities” and reduce the need for a multi-track program in eastern Camarillo.

More than 20 people spoke against the year-round proposal at the school board meeting, and only two spoke in favor of it.

“There is no need to do this because of overcrowding,” Camarillo resident Richard Anderson said. Furthermore, he said, “the academic improvements are based on anecdotal comments.”

“I happen to think keeping family together is important. Year-round will break it apart,” Anderson said.

Board President Leonard Caligiuri defended the district’s staff after parents and teachers criticized it for not seeking community support.

“We’ve asked staff how to shoot ourself in the left foot. They’ve come back and told us how,” Caligiuri said.

But Dr. Leonard Diamond, a school board trustee for 12 years, told the crowd, “You only represent your own opinions. Year-round education is appropriate and the right thing to do. I just hope the community wakes up.”

Trustee Ricardo Amador, who is running for reelection to the board, admonished both the board and the audience for “tearing each other apart.”

“I have a hard time accepting that year-round leads to family life destruction,” Amador said. “Disruption? Yes. But destruction? No. That’s too heavy for me.”

In the next two months, the school board plans to work with parents and teachers to come up with another plan, officials said. The board is scheduled to reconsider any changes to the school calendar at its first meeting in January.