More Schools Make Public Service Part of Curriculum : Education: Ventura County reflects a growing nationwide trend of encouraging students to become volunteers.

As a nationwide trend to make community service a high school graduation requirement continues to grow, more Ventura County schools are incorporating public service programs into their curriculum.

Government and history teachers at Santa Paula and Fillmore high schools now require students to perform a specific number of hours of community service. Health teachers at Newbury Park and Thousand Oaks high schools have long included volunteer service in semester projects.

At Simi Valley High, students who put in 90 hours of public service over the course of a school year can earn five units of elective credit.

Last year, the first year of the program, 44 students logged more than 4,000 hours of public service work, which included everything from tutoring other students to visiting convalescent homes.

School board member Carla Kurachi said the district’s long-term goal is to make community service a graduation requirement.

“I think schools have more responsibility than to simply teach reading, writing and arithmetic,” Kurachi said. “We need to prepare students for society, for taking responsibility for their role in the community and to help them prepare for the working world. I think community service is a way to do that.”

Linda Forsyth, a coordinator of special programs with the state Department of Education, said high schools across the state are showing increasing interest in starting their own community service programs.

Forsyth noted that even President-elect Bill Clinton has gotten behind the idea, proposing that students who take out government loans for college have the option of paying them back through public service work.

“There is a growing number of people who are expressing interest in this,” Forsyth said. “We’re all hoping this will become a powerful movement and that there will be substantial support for it.”

Only a handful of high schools in the state now require public service as a graduation requirement, including Carpinteria High School in neighboring Santa Barbara County and Laguna Beach High School in Orange County.

Although other districts are looking at doing the same, Forsyth said state educators feel it is more important that service programs be incorporated into the curriculum so that it complements what students learn in the classroom.

She said some parents have complained about public service programs in their schools because they do not see how it ties in with their child’s classwork. She said others worry that children are being forced to do menial labor for free.

“Required service ought to be in the context of the curriculum,” Forsyth said. “It should enhance, support and clearly be part of the learning in the classroom.”

For example, students in a health class could be required to do volunteer work at a hospital or public health clinic. Forsyth said students would not only be providing a valuable service, but it would also expose them to possible career opportunities.

She said California recently received $1.6 million in federal funds to help school districts throughout the state launch their own community service programs.

So far, 200 schools have applied for grant money, Forsyth said. About 50 grants are expected to be awarded next month.

Vishna Herrity, an official of the Moorpark Unified School District, said the district has applied for a $50,000 grant that would be used to set up a community literacy program that would be operated by high school students.

Herrity said participants would receive school credit to tutor people of all ages in reading, writing and language development skills. Eventually, students would also receive training to counsel younger students on peer pressure, drug abuse and other issues.

Leslie Crunelle, director of curriculum and instruction for the Simi Valley school district, said officials there have also applied for a $50,000 grant that would be used to start an after-school program at Sinaloa Junior High.

As part of the program, high school students would work with the Boys & Girls Club, the YMCA and the Rancho Simi Recreation and Park District to coordinate after-school activities at Sinaloa. Students who participate would receive elective credit, Crunelle said.

If both districts receive grant money, they would be assured of additional funding to keep the programs going over the next two years, Forsyth said.

Meanwhile, teachers in other Ventura County schools are requiring students to perform public service work as part of their class assignments.

At Fillmore High, history teacher Stuart Smithwick said he requires students to perform 10 hours of community service work. He said he has personally driven students to Oxnard to work in the agricultural fields or to hand out food to the homeless.

“I’m a hands-on teacher, rather than a book teacher,” he said. “I think by working in a convalescent home, or tutoring elementary school kids, students are going to learn more than they are reading a book.”

But Smithwick said he is flexible. He said if students do not want to do public service work, then he will assign them book work.

He said this is the first year he has begun requiring community service work from his students.

“I think it’s important because social study classes are about making our community stronger and our democracy stronger,” he said. “If kids can’t learn to care about other people, then they aren’t going to be worth much, no matter how many academic requirements you have.”

Ed Arguelles, a government teacher at Santa Paula High School, said he requires five hours of community service in his class.

“We’re teaching students about the realities of life,” he said. “And the reality is government can’t do everything for people.”

Jeff Hom and Gary Caballero, both seniors in Arguelles’ class, said they do volunteer work at the city library where they assist with record-keeping and the storing of materials.

“We’ve already done our five hours, but we’re still doing it because it’s fun,” Hom said. “It’s also teaching me a lesson. I’m learning how the school can help the city, rather than the other way around.”

Caballero said he is learning practical skills that could help him get a job after he graduates.

“It could help me become a bookkeeper,” he said.

Sadie Rabe, another of Arguelles’ students, said she does volunteer work as a Candy Striper at Santa Paula Hospital. She said she also works with her church to give food to the needy.

“To see the reactions of people’s faces” when you help them, she said. “It gives you a good feeling.”

Margaret Carey, another government teacher at Santa Paula High, said she also requires students to perform volunteer work around the school. She said students sweep classrooms, pick up trash and tutor other students.

“The school is part of the community too,” she said.

In Jennie Lyle’s health class at Thousand Oaks High School, students are required to perform 10 hours of community service as part of their semester project.

Lyle said she has had this requirement for about 10 years. She said she has gotten some complaints from parents, but they have been few.

“We’re not providing slave labor,” she said. “The thing I want to teach with community service is the feeling students get with helping others, the feeling that they can make a difference in the world.”

Other Ventura County school officials are also making efforts to promote volunteerism.

Jim Barshay, principal of Ventura High School, said his school recently held its second annual Serve Day, where students, parents and school officials get together for one day to do landscaping and maintenance work at the school.

Barshay said 450 students participated in this year’s program. He said some teachers give students extra credit for participating in the program.

However, the principal said he would like to see Serve Day expanded so that students have a regular hand in maintaining the schools.

“In Asian countries, students clean the schools and take care of them,” Barshay said. “I think we should do that here. Years ago, I would have said no to that. But because of our funding problems, I think we need to do something to keep the schools from deteriorating. This would help save money and put it back into the instructional program.”