Oxnard Group Attacks Plan for All-Year School : Education: Foes urge the district not to change the senior high’s schedule. Girl delivers a petition signed by 500 students.

A group of parents, students and teachers has demanded that the board of the Oxnard Union High School District drop a proposal to put one of the district’s high schools on a year-round schedule beginning next fall.

About 40 opponents of the proposal turned out at the board meeting Wednesday night to denounce the plan that would place Oxnard High School on a year-round schedule as part of a two-year pilot program.

“Our education will not be improved with the new schedule,” said Toni Tafolla, a sophomore at Oxnard High School. “All this is going to do is hurt students who have summer jobs and who are involved in summer youth programs.”

Toni delivered a petition to the board with 500 signatures of Oxnard students who are against the proposal. There are 2,134 students enrolled at the school.

Science teacher Larry Raffaeli also voiced his objections to adopting a new schedule. He questioned how it would affect sports activities, transportation and other school programs.

“There’s no academic advantage to it,” said Raffaeli, who has one child attending the school. “So what’s the purpose?”

As part of a new restructuring program, school officials are exploring various ways to improve the academic achievements of students at each of the district’s six high schools, said Gary Davis, director of educational services. This includes looking at establishing year-round schools, he said.

Davis acknowledges that there is little evidence that students who attend year-round schools do better academically than those following a traditional calendar. But he said district officials are willing to experiment to see if test scores improve.

“It would seem reasonable that there is a lot of potential for improved academics,” he said, adding that it would not cost the district anything to implement the pilot program.

Under a year-round schedule, students would generally be in class nine weeks and off three weeks.

Proponents of year-round schools argue that students retain information better because they no longer have a three-month summer break between grades. But some parents say it would disrupt family routines, forcing changes in work and vacation schedules.

Oxnard High School teachers and staff members were recently surveyed on the possibility of converting to a year-round schedule, with 91 voting in favor of the proposal and 31 against, Davis said.

“The fact that the faculty and the staff are willing to try something new is good,” Davis said. “We need more of that.”

Still, parents and students said they are being left out of the decision.

“It’s like they’re trying to shove this down our throat,” said Diana Tafolla, Toni’s mother. “Parents have to know what’s going on.”

Davis said school officials will be discussing the year-round option with student and parent groups over the next few weeks. He said the board will decide during coming months whether it will adopt the new schedule for the fall.

He stressed that students will have the option of transferring to other schools within the district if they are not comfortable with the year-round system.

But some parents Wednesday night said transferring their children to another school would be an inconvenience. They also said it could backfire on the district if hundreds of students choose to exercise this option.

School board member Jean Daily said parents and students have some legitimate concerns.

“I think there are a lot of questions that still need to be answered,” she said. “It might be a little soon to try it in 1993.”

A similar controversy erupted recently in the Ventura Unified School District, which had been considering placing seven additional schools on a year-round schedule. Six of the district’s 25 schools are already on the alternative system.

After a number of parents protested, the Ventura school board decided last month to hold a public referendum on the issue of shifting all of the district’s schools to a year-round schedule. The referendum will appear on the city’s November ballot.