Schools Reopening With Innovative New Programs : Education: ‘Voucher initiative’ is credited with spurring districts to devise efficient ways to create more choices in the classroom.

Challenged both by shrinking budgets and activists criticizing educational quality, Ventura County school officials say they are experimenting with creative ways to maintain quality programs and improve weak ones without spending more money.

“It’s going to require sheer willpower and drive,” said Mary Beth Wolford, who became superintendent of Simi Valley schools in July.

As county schools reopen this week with the specter of a statewide November election that could alter the course of public education, teachers and administrators will be trying out a sprinkling of cheap and innovative new programs.

School officials say more change is budding.

“I think some creative things will come out of this,” said Jerry Gross, the new superintendent of the Conejo Valley Unified School District. “Tension is sometimes necessary for growth and change to occur.”

For public school officials, tension this year comes in the form of the so-called “voucher initiative,” which would grant parents a tax subsidy if they choose to enroll their children in private schools.

The ballot measure is meant to force public schools to improve by introducing competition, voucher proponents say. Opponents argue it would undermine public education by giving tax dollars to unregulated private schools that are unaccountable to the public.

“I believe public schools have become bloated and inefficient and that’s not going to change until there’s some competition to make it happen,” said Wendy Larner, a member of the Ventura County Board of Education.

Peggie Noisette, president of the Simi Educators Assn., paints a different portrait. She cites a union survey that found that teachers feel compelled to spend their own money on classroom materials, in amounts ranging from $200 to $1,000 each per year.

“Simi schools are doing a great job, but the wear and tear is starting to show,” Noisette said. She called the voucher initiative a death knell for public education.

Even some initiative opponents, however, say it may already have spurred public school officials to stir up new ideas and create classroom choices.

“I think that it’s a prod to us, to rethink and be sure that what we’re doing is absolutely for the best,” said Diane Collins, board member of the Simi Valley Unified School District. Even before the voucher debate, Simi Valley schools have had alternative programs that parents can choose that have existed for more than a dozen years.

Last week, Wolford announced a plan to stimulate classroom innovation by having Simi Valley’s 640 teachers compete this year for 100 cash awards of $250 each to purchase supplies for unusual learning activities.

Money for the incentive program comes from savings through cuts in administration, Wolford said. Interested teachers will submit grant applications describing proposals and winners will be selected in October, Wolford said.

“This is a way for teachers who come up with something special to do in the classroom to get some funding for it,” Wolford said.

In the neighboring Conejo Valley district, a new alternative program for 64 elementary students will be launched. Nearly twice as many parents applied for the program at Conejo Elementary School than could be accommodated in the two classes of 32 students each, officials said.

The program will feature the “open” style of teaching where students of different ages are grouped without grade levels, learning at their own pace and helping each other. Themes are used to integrate math, science and English, teacher Robbin Berger said.

For example, the recent college graduate said her class of second- through fourth-graders will start the year with lessons centered around the classic children’s book “The Wizard of Oz.”

The tale of Dorothy Gale--who dreams of leaving her Kansas farm, then goes on a journey only to discover there’s no place like home--will be used to launch discussions of what makes up a home in different cultures, Berger said. The tornado described in the book will spark a study of the scientific principles of weather, she said.

Rather than paperwork, Berger is developing hands-on activities that will reinforce the meaning of lessons, she said.

“If you could only see my room at home,” she said, adding that school materials are scattered about. “It’s quite a challenge.”

Similarly, an overhaul of Thousand Oaks’ Meadows Elementary School this year will mix students of different ages for “themed” instruction with a common thread running through math, English and science, officials said.

The plan, which will be adopted schoolwide, was engineered by the schools’ teachers and principal and adopted by the school board in June.

Reform and restructuring of schools in the budget-conscious ‘90s requires the kind of independent thinking and problem-solving skills that school leaders strive to instill in children, officials said.

“We’re going to have to look at creative ways to deliver the product differently but that doesn’t necessarily cost more dollars,” said Thousand Oaks school board member Dolores Didio. “We’re already seeing some of that.”

Didio pointed to Newbury Park High School, which also will undergo a restructuring this fall approved by the school board last spring.

Students at the school will settle into a schedule of three two-hour courses per day instead of six classes of one hour each. The idea is to afford students the time to delve more deeply into topics, said Fred Van Leuven, the district’s director of secondary education.

Teachers will shape lessons together so that math and English studies are not unrelated, Van Leuven said. The longer class periods also require teachers to try different ways of getting lessons across, Van Leuven said.

“People realize they can’t stand up and lecture in front of a class for two hours,” Van Leuven said.

The experiment at Newbury Park is similar to one in the neighboring Oak Park Unified School District at Oak Park High School. Ninth-graders will spend their mornings in what school officials are calling “The Academy.” English, math and history will be blended together in themed lessons, officials said.

The high school is proving to be a draw for families who live outside of Oak Park. Principal Jeff Chancer said more than 30 students this year are from other school districts.

“They know we have a top program. There are no drugs here and no gangs,” Chancer said.

In the west county, new programs in several districts are aimed at improving not only academics but behavior.

Starting this year, Ventura’s 23 schools will be teaching a character-development program modeled after a successful system in Dayton, Ohio. Each week, students will focus on one word, such as honesty or tolerance, to learn moral values.

“Discipline problems, suspensions and expulsions will diminish and teachers will have more time to teach,” Supt. Joseph Spirito said.

On the recommendation of a task force of citizens and school officials, the Oxnard Union High School District is starting a multicultural educational program to “teach students to be more sensitive to different ethnic groups in the community,” Supt. Bill Studt said. Classroom teaching tactics have evolved because of changes in curricula at the state level, said Sharon Stuart, who teaches math at Simi Valley High School. As teaching materials change, so do many educators by taking summer college courses, Stuart said.

For example, recent changes in math curricula are making their way into the classroom, said Stuart, a 20-year teacher.

“Our emphasis now is on communication--defining the problem and figuring out how to approach it,” Stuart said. “There’s much more writing.”

More than in other years, the spotlight this fall will be on public education in California, said Myron Vaughan, a fifth-grade teacher at Big Springs Elementary School in Simi Valley.

“Maybe, ultimately, it will bring parents out and they’ll see how we’re doing things better,” Vaughan said.

East County School Openings Conejo Valley Unified: Wed.

Mesa Union Elementary: Tue.

Moorpark Unified: Wed.

Oak Park Unified: Tue.

Santa Clara Elementary: Wed.

Simi Valley Unified: Wed.

Somis Union Elementary: Tue.

Source: School districts