Oxnard High to Stay With 9-Month Calendar

After a survey showed that most parents and students oppose year-round education, Oxnard High School officials have decided against their earlier plan to change the high school’s calendar.

Rick Rezinas, the school’s principal, and Bill Studt, superintendent of the Oxnard Union High School District, recommended to the school board this week that they rescind their tentative decision in May to establish a year-round calendar at the high school.

A survey released this week showed that teachers want to convert to a year-round calendar, while most parents and students oppose the idea.

About 78% of teachers and 58% of other school staff members supported the proposal for the school to drop the traditional nine-month calendar.

Proponents say year-round education is academically superior. They contend teachers and students get less burned out because their vacations are spread throughout the year instead of being clumped together in the summer.

But school officials around the state say proposals for year-round schools often run into opposition from parents and students.

Oxnard High was no exception.

About 66% of parents and 60% of the students who responded to the survey opposed converting to a year-round calendar.

“The community and the school are not quite ready for this,” Rezinas said to the school board at its meeting Wednesday.