Colleges Planning 2 Summer Sessions : Education: Move is an attempt to boost sagging enrollment at the three campuses. First set of classes will start May 23.

Ventura County’s three community colleges will hold two summer sessions this year in an attempt to boost dwindling enrollment.

Generally, the Ventura County Community College District holds one six-week summer session, running from the middle of June into early August.

But with enrollment dropping by more than 8% this school year compared to last, district officials said they wanted to double the summer sessions to offer students as many opportunities as possible to register.

The first session at all three colleges will start May 23, three days after the spring session ends, and run through the end of June. The second sessions vary by date, but will all end by Aug. 11, college officials said.

Fall classes start in the college district Aug. 22.

Ventura College will offer about 50 more classes, and Oxnard College will offer about 30 more classes this summer than previously planned, college officials said. Moorpark College will not offer any extra classes, but merely redistribute the 170 classes on the summer schedule, administrators said.

District officials say this summer may be a particularly good time to offer more classes since many students who dropped classes following the upheavals of the January earthquake might be looking to pick some up again.

“Anything we can do to help them get an education within their time frame is, I think, a good idea,” said Allan Jacobs, president of the board of trustees.

District officials say they also hope to attract local students attending Cal State Northridge who had to take a lighter load than they had planned this spring because of the extensive quake damage at the campus.

“I’ve personally been contacted by Northridge students asking what we would be offering this summer,” said Larry Calderon, vice president of instruction at Oxnard College.

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Many college district students said they thought that the change sounds like a great idea.

“If I was given a few weeks off (between sessions), I probably wouldn’t go back to school, because you get into your summertime ways,” said Moorpark College student Matt Magee, 20, of Newbury Park, who is trying to steel himself to register for a summer session for the first time. “But one thing about starting right after school gets out is you’re still in the school mode.”

Erika Freiman, 20, also a Moorpark College student, said the reason she has never registered for summer session is because it always interferes with a vacation her family had planned.

Double sessions, the Newbury Park resident said, “are the more intelligent choice because then if you had a trip planned at the beginning or the end of the summer, you could do that.”

Barbara Hernandez, 31, a student at Ventura College, pointed out that the double sessions offer students two opportunities to catch up on classes they may have missed in the spring, or to get ahead in their college schedule, if they choose.

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“I think it’s great,” said Hernandez, who plans to register for at least one of the sessions. “It gives us more opportunity to catch up if we’re behind, and it also gives students the opportunity to take extra classes that they need to fulfill their goals.”

For the financially pinched college district, the double summer sessions would be yet another way to raise money. The district receives state money for every extra student it educates, up to a set limit, or cap, determined by a complex formula.

“Every dollar we spend on these (summer) programs will generate $3 in state revenue,” said Jeff Marsee, the district’s vice chancellor for administrative services. “So it’s critical that we get these courses going so we get back up to cap.”