Buena and Ventura High Moving to Build Bridges : Education: District considers joint activities for teachers and students to dispel the view that one is inferior.

Hoping to discourage negative comparisons between Buena and Ventura high schools, Ventura school district officials are seeking ways to increase cooperation between the cross-town rivals.

Buena High Principal Jaime Castellanos and Hank Robertson, who will become principal at Ventura High in July, have begun discussing ways to bring together students and teachers from the two schools.

One idea is for teachers in various departments at Buena High to meet with their counterparts at Ventura High to compare curricula, textbooks and teaching methods.

Under another proposal, Ventura High students would be able to go to Buena to take German or other courses not offered at their school, while Buena students could go to Ventura High to study Russian.

The idea, Robertson said, is to dispel what officials called a widely held perception that Ventura High is inferior to Buena by emphasizing the schools’ similarities and playing down their differences.

Basically, he said, the two schools are very much alike.

“If we stood on the moon and looked back at the two schools, we wouldn’t see much difference,” Robertson said. Robertson, who is now principal of Balboa Middle School, was named last week to replace Ventura High School Principal Jerry Barshay in the next school year.

In addition to bringing together teachers, another idea suggested by Supt. Joseph Spirito is for student leaders from Buena and Ventura to begin meeting to plan joint activities for students.

Officials said they hope the increased cooperation between the two schools will discourage comparisons between the schools’ academic programs. But they consider the intense athletic rivalry between Buena and Ventura High to be healthy, and said they expect it to continue.

Every fall, before the Buena and Ventura football teams meet, Ventura High holds a Buena Nerd Day, when many students come to school dressed in Buena’s school colors of blue and black.

Similarly, Buena High has a day each year when school administrators dressed in the Ventura High colors of black and gold amuse students by going onto the school basketball court and playing basketball very badly.

“Rivalry is always going to be there because of sports,” Spirito said. “That’s healthy.”

But, he said: “Academically, there shouldn’t be any competition between the two schools.”

Ever since Buena High was built as the city’s second high school in the early 1960s, the older Ventura High has been dogged by a public perception of being second-best, a perception that some Ventura High teachers say has been fed by real estate agents promoting homes in the Buena High area.

The statistics show the differences between the two schools are relatively small.

About one in four Buena High seniors goes on to a four-year college, compared to one in five seniors for Ventura High. But Ventura High sends more students to community college.

And Ventura High had a significantly better score on the reading portion of the latest statewide assessment test, while Buena scored slightly better in writing and math.

The schools have identical graduation requirements and almost exactly the same course offerings.

“A student can easily flip-flop between the two high schools and not miss a heartbeat,” said Robert Collins, a Ventura High counselor.

Already, teachers in some departments at the two schools meet regularly to compare notes about how and what they are teaching. But the communication could improve, officials said, and it could set an example for students.

“If students can see programs going on and teachers cooperating and administrators cooperating, they can see the competition is all in fun,” said Jim Sargent, social studies department chairman at Ventura High. “Teachers and administrators could set the example.”

Some Buena High students also said they would like to see changes in the public perceptions of the two schools.

“If we could make students think that Ventura is just as good as Buena,” said Beth Denger, a Buena High student government leader, “we could have community pride, instead of just pride in our school.”

Comparing Ventura’s 2 High Schools Number of students Buena High: 2,099 Ventura High: 1,711 Seniors who go to four-year colleges Buena High: 20% to 24% Ventura High: 18% to 20% Seniors who go to community colleges Buena High: 61% to 64% Ventura High: 70% Students who scored in top three performance levels on the California Learning Assessment System tests: Reading Buena High: 28% Ventura High: 34% Writing Buena High: 50% Ventura High: 49% Math Buena High: 12% Ventura High: 10% Racial breakdown (white to minority) Buena High: 76%/24% Ventura High: 65%/35% Source: Buena and Ventura high schools