Residents’ Input Sought for Schools’ 5-Year Plan

Residents in Thousand Oaks will have a chance tonight to help shape the future of Conejo Valley schools during a goal-setting session on topics ranging from computers to vocational programs and college study skills.

Suggestions made during the open forum will be used to develop a new five-year plan to guide budget priorities and curriculum policies for the Conejo Valley Unified School District. The new plan will replace long-term goals established in 1989.

School board President Dolores Didio said several meetings have already been held to solicit suggestions from parents of children enrolled in Conejo Valley schools. Tonight’s meeting is aimed at capturing the ideas of business owners, residents without school-age children or parents who have not voiced their opinions.

“What I’d like to see are some real definite things surfacing that the community would like us to move toward,” Didio said.

“My hope would be that there’s some sort of a common thread that runs through this,” she said.

Some common goals appear to be emerging.

Supt. Jerry Gross said parents and community members he has talked to seem most interested in upgrading computers in the classroom, strengthening science and math skills and improving vocational programs for students who do not go to college or do not finish college.

“In addition to having a strong academic base, students need to have the kind of skills that are going to allow them to be successful if they’re not going to graduate (from college),” Gross said.

The district’s existing five-year plan was developed in 1989 by school board members, with little direct input from the community, school officials said. Its broad goals focused on raising student performance, reducing permissiveness, urging parents to get more involved, and offering better support for teachers.

Board member William Henry Jr. said while those goals were admirable, some were impossible to measure. Others were not converted into specific policies aimed at achieving the goal, he said.

“I think we really botched up the planning process and we end up five years later with zero specifics,” he said. “I’m looking for (a new plan) that corrects the mistakes of the one we just had.”

Didio said some of the goals were accomplished, such as improving facilities by building theaters at Newbury Park and Thousand Oaks high schools. Other goals, she said, were more difficult to quantify.

District officials hope to present board members with a final list of recommended goals in May. The board will then vote on the new long-range plan.

Alice Humbertson, who represents the PTA on a steering committee developing the plan, said even Thousand Oaks residents without children in school have a stake in the community’s schools.

“These kids will be coming out of high school . . . they’re going to be the leaders of tomorrow,” Humbertson said. “You hope they’re getting the kind of education that will make them good strong leaders.”

FYI

Tonight’s meeting will begin at 7 p.m. at Sequoia Intermediate School, 2855 Borchard Road, Newbury Park.

In addition, district officials will be available for individual meetings about the long-term plan on the following days: Monday, April 18, from 1 to 3 p.m. at Colina Intermediate School, 1500 Hillcrest Drive, and at Los Cerritos Intermediate School, 2100 Avenida de las Flores. Tuesday, April 19, from 1 to 3 p.m. at Redwood Intermediate School, 233 Gainsborough Road, and at Sequoia Intermediate School.