VENTURA : Magnet School Survey Expected

The Ventura school board is expected tonight to approve a survey determining whether any elementary schools want to convert to a back-to-basics magnet school.

The survey to go out in January will ask parents and teachers whether they are interested in adhering to the tenets proposed for the school, which would include students wearing uniforms and parents signing contracts agreeing that their children will abide by school rules.

Parents would also have to volunteer at the school for at least 12 hours each month.

The surveys will go to all elementary school teachers, as well as parents of children in kindergarten through fourth grade--the age group that would be eligible for magnet school for kindergarten through fifth grade next fall.

“We’re just waiting to see what kind of response we get and if it’s enough to convert a school site,” said Gerald Dannenberg, assistant superintendent for the Ventura Unified School District.

Although school officials say the back-to-basics school would provide parents with more alternatives in the public education system, the proposal has drawn strong criticism from some teachers.

John Weiss, president of the Ventura Unified Education Assn., said that even though the local teachers union is taking no position on the issue, a handful of teachers have written expressing their concerns about the proposal.

These teachers worry, Weiss said, that the school will only serve children whose parents have the time and willingness to volunteer at school. And that may rule out families with only one parent or where both parents work.

“They look at this as an elitist school,” he said.

In light of such concerns, school officials have said they would make every effort to ensure the school has a diverse population of students.