The California Deluge : Schools Contend With Floods, Leaks and Canceled Classes

At least 17,000 students from six public school districts in Ventura County were ordered to stay home Tuesday as floodwaters swamped cafeterias, seeped through leaky roofs and slowed school buses to a crawl during a treacherous morning commute.

Although no major damage was reported at any school by nightfall, minor leaks, flooding and transportation problems kept school officials busy all day ensuring students were safe and dry at campuses from Simi Valley to Ventura.

No injuries to students or school staff were reported anywhere in Ventura County. But rising waters prompted school officials to call off classes at several campuses in western Ventura County before 8 a.m.

Students in the Mupu, Ocean View and Santa Paula elementary school districts were told to stay home when major street flooding occurred near those campuses, officials said. The Santa Paula High School District, Ojai Unified School District and five schools in the Ventura Unified School District also called off sessions Tuesday due to flooded streets.

And although most of the problems occurred at schools in the west county, County Schools Supt. Charles Weis ordered that special education schools throughout Ventura County be closed.

“We thought it would be less confusing if we just closed all the special education schools,” Weis said.

All schools are scheduled to resume classes today unless flooding continues, educators said. Parents and students are advised to listen to radio or television broadcasts for news of school closures this morning.

Despite a day that brought incessant rainfall, thigh-high flooding in some spots and snarled traffic, the vast majority of the county’s 120,000 students managed to get to school and stay there.

None of the schools in eastern Ventura County were closed, and most of them escaped without serious damage, educators said.

In Simi Valley and Thousand Oaks, sports activities and field trips were canceled because of dangerous driving conditions. A ruptured gas line at University Elementary School in Thousand Oaks forced school officials to bring in electric heaters to keep students and teachers warm.

And at Westlake High School, officials said roof leakage may have been the result of previously unseen earthquake damage.

“That roof is only a few years old and we’ve never had trouble with it before,” said Sarah Hart, assistant superintendent of the Conejo Unified School District.

Schools in Simi Valley and Moorpark sprang minor leaks but suffered no significant damage, officials said.

The heaviest damage was reported in Ojai, where an auditorium and offices at Ojai Unified’s district offices were swamped by the rising waters. Water also had to be pumped from the cafeteria and administration buildings at Nordhoff High School, said Assistant Supt. Ronald Barney.

In Santa Paula, a skylight crashed to the floor in a cafeteria at Barbara Webster School, and emergency workers were sandbagging Glen City School to divert water from a nearby barranca, said Dolores Bidwell, a clerk in the district office.

Ventura Schools Supt. Joseph Spirito said he canceled classes at Sheridan Way, Arnaz, Oak View and E. P. Foster elementary schools, and at DeAnza Middle School due to heavy street flooding.

But classes continued at the district’s 20 other schools with little problem, Spirito said.

“Kids are resilient,” he said. “The students are fine.”

Most officials said they made the decision to close schools after seeing or hearing about the extent of flooding. Continually changing weather reports made it difficult to decide when classes should be called off, Spirito said.

“At 5:30 a.m., the report was that the storm was going to pass us by 7 a.m.,” he said. “Then it was going to pass by 9 a.m. and then 11 a.m.”

Educators said they probably will not lose state funding for schools that were closed because they will make up the lost day in coming weeks or will be eligible to recoup the money if the county is declared a disaster area.

Classes continued in Fillmore even though that city with hit with major street flooding and road conditions that made driving treacherous. Fillmore Unified Supt. Mario Contino said he became dizzy when driving from his Thousand Oaks home to work because water was flowing beneath his van.

“The movement of the water swirling by me from all directions and rushing beneath my car made me dizzy,” Contino said. “It was a strange feeling.”

All Fillmore schools were open, but about 15% of students opted to stay home, Contino said. The cafeteria at Fillmore High School was flooded, so educators bought 700 hamburgers at McDonalds and distributed them to students during lunch, Contino said.

“We should have closed today,” the superintendent said. “We had a lot of disruption.”

Correspondent Matthew Mosk contributed to this story.