New Oxnard High Is Big on Space, Technology

It’s not enough to say that the new Oxnard High School under construction on Gonzales Road is big. It’s not even enough to say the $33-million campus is nearly twice as large as the aging 5th Street school it will replace.

To get an accurate sense of just how large the new school is, one must walk through the 11 buildings, the expansive quad and the far-flung athletic fields that make up the campus. All 52 acres of it.

That is what 50 business leaders, educators and community activists did Tuesday during a preview tour of the park-like campus.

They stepped over cable, dodged workmen and avoided freshly painted surfaces to follow Oxnard High Principal Daisy Tatum through 85 classrooms, two gymnasiums, a cafeteria, a vocational center, a theater and administrative buildings that will house 2,300 students and staff when the school opens in September.

Visitors seemed impressed by the modern look and facilities.

“It’s awesome,” said Orvene Carpenter, a Port Hueneme councilman. “It’s wonderful that the children of Oxnard will have something this nice to look forward to.”

Even in its current state of disarray, the campus looks more like a spacious, well-tended community college than a public high school.

Spanish tiles top sandstone-colored buildings. Inside those buildings, classrooms are grouped by subject: There are two buildings each for the humanities and math/science classes, and a large performing arts center for theater, video and band instruction.

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Teachers have their own offices in a specially designed work area. Cathedral ceilings inlaid with aromatic redwood rise over the administration center and the library; large windows and an atrium allow sunlight to stream inside, adding to the airy effect.

And anyone sitting in the sprawling quad at the center of campus can enjoy unobstructed views of the lemon groves, eucalyptus trees and farm fields that surround the project.

On a clear day, the Topa Topa Mountains above Ojai also are visible.

In addition to its picturesque physical setting, the campus will offer many modern technologies, including lights that flick on when motion is detected, computer capability in every classroom and motorized bleachers in the gymnasium.

Lockers are centralized inside a building that has roll-down doors that will be locked at night to protect them from vandalism. And an infrared security system will guard the entire campus at night.

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The campus also has two gymnasiums, tennis courts, a football stadium, a baseball field and sand volleyball courts. A 105-foot-long competition pool is scheduled to be built within a year, Tatum said.

By the time the tour ended, some visitors were impressed.

“I’m kind of jealous,” said Erik Faraldo, an Oxnard computer consultant. “When I went to high school, I didn’t have any of this.”

Tatum explained that she and her staff at the existing Oxnard High campus have already begun preparing students for new rules that will be enforced when the replacement school opens.

Because 85% of the new school is carpeted, for instance, Oxnard High this year instituted a no-gum rule, Tatum said. And the principal is working on a new dress code and disciplinary policies that Tatum hopes will keep problems at the new campus to a minimum.

Students will be given the list of new rules and the dress code when they recess for the summer break and again before the fall session opens, she said.

“It will be interesting to see where my homeboys are going to stake out their territory,” she said.

The state agreed to pay for nearly all of the new campus, being built on Gonzales Road between Victoria Avenue and Patterson Road. State officials agreed with Oxnard school officials that the new school is necessary because the existing high school is in the flight path of Oxnard Airport, posing a danger to students.

Margaret Tatum, whose three children--including principal Daisy Tatum--graduated from the old Oxnard High School, said she was impressed by the new campus. And she hopes that decades of students who attend school there will be impressed as well.

“I just hope the students really appreciate what the taxpayers are giving them.”