Old Desks Don’t Sit Well With New School : Education: Oxnard High Principal Daisy Tatum leads a fund-raising drive to replace old furniture in time for the opening of the new campus.

Gnarled and grimy, the old wooden desks at Oxnard High School are carvedtestaments to generations of students who have sat, studied and snoozed over them during the past 30 years.

“Led Zeppelin rules!” one long-ago student scratched into a wooden backrest. Countered another bored vandal: “Class of ’91 rules!”

Besides graffiti, decades of use have left many desks in disrepair, with missing hardware, hobbled legs and torn-up seats.

In short, say parents and administrators at Oxnard High, the wooden dinosaurs are utterly unfit to grace the gleaming new, $57-million Oxnard High replacement campus under construction.

“When you go into a new facility, you want the students to have the very best,” said Oxnard High Principal Daisy Tatum. “And we will expect the best attitude from our students to take care of them.”

Problem is, the budget to build the state-of-the-art campus, which features modern science laboratories, high-security lockers, computer wiring and carpeting in every classroom, did not stretch to cover the entire cost of furnishing it.

The state provided $800,000 to pay for desks, tables, chairs and other furniture at the new Gonzales Road campus, said Richard Canady, business manager for the Oxnard Union High School District.

But that amount is just half of what is normally provided for a new campus, because the new school is a state-mandated replacement for the 5th Street campus, which lies in the flight path of Oxnard Airport, Canady said. The state will take over the school property when it is vacated in September and has plans to sell it.

“The rationale is that with a replacement campus, you already have the furnishings needed to run a school.”

But Tatum has other ideas. Rather than use the battered old desks, she has embarked on a campaign to raise $96,000 to buy 1,800 new ones. The model of desk she is eyeing is larger and sturdier to better fit today’s taller and more muscular student, Tatum said.

The modern desks, made of plastic and aluminum tubing, have strong laminated desktops and are virtually vandal-proof, she said. But many will still bear the names of Oxnard High alumni, she said.

For $50, former students will be able to “buy” a desk, Tatum said. In return, a three-inch metal plate engraved with the student’s name would be attached to the desk.

The screws used to attach the plate will be filed down, to ensure that current students are not tempted to try to remove them, she said. Businesses and those who are not Oxnard High graduates can also buy their way onto a desk, said Tatum, adding that anyone interested should contact the high school office.

So far, the fund-raiser has generated about $4,000. A walkathon earlier this month raised an additional $13,000. With $71,000 to go before the scheduled Sept. 5 debut of the new Oxnard High, Tatum said she will be working feverishly through the summer to raise the additional money.

Camarillo High School has offered a similar adopt-a-desk program since September, said Principal Terry Tackett, who confirms that the heavy-gauge plastic and aluminum desks are almost impossible to deface. So far the school has raised $30,000 and has purchased 700 new desks. The goal is to raise enough money to buy another 700 desks.

At least one Oxnard High student said he has no intention of scrawling on whatever furniture arrives at the new campus. Anthoney Crescitelli, 16, will be a junior when the Gonzales Road campus begins instruction.

“It’s really stupid to destroy the desks,” Crescitelli said. “If you have to use them, you might as well keep them nice.”

Pat Zanuzoski, president of Oxnard High’s parent-teacher association, has been helping Tatum with the fund-raisers and in locating corporate sponsors. She said she undertook the commitment reluctantly, peeved that district officials had not coughed up all of the cash needed.

“It’s offensive that [district administrators] would build a school and not have enough money to furnish it,” she said. “It’s an insult that the principal had to become a fund-raiser to be able to move into her school.”

But Tatum said she is not angry. Besides buying desks, the money will be used to pay for last-minute furnishings, such as floor mats and plastic corner covers that protect heavily-used corners from grime and streaks.

“It’s like when you move into a new house,” Tatum said. “It’s the little things that nickel and dime you to death.”