Groups Chart Course for Magnet Campus

Envisioning everything from a state-of-the-art theater to a full television studio to computers for every student, people from all over Simi Valley and beyond are charting the course for the district’s new magnet school.

“We want a different school; we want a different choice for our children, something that’s going to prepare them for the 21st Century,” said Judy Cannings, who chairs the magnet school planning effort.

So far, more than 60 people--including teachers, parents, local artists and businessmen--have volunteered to spend this year planning the innovative technical and performing arts high school, which will open with room for 1,200 students in the fall of 1996.

Tuesday night, the school board voted to use $100,000 of $900,000 in onetime funds from the state for technology at the new school.

In June, the school board approved creating the magnet school, closing Sequoia Junior High School--which will house the new school--and adding ninth-graders to all of the district’s high schools.

Since then, transition committees have visited other performing arts schools in Southern California, creating a wish-list curriculum, and deciding how to cater to student athletes and musicians at the new school.

Retired Cal State Northridge art professor Saul Bernstein signed on after hearing about the magnet school from one of his students. Although Bernstein lives in Thousand Oaks and has no children or grandchildren in the Simi district, the Emmy Award-winning artist, who has designed computer graphics for Apple, was impressed by plans to integrate art and computers at the school.

“We have the potential for genius here,” Bernstein said. “We really do. All we need is to have one school break that mold and show the rest of the world it can be done.”

Bruce Kanegai, who teaches Advanced Placement art classes at Simi Valley High School, joined the effort for more personal reasons. Kanegai has two children in the district, ages 8 and 11, who he just might enroll at the school some day.

Besides, he said, he would love to teach at the new school. After spending 22 years at Simi Valley High, Kanegai said it is time for the district to try new programs, such as the magnet school, and prepare students for future job opportunities.

“Take companies, for instance. If they don’t diversify and change, they’ll be extinct,” Kanegai said. “Our school has to think about the future and offer programs that will get students ahead.”

Cannings said her committees are still looking for volunteers who want to shape the new school, and will accept anyone with an interest, even if the person does not live in the district.

Although organizers have yet to decide how the school will be staffed and funded, trustees and transition committee members have formed a few parameters.

They will share new developments with parents and potential students at a series of October meetings that will be held at the district’s junior high schools. A few weeks after the meetings, the school board will survey students and parents to gauge interest in attending the new school.

The school--which will eventually house ninth- through 12th-graders--will open next year to Sequoia eighth-graders who opt to stay there, as well as freshmen, sophomores and some juniors.

In addition to providing students with extensive experience in the arts and technology, the magnet school will offer basic educational requirements, Advanced Placement courses and special education classes.

Any student in the Simi Valley Unified School District can attend the school without auditioning or testing for a slot; if more than 1,200 students attempt to enroll, they would be randomly chosen by lottery.

But while many teachers and parents are busy planning for the new school’s opening, others are equally busy protesting.

Linda Fowler, who has two children in the district, originally protested the closing of Sequoia and now questions how the district is going to support another high school. She is upset because the district only recently included parents in the planning process.

“It’s something that they’ve come up with because they want to do it, and they don’t care what anybody else thinks,” Fowler said of the magnet school. “Philosophically, I have no problem with restructuring grades nine through 12, but they can’t do that and claim it’s not going to cost.”

Cannings, who intends to apply for a job as principal of the new school, said she expected some people to protest such a drastic change in the district. She said the committees are slowly hammering out the details of the restructuring.

Funding for the magnet school, she said, will come from the district’s per-pupil allowance from the state and from financial support from local businesses.

At recent meetings, some people have wondered about a small, new high school’s ability to field sports teams or a band.

Cannings said band musicians and athletes will be allowed to enroll in the extracurricular activities of Simi Valley or Royal high schools.

The committees are also working on the curriculum by asking teachers what they would like to see. A meeting with the district’s art and music teachers last month led to a wish list of potential classes. This month, science teachers will meet with school planners to devise a similar list.

Cannings hopes to win over the nay-sayers by inviting them to join those already involved in the planning process.

“I’ve already had some people call and say, ‘I have a child in fifth or sixth grade, can we be on the waiting list?’ ” Cannings said. “I tell them there is no waiting list, but I’m optimistic.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

FYI

To volunteer to work on one of the district’s magnet school transition teams, call Judy Cannings at 520-6585.