GOING MOBILE

Valerie Zeko zips through the congested halls of Camarillo High School, dodging students, trying to make it to class before the bell rings.

Zeko is not a student, but a teacher, one of 10 at the school who don’t have their own classrooms because the school is so crowded.

Instead, she races to four different rooms to teach her five courses, toting on wheels a Pullman case full of files, looking more like a flight attendant late for her plane than a teacher performing her daily duties.

“It’s a major problem,” said Zeko, who wishes she had her own classroom to store files and display student work. She said she also likes to arrange seating more informally for classroom discussions and projects. “If you just get there and lecture, I guess it’s OK. But the way I was trained requires cooperative learning techniques.”

Camarillo High, Ventura County’s largest high school, is already 350 students over capacity at 2,551. In fact, all of Oxnard Union’s high schools have at least 200 more students than they were built to house.

Four portable classrooms will open on the campus next semester, but not for Zeko.

The English and history teacher, who has taught for only two years, will have to wait in line behind those with more seniority. Until then, she and others will continue to travel and seek out places like the cafeteria to plan lessons.

The school hired 11 new teachers this year to keep up with the flood of students, but it will need more money before it builds room to house them.

“It’s pathetic; we have to double up on classrooms,” said junior Janelle Macasieb, 16, who has watched the student population boom since her freshman year. “Our teacher gets there right when the bell rings.”