Parents, Businessmen Help Students Go On-Line

The knot of Mesa Union students pressed closer as Timothy Osslund transferred the computer image of Vincent van Gogh’s “Starry, Starry Night” from the Louvre museum in Paris to their Somis school’s home page.

Twenty boys and girls jostled for a better look. Standing room only is the norm for their computer club because there is only one machine with Internet access in the entire 370-student school.

“Soon, guys, we’ll have enough computers with Internet so we can all spread out,” said Osslund, a scientist and parent who runs the club’s Thursday morning meetings.

“Yeah, by the time we’re gone!” snorted J.P. Sanchez, a seventh-grader, who will move on to high school in two years.

Osslund hopes to prove J.P. wrong.

After three months of pleading, he has convinced local businesses to donate $35,000 worth of conduit and wiring that, when installed, will link computers in 15 Mesa Union classrooms to computers around the globe.

He volunteered to swing the deals and oversee installation of the network, Osslund said, because he is disturbed by what he sees as a dearth of computer instruction in public schools. He has two daughters, Leah and Elyse, enrolled at Mesa Union.

“I can see where technology is going,” said Osslund, 37, who earned a doctoral degree studying human proteins and works at Thousand Oaks-based Amgen, a biotechnology firm. “And I think we need to bring the schools much faster up to speed.”

Donations of time and equipment from parents, businesses and others often make the difference between Ventura County schools that are embracing technology at warp speed and those moving at a snail’s pace.

President Clinton last year called on private industry to give public schools financial help and expertise in getting connected to the Internet. And hundreds of volunteers, including parents, teachers, administrators and high-technology companies, are expected to fan out to Ventura County schools March 9 for NetDay ’96.

The privately sponsored initiative will bring volunteers out to schools to install wiring in as many classrooms, libraries and science labs as possible. The idea is to build infrastructure that will help schools become interconnected through computers, officials said.

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Parents who get involved often say they are not satisfied with the pace of technological development in schools. And they are not waiting for the creaky education establishment to catch up.

“Teachers are thrown into the position of being computer geeks when, frankly, they don’t have a clue what to do,” said Steve Kruschen, an Agoura resident.

Kruschen began advising the district on software purchases and occasionally helps work out bugs in its burgeoning computer networks. He owns a computer consulting business and is “Mr. Gadget” on KABC Talk Radio’s Saturday morning show dealing with new computer products.

He estimates he donates several hours a week attending to computer problems at the district’s six schools.

“I have a vested interest,” said Kruschen, whose three children attend school in the district.