Plan to Add 300 Students a Big Plus for Ventura High

Amid the loud protests against a plan to shift eastern Ventura students across town to a rival high school, the voice of Jake Chinn was barely heard.

The president of Ventura High’s associated student body told district school board members that his long-neglected school will welcome with open arms the nearly 300 Buena High students who would be bused there if the plan is approved.

That would mean more students buying yearbooks, attending dances, filling the stadiums at sports events--not to mention taking honors classes.

“Ventura High has been left out of the picture most of the time,” Chinn said in an interview.

Viewed chiefly as a way to ease the crowding at Buena High, the school redistricting plan now on the table would revitalize Ventura High, which suffers low enrollment, school officials said.

“Sometimes we don’t have the numbers to provide honors or advanced placement classes,” Ventura High Principal Henry Robertson said. “If more kids come over to our school, it allows us to stabilize our class selections.”

And the shift in students will also mean a shift in dollars that would boost many of Ventura High’s underfunded extracurricular activities.

The plan has come under fire from affected Buena students and their parents, who argue the disruption to their personal lives and education would be devastating. Tuesday night, the school board is expected to vote on the plan, which is still being fine-tuned to address some of the concerns voiced at three boisterous hearings.

Some Buena High parents have argued that a few classes are already crowded at Ventura High, and the move will simply exacerbate that problem. But Ventura teachers disagreed.

“Ventura is not at capacity. There are classes that are overcrowded to make up for the smaller classes,” said David Hess, who teaches history and is the student body advisor at Ventura High. The school maintains, on average, 33 students per teacher. To compensate for under-enrolled classes, other classes have to take as many as 40 students.

With more students, the school would be able to hire more teachers, provide more classes and have more flexibility in its class schedules, he said.

Ventura, which has room for 2,120 students, now has 1,742. By comparison, Buena has the capacity for 2,187 but now houses nearly 2,300. Without any changes, that figure could climb above 2,400 in the next school year, according to district projections.

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At Buena, the extra students have crowded classrooms and common areas, and raised concerns about school safety.

Teachers and administrators at Buena High would welcome the reduced numbers and could still offer a broad range of courses, said Principal Jaime Castellanos, who sat on the committee that drafted the proposal.

“We have been down in those numbers before,” Castellanos said. “We will still be able to provide a quality education for our students.”

Supporters of the plan say providing a balance at the schools will benefit the community at large.

“I think what’s good for Ventura High School is good for the whole community,” Hess said. “I think it is good that schools are balanced in numbers as well as academically, socially, racially and economically. This plan will help balance that.”

Maintaining or promoting diversity was one of the goals of the committee that drafted the plan. As conceived, the plan would move students from mostly affluent east Ventura neighborhoods.

“Those kids are probably not from a disadvantaged background,” Robertson said. “The income redistribution is not a primary reason for the changes, but it would raise standards throughout the district.”

Currently, students at both schools come from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds; however, Ventura High has a much higher percentage of students from low-income families, Robertson said. At Ventura, 41% of students qualify for subsidized lunches, compared to 19% at Buena, he said.

“Dollars follow students,” said Jenny Salazar, whose daughter attends Ventura High. “If the school is under-enrolled, it is also underfunded.”

It is Ventura’s underfunded extracurricular activities that would get the biggest boost from the shift in dollars.

“We are not going in debt, but we are barely coming out on top,” Chinn said. Much of the income for the associated student body’s programs comes from sales of yearbooks and tickets to proms and school dances. Ventura High is just able to break even on those, he said.

“Every activity we put on we have to worry about,” Chinn said. “We can’t put on a free dance because we can’t afford to lose money on it.”

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While the plan is facing vocal opposition from parents of those students who may be relocated, Chinn--who supports the plan--put a positive spin on the opposition.

“The fact that all those parents who care so much about their kids’ education are there tells us that is the kind of people we need,” he said.

Four years ago, the district considered a similar plan that would have moved students from affluent hillside communities across town to Ventura High. Faced with strong opposition, the board rejected it.

“Four years ago, I heard a lot of people saying they didn’t want to attend Ventura because it was an inferior school,” Hess said. “I haven’t heard that this time. But if we can’t offer what Buena offers, we give kids a reason for not wanting to come here.”

District figures show that the school has a higher percentage of its students enrolled in advanced placement classes, but fewer of them actually take AP tests. And while test scores are higher for Buena students, Robertson said Ventura sends more students to Ivy League and other elite schools.

“We have a lower socioeconomic base,” Hess said. “When you look at what we do with the student population we have, I think we do an outstanding job.”

Salazar, who was initially reluctant to send her daughter to Ventura because it was perceived as an inferior school, agreed.

“I think Ventura High has been shortchanged,” she said. “This community has a real prejudice against Ventura High. The school is much better than it is portrayed, and the teachers are fantastic.”

The community at large will benefit when it realizes it has two good schools, and this plan would promote that perception, Salazar said.

Parents fighting to keep their children at Buena say their concern is not the quality of Ventura High. Rather, they say, the move would be too disruptive for their children, many of whom have already made friends and joined student organizations and teams at Buena.

On the Ventura campus, the majority of students are going about their daily routines unaware of the redistricting plan.

“In AP and honors classes, people know about it,” Chinn said. “I don’t hear anybody saying, ‘We don’t want people from Buena here.’ ”

Football Coach Phil McCune said he will make every effort to integrate incoming students onto his team.

“We will try to have a parent meeting with incoming athletes to alleviate the fears they have,” McCune said. “Kids have transferred before. I know they will be accepted.”

McCune said students who are involved in extracurricular activities and sports are the ones who will adapt best to their new environment.

“You are not losing your friends,” McCune said. “You are making new friends.”

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District officials are currently fine-tuning the plan to address some of the concerns expressed by parents and board members. They said they will not release a final plan until just before a trustees meeting Tuesday, when the board is scheduled to vote on the proposal.

Currently, the plan would not affect this fall’s senior class. Incoming seniors affected by the plan would be allowed to finish their education at Buena. However, several board members expressed concern about the impact the move would have on incoming juniors, and said they would look favorably on a plan that would exclude them from the move.

“I would like to see a plan that we can all readily accept,” said board President Cliff Rodrigues.

Despite staunch opposition to the plan, board members stand behind its goals.

“I have to do what’s best for the whole district,” Trustee Diane Harriman said.

“Something still needs to be done,” Trustee Velma Lomax said.

The proposal is seen as a stopgap measure to alleviate overcrowding for three to four years. If the plan is approved, district officials are expected to begin studying long-term proposals in March.