New School Suggested for Easing Overcrowding

Hoping that every Ventura student someday can attend an uncrowded school close to home, officials have begun discussing long-term solutions to the enrollment surge in eastern Ventura schools.

With new developments expected to bring hundreds of additional students to already crammed east-end schools, Supt. Joseph Spirito said the district should consider building a new high school.

“What we know now is that we have a reprieve for two or three years,” Spirito said, referring to a recently passed busing plan to relieve crowding at Buena High School. “But both high schools will continue to grow.”

Spirito acknowledged at a meeting Tuesday night that it would be difficult to find ways to fund a new school, adding that the district could consider a bond measure or sale of district property.

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Spirito said that in addition to building a new school, the district may be able to close an unspecified western Ventura school and trade the site to a developer, who would then pay for a new facility in eastern Ventura.

Trustee Jim Walker questioned the need for a new high school and recommended that the district hire a consultant to study long-term plans.

“This is a complex thing we are talking about,” Walker said. A consultant would provide ideas, evaluate the district’s resources and be able to coordinate with the city’s growth plans, he said.

He also suggested that the district look at opening a smaller, magnet high school. “I am not convinced that we need three equal high schools,” Walker said.

Board President Cliff Rodrigues said he hoped that every student in Ventura would be able to walk to school someday.

“We need to service the east end better,” Rodrigues said. “I would like to support as much as possible the need for neighborhood schools.”

But neighborhood schools for all Ventura students may be a dream, others said.

“In the long range, that is a goal,” trustee Velma Lomax said. “But we can’t do it without building an elementary school, a middle school and a high school.”

The process promises to be a long one. District officials recommended a nine-month timeline to consider proposals, which would coincide with the end of the city’s recently approved moratorium on future development.

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Lomax called for regular public study sessions to raise community support for the district’s plans--particularly if they involve a bond measure.

“If we are going to do this [a bond], we need to pull in the community and get their support,” Lomax said. She noted that three consecutive bond measures were defeated by voters in Camarillo.

And the issue will become a regular discussion topic--trustees agreed to include the district’s long-range plans to address overcrowding on every agenda until they are resolved.

But before trustees were able to discuss the plans, they had to listen to sharp criticism from students and parents still angry about the busing plan, which calls for shuttling about 185 freshmen and sophomores from three east Ventura neighborhoods across town to Ventura High.

“I don’t think you understand how much this has torn up my child,” said Joni Howard, whose daughter must transfer to Ventura High in the fall. “This is the main topic of conversation at the house. She is in tears every night.”

Other parents criticized the board for lack of foresight.

“This long-range planning is like buying fire insurance for a house that’s burning down,” said Henry Vega, whose son will be bused to Ventura High next year.

Vega said he hoped parents will be included in formulating the long-term plans. “It is important that we get involved with what is going to happen in the future. So far, we have been kept in the dark about the district’s plans.”