County Schools Are Expecting Record Enrollment

The largest number of students in the history of Ventura County will swing through the school doors this week into classrooms already strained to capacity.

Enrollment will hit about 128,000, up 2% to 3% from last year, with gains in every school district but one, according to projections from the county superintendent of schools office.

Only the little red schoolhouse in Santa Clara expects the number of students to drop--from 33 to 29. On the opposite end of the spectrum, certain pockets--in Moorpark, Oxnard, and eastern Ventura--are projected to grow even more dramatically than the rest of the county.

“We are expecting the largest number of kindergartners ever, and the largest number of students ever,” county schools Supt. Charles Weis said. “We have the most people ever living in Ventura County.”

The new year that starts this week for most schools will also usher in new initiatives aimed at reducing class size for the youngest students and renewing the emphasis on reading.

Some schools are adopting uniforms, while others are hooking up to the Internet. At the high school level, districts are offering more programs geared toward practical training. And Simi Valley is opening a full-fledged magnet school dedicated to performing arts and technology.

With the “baby boom echo”--the name given by demographers to offspring of baby boomers--enrollment projections are up from Maine to California.

The steady population growth, coupled with an influx of students lured from private schools by efforts to reduce class size, have caused an enrollment frenzy in recent weeks, school administrators say.

“Based on what has happened in the last two weeks, people have been enrolling students right and left,” said Dr. Shirley Carpenter, superintendent of Pleasant Valley School District, who says she is receiving phone calls daily from principals who are adding more and more students. “I don’t know if we are adjusting, if they are coming in from the outside or if they are coming in from private schools.”

Final enrollment figures will not be available until a week or two after school starts. But the increased school population, combined with efforts to reduce class size for the youngest grades, will only exacerbate a space crunch in some of the county’s most crowded districts.

But the county’s rapid development has already forced some school districts to adjust.

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Last year, a controversial decision to transfer 185 students from Buena High School to underutilized Ventura High School caused a local furor. Ventura officials say most families have adjusted, but that some parents are still petitioning the Board of Education. The redistricting will take effect Tuesday.

Thousand Oaks schools, too, are struggling with growth pressures.

“Continuing growth is something we are looking at because it’s a phenomenon of the last three or four years and will be a consideration for the future,” said Richard Newman, Conejo Valley Unified School District board president.

He said the school district may consider year-round schooling, fast-tracking a proposed new school and perhaps even floating a school bond to accommodate the influx of new students.

In addition to the population boom, Conejo Valley and most other school districts have to make room this fall for more than 300 new instructors hired to teach smaller classes in the primary grades.

The class-size initiative, proposed by Gov. Pete Wilson earlier this year, should allow teachers to give students more attention, Weis said. The effort should bolster another statewide effort, the California Read Initiative, being launched this year.

“We are hitting reading hard,” Weis said. “We are taking on the challenge of making all children learn to read by the end of the third grade. We are starting right now and we will continue until we capture it.”

The state received $42 million in federal money from the Goals 2000 fund, which was dispersed this spring. The money will be used in the county to train existing teachers, buy better textbooks, and provide training for graduate students who want to become teachers.

In the high schools, new programs will emphasize careers and information that students can use in the work force after graduation.

The Oxnard Union High School District is expanding its academy program, a series of schools within schools to show students the connection between academics and real-life jobs.

A justice academy will open at Camarillo High School, which will teach students about the world of law enforcement and courtrooms. Oxnard High School will open the county’s first hospitality and tourism academy, and Rio Mesa will launch a medical careers academy.

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Simi Valley, the county’s largest school district, will dedicate an entire campus to specialized study: Santa Susana High School. The county’s first magnet school will emphasize technology and the performing arts. Proponents say the school’s graduates will feed into the rapidly growing market in Hollywood and the entertainment industry. At least 850 students are expected to start classes this week.

The experimental school has battled criticism that it would be a waste of money and serve only an elite student body. School administrators predict there will be a waiting list by next year.

Also starting this fall in Simi Valley, district reconfiguration will move ninth-graders from junior high into high school.

Ventura is launching another sort of magnet school: A “basics” program at Will Rogers Elementary School will require student uniforms, stress strict rules of discipline as well as parental involvement.

County Supt. Weis thinks uniforms are a trend that will continue to gain popularity.

“Freedom of speech is a constitutional right and individuality is an American trait,” Weis said. “But I see it [uniforms] on the rise with both presidential candidates supporting it.”

And he says experience shows that clothes make a difference. “In Long Beach, where uniforms were introduced several years ago, teachers have reported a decrease in disciplinary problems and a rise in achievement,” he said.

Oxnard’s Emilie Ritchen and Fred Williams elementary schools have adopted voluntary dress codes.

Rio Del Valle will become the first junior high in the county to adopt uniforms. But the transition can be rocky for fashion-conscious adolescents.

“They didn’t want to look dorky,” said Rio Elementary School District Supt. Yolanda M. Benitez, who is overseeing the shift to white shirts and navy slacks or skirts for seventh- and eighth-graders. “But I think they will get into it.”

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Technology will also receive a financial boost this year.

County schools have already poured $6.1 million into technology, and they plan to invest the same amount this year.

About 100 schools have Internet access, and more have plans to venture into cyberspace.

“We’re getting all cabled up with technology,” said Mupu School Principal Jeanne Krejci, who also doubles as a first-grade teacher. But she stressed that computers will be used for “purposeful research.” Students will “search the Net, not surf the Net,” she said.

All these changes boil down to one thing: Ventura’s continued commitment to educational excellence, Weis said. “We are improving from a position of power,” he said. “We have pockets of brilliance and areas that need more support. But it is time to move to the next level and elevate Ventura into a world-class system.”