Committee Suggests Moving Magnet School Nearer to Town Center

A popular elementary school magnet program in east Ventura should be relocated to a campus closer to the center of town, a committee formed to study the school district’s long-term facility needs said Thursday.

The 19-member panel, which has deliberated since August, also suggested that Lincoln and Pierpont elementary schools, which have low attendance, and the shuttered Washington elementary may need to be combined onto a single campus.

In its final meeting, the Ventura Unified School District committee--made up of parents, educators and public officials--worked out the details of its ambitious $120-million plan for dealing with school crowding through 2010.

Along with the suggestion of moving Mound Magnet School, the committee restated the need for at least two new elementary schools, a middle school and a new high school in the next 10 to 15 years.

City officials and school trustees are scheduled to present the report to the public at a 7 p.m. meeting Jan. 13 in the City Council chambers.

“I think we have a good product that’s very concise and direct,” committee consultant Rob Corley said of the report.

Recommendations to finance the plan include asking voters to pass a bond measure seeking state funds and selling some of the district’s surplus land. But one idea that committee members anticipate might come under fire is a recommendation to include asking that developers pay higher fees to support school construction.

Meanwhile, school officials are proceeding with plans for construction. Architects from Porter Stinson & Miller in Agoura Hills have been hired to look into building an elementary school in the east end of town, district officials said.

“It is our desire to have the schools up and running by September 1998, but we understand that’s a very very ambitious timeline,” said Joseph Richards, the district’s assistant superintendent of business services.

In addition, bond experts for the school district have already begun studying the feasibility of advocating a school bond measure.

A hearing will be held by late January so the public can comment on the long-range plans, said Supt. Joseph Spirito, who attended the Thursday night meeting.