Fundamental Education

Ventura County has five fundamental or back-to-basics elementary schools

* Vista Fundamental and Hollow Hills Fundamental schools in Simi Valley. Magnet schools drawing from across the city, both stress homework, student responsibility and patriotism. They employ a limited dress code allowing children to wear shorts only on certain days and to dress modestly. Neither of the schools, which opened in the early 1980s, provide bilingual or special education programs, or offer additional federal funds for low-income families. Students are chosen by lottery.

* Los Primeros Structured School in Camarillo. In 1976 the school was created out of the community’s desire to go back to the basic academic skills of reading, writing and arithmetic. Art and special projects are left to clubs that meet after school. The school has a limited dress code and no special programs. Set just south of the Ventura Freeway, it draws students from across the Pleasant Valley School District

* El Rancho Structured School in central Camarillo opened in the late 1980s to accommodate the overflow from Los Primeros. It is a neighborhood school first and because of its high Latino population, has become a bilingual education center. Still, strict rules apply here: blue and white uniforms are encouraged, running in the hall is taken seriously, color-coded cards are handed out to warn children that behavior probation is in their future, and fighting results in suspension.

* Will Rogers Basics Plus School in Ventura was created in 1996. Supt. Joe Spirito came up with the idea in 1993 as a way to make public schools competitive with private schools. Since Will Rogers went “basic” in the fall of 1996, at least two dozen new students have attended, mostly coming from private schools, while some families have left because of the dress code rules. Will Rogers is technically a magnet school drawing from the entire Ventura Unified School District. But most students come from the midtown neighborhood near the campus. It offers bilingual and special education and additional funds for low-income families.

Sources: School districts in Ventura County