Ventura Schools Add 5 Class Days to Meet New Law

With an agreement from teachers in hand, school administrators have squeezed in five more classroom days for students this year to meet a new state law requiring 180 days of instruction.

On Tuesday, Ventura Unified School District trustees rejiggered the school calendar to increase classroom instruction time in such subjects as reading, math and science.

The move was hailed by some parents who had earlier criticized the district for not stretching the school year. The state budget approved last month set aside $195 million to help schools bring their calendars up to 180 days.

“Parents really want their children to have more time with teachers,” Ventura Supt. Joseph Spirito said. “They’ve been asking for their youngsters to spend more time on task. We’ve taken their concerns into account.”

Annette Halpern, whose two children attend Ventura’s Mound Elementary School, said she was thrilled with the decision. That decision means her children will have more time dedicated to their studies.

“It seemed our school district had an inordinately high number of . . . pupil-free days,” or teacher workdays, said Halpern, a teacher at Santa Paula High School.

“When I read that other school districts were taking advantage of the new state money, I was baffled and disappointed that we weren’t,” Halpern said. “Now I’m happy. Our kids need to be in school more, and I think the school board realized that.”

As recently as last month, Ventura was among several large county school districts unable to comply with the new law. After discussing the matter with the teachers’ union, school officials reconfigured the calendar. Many other local schools already meet or exceed the 180-day minimum.

Two other large districts, Oxnard Elementary and Simi Valley Unified, are still unable to eke out 180 days of teaching this year. Officials in those districts say they have applied for state waivers with the intention of catching up next year.

Although Ventura’s calendar change means extra work for teachers--and fewer opportunities to participate in training seminars--the teachers’ union embraced the extra work, administrator Jerry Dannenberg said.

“When we met with teachers asking for the extra days, they said, ‘If we’re going to do it next year, why not start it now?’ ” said Dannenberg, Ventura’s assistant superintendent for human resources.

The decision to change the calendar, however, is not without downsides: Teachers will have fewer days set aside to brush up on their skills at seminars focusing on everything from phonics to computers.

For instance, one new instruction day in Ventura--Nov. 6--is the date of a state education conference where reading will be discussed.

“We’re not sure how many teachers will be able to go,” Spirito said. “It depends on how many substitutes we can get that day.”

Halpern said she was in favor of teachers receiving additional training. She suggested educational organizations hosting conferences consider holding the seminars during summer to accommodate the longer year.

Both the Oxnard and Simi Valley districts said they were unable to fulfill the 180-day mandate this year because the state budget straggled in months after the school calendar had been adopted.

Oxnard Elementary district students will be in class 175 days this year, while Simi Valley children will attend school 177 days--with a slim chance of squeezing in another two days of instruction, officials said.