Elementary School Planned for CSUCI

Cal State Channel Islands officials plan to ask the state to pay for a public elementary school to be located on the new university campus that would serve as a training ground for college students pursuing careers in education.

Administrators are deciding whether the school, which would be operated under the Pleasant Valley Elementary School District, should be a charter, magnet or regular public school. Whatever the decision, officials envision the elementary campus as an innovative place to develop future teachers.

As prospective teachers earn their teaching credentials, they would receive hands-on experience in a classroom--without ever leaving the college campus. They would be able to complete student teaching hours at the elementary school and would have access to veteran teachers as mentors.

“It’s a wonderful opportunity for all the players,” said Pleasant Valley Supt. Andre La Couture. “Anything we can do to further the teaching profession and get quality teachers is going to benefit the whole educational community.”

The elementary school would accommodate about 600 kindergarten through eighth-grade students. Though officials expect to open the school to pupils throughout the county, they said most of the elementary students would be children of university students or staff living on campus.

Starting in 2002, the university plans to begin building 900 housing units for students. Officials expect as many as 450 children to live in the on-campus housing. The remaining slots would be filled with other Ventura County children.

“It will be great for families to have a neighborhood school, not to mention having a teacher education program right in their backyard,” said Barbara Thorpe, chief academic planner for the university. “These families will be able to take advantage of that as well.”

The school would also lift a burden from the 7,200-student Pleasant Valley Unified School District, which is bursting at the seams in many of its 15 schools. In addition to the school on the university campus, the district is also planning to build another elementary school.

A steering committee--made up of nearly 50 educators from throughout the county--has been planning for the school on the site of the former Camarillo State Hospital for the past several months, but it still has a long way to go.

The university plans to donate 10 acres of land for the school, and is currently conducting environmental tests on the site.

“It’s still in the developmental stages, but it’s really an exciting adventure to go in and design a school from its inception,” said Val Rains, president of the Pleasant Valley school board and a member of the steering committee.

Assemblyman Tony Strickland (R-Thousand Oaks) said he supports the elementary school, and will do whatever he can to help the university get funding.

“It’s a very innovative idea,” said Strickland, who sits on an educational task force in Sacramento. “We need more teachers to get out there and educate our children. And we need to train those teachers to give our children the best education possible.”

Assemblywoman Hannah-Beth Jackson (D-Santa Barbara) said the elementary school could lure both college students and staff to the fledgling Cal State campus.

“I think it would really provide a greater sense of community at the university,” she said. “Staff and students at the university will love having their children in school close to where they are. I’m happy to support it.”

Officials don’t expect to have the funding for construction and operations secured until next year. If they don’t receive state money, university officials may apply for federal funding or tap local sources, such as other school districts in the county.

Then administrators would decide whether the campus would be a magnet or a charter school, and who will pay the salaries of the elementary school teachers.

As a magnet school, the campus would probably focus on math, science and technology, and would draw students with those interests.

“This county is a corridor of high-tech, so we hope we’ll be helping prepare these kids for that,” Thorpe said.

As a charter school, the Camarillo campus would receive public funds, but would have independent control over its finances and curriculum apart from the district. The school would be free from most state and local regulations, but would be required to show that its students were keeping pace with others throughout the state.

There are nearly 250 charter schools in California, but none in Ventura County. Santa Barbara County has two, Orange County has three, and Los Angeles County has 25.

“The charter would allow us to be more creative and innovative,” La Couture said. “And not only will the school serve our kids, but it will also serve the college students on the campus.”

School board member Ron Speakman said he hopes some of the teachers trained at the elementary school campus would later apply for positions in the Pleasant Valley district.

“The [university students] will spend time in a state-of-the-art facility,” Speakman said. “And hopefully they’ll come out of there with progressive teaching techniques that they can use in the Pleasant Valley schools.”

If the state approves funding by summer 2001, construction on the elementary school would begin that fall, officials said. And the school would open the following year, in fall 2002.