Officials From 4 School Districts Discuss Unification

Before an overflow crowd of about 200, school officials from four school districts on Monday night hashed out the details of bringing Adolfo Camarillo High School under the control of a local elementary school district.

The meeting was billed as a joint study session among the four school boards that could see their districts change if Pleasant Valley’s kindergarten through eighth-grade school system were to unify.

Unification would involve the 7,100-student district taking control of award-winning Camarillo High from the Oxnard Union High School District, which covers grades nine through 12.

Almost immediately, trustees from the Oxnard and Pleasant Valley districts laid out their cases for and against unification.

Oxnard High Trustee Irene Pinkard suggested that unification was a solution in search of a problem.

“I’m curious whether the [Pleasant Valley] district identified any actual problem leading to the need to pursue unification as the only way to go,” Pinkard said. “Did you find a lack of achievement at Adolfo Camarillo High School? Did you check the curriculum? . . . Did you identify the amount of funds that came to Camarillo and find that they did not equate?”

Without criticizing curriculum or achievement, Pleasant Valley Trustee Ron Speakman responded that a unified school system would promote community identity and self-governance. He and others suggested that the Oxnard district was not moving fast enough to accommodate Camarillo’s growth by building a second high school.

For years, he said, “I was wondering why a community of our size, with the resources we have, didn’t have a [second high] school. . . . A community of 60,000 people that is not economically challenged has the wherewithal to manage their own affairs.”

*

At the meeting were trustees and superintendents from the Pleasant Valley, Oxnard Union High, Somis Union and Mesa Union districts. They were not expected to resolve the matter Monday.

Unification advocates believe that folding all Camarillo students into one school district would increase local control of curriculum and spending, eliminate busing of some Camarillo students to Rio Mesa High in Oxnard and make it easier for parents to participate in their children’s education.

Physician Claudia Jensen, the mother of an 11-year-old, said she would like her daughter educated closer to home.

“She can ride her bike to Adolfo Camarillo High School, but I’ll have to drive her to Rio Mesa,” Jensen said. “This is about students. My student will get just as excellent an education in her community as in someone else’s.”

Foes believe the move would further segregate Oxnard schools, which have a high percentage of minority students, and leave Pleasant Valley strapped for facilities and cash to cover employee salaries and benefits.

Oxnard Trustee Art Hernandez said that unification should be approached gingerly.

“Like it or not, what we’re talking about is like a divorce,” he said. “We need to play counselors here, and look at how it’s going to affect the children. . . . We’re in a situation where we’re all family, and we’re talking about splitting up the family.”

Before the meeting, Pleasant Valley Supt. Andy LaCouture said he hoped the joint meeting could be a respite for all involved: a time to examine facts dispassionately.

“My hope is that any face-to-face communication will serve to remedy some of the anxiety, some of the apprehension and some of the rumors that have been floating around,” LaCouture said. He specifically referred to a recent informal poll of Camarillo High teachers showing strong opposition to unification.

“To me, that was sort of like a pre-test based on what you think you know already,” LaCouture added. “Once you get the lesson and take the post-test, the answers may be different.”

*

Officials with the Oxnard, Mesa and Somis districts have all previously expressed concerns about the unification effort, which would shift control of Camarillo High from Oxnard to Pleasant Valley.

For their part, Pleasant Valley trustees have taken no formal stance on unification, but are expected to do so at a board meeting Thursday. They will also then consider hiring a lawyer to guide them through the unification process, if it moves forward. At a minimum, unification would take two years to occur and would involve scrutiny from state and local officials and voters.

Unification would most transform the 14,000-pupil Oxnard district, which would see its enrollment of white students plummet from 28% to 12% if Camarillo kids left. Students from Mesa Union schools--who attend Rio Mesa High with a few hundred students from Camarillo--would also see the complexion of their high school change dramatically.

Students from Somis, who now make up about 16% of Camarillo High’s enrollment, would have to choose between two districts were unification to progress.

If Somis families wanted to keep sending their children to Camarillo High, the elementary district could keep its individual identity, but would have to petition to have its high school students be part of the unified district. If Somis residents favored the Oxnard district, they would have to send their children to a school other than Camarillo.