School Says State Owes It $80,000

A south Oxnard elementary school says the state should give it a cash award for meeting test performance goals even though too few students took the test in question.

Students at Haycox Elementary Schoolimproved their Stanford 9 test scores from 419 points to 467 between 1999 and 2000. That made it eligible for a state bonus of about $80,000--a significant amount for a school with a discretionary budget of $500,000.

But the state declined to recognize the school’s improvement because 23% of its students did not take the test.

Parents have the right to exempt their children from taking the test, an option preferred by many whose children are just learning English. But state education officials decided after issuing the tests that schools could not qualify for the improvement awards unless at least 85% of their students took the test.

Robert Fraisse, superintendent of the Hueneme Elementary School District, said it’s unfair to impose rules like that retroactively. “There weren’t any clear rules at the time of last year’s testing about what would or wouldn’t qualify you,” he said of the new awards program. If last year’s test scores aren’t recognized, Fraisse said that could take the school out of the running for this year’s awards as well.

The local school board will meet on Feb. 26 at 5:30 p.m. at the Port Hueneme City Council chambers to decide whether to issue a formal appeal to the state Board of Education next month.

Pat Chladek, manager of the awards unit for the state Department of Education, said fewer than 10 schools statewide have contacted his department about an appeal.

“Right now the regulations prohibit those people from receiving the award,” he said. “They’ll have to demonstrate to the board why they should be granted an exemption from the regulations.”