For Some, 1st Day of Class Is Elementary

It was high fives all around Wednesday for Dianne Quimby-Anders, principal of Camarillo’s newest school.

Opening day at La Mariposa Elementary School went by without a hitch, everyone agreed, as its students joined thousands heading back to classrooms across Ventura County.

“We’re up and running! We did it!” third-grade teacher Susan Webber said as Quimby-Anders passed by Webber’s line of students touring the new campus.

“What a smooth day. Congratulations!” parent and PTA organizer Melanie Richardson said as the principal walked by an outdoor buffet of doughnuts, bagels and coffee for parents.

“Everything went smoothly,” Nancy Myers, the school’s literacy coach, said with a smile as she greeted Quimby-Anders on the school grounds.

More than 130,000 students return to class this week across the county, including those in Ventura, Moorpark and Simi Valley, where schools opened Wednesday. Conejo Valley Unified School District in Thousand Oaks is scheduled to open its doors today.

In Ventura County, where subdivision construction seems as prevalent as vegetable fields and the Pacific Ocean, schools are experiencing growing pains, said Quimby-Anders, a 29-year veteran of the Pleasant Valley Elementary School District.

The new Sycamore Elementary School will open today in the Dos Vientos neighborhood of Newbury Park. And classes at University Preparation School, affiliated with Cal State Channel Islands, are scheduled to start Tuesday in Camarillo.

Quimby-Anders said the Pleasant Valley district consolidated campuses and shifted school boundaries this year to adjust to Camarillo’s changing growth patterns. The 7,200-student district closed Valle Lindo Elementary School in central Camarillo--where growth has peaked and many youths are now teenagers--and opened La Mariposa in eastern Camarillo.

“This is a big day not only for La Mariposa, but for the whole Pleasant Valley School District,” said Quimby-Anders, who wore a white sweater with the school’s name stitched in red on the front. “People have been working for more than a year to pull this day off.”

The spotless campus with patches of grass still trying to take hold is surrounded by new subdivisions that have drawn young families to the Mission Oaks neighborhood. In addition to its permanent beige-and-green buildings, La Mariposa will use portable classrooms as part of an overall plan for dealing with growth swings, Quimby-Anders said.

“When we have lots of students, we’ll use the portables,” she said. “When there’s fewer kids, we’ll take them away.”

The story is similar throughout the county. At Ventura High School, 480 more students than expected showed up for the first day of classes, bringing enrollment to 2,400, Principal Larry Emrich said. He was not certain of the reason for the unexpected increase.

“If the numbers hold, we’ll have to figure out a way to hire more teachers,” said Emrich, whose 64-year-old Main Street campus has undergone a top-to-bottom restoration over the last 1 1/2 years.

Renovations include new electrical wiring and floor tiles, a new coat of paint in each classroom, seismic retrofitting and making the campus wheelchair-accessible. Because all the work has not been completed, some teachers had to hold classes on the lawn.

Despite the inconvenience, the first day of school unfolded seamlessly, he said.

“Today was one of the smoothest opening days we’ve had--and our numbers were huge,” said Emrich, who has been Ventura High’s principal for six years and was an assistant principal three years previously.

“Kids were here on time, they were in class and teachers got to work,” he said.

In Simi Valley, Sinaloa Middle School hired three additional teachers this year to handle an expected enrollment of 1,175, Principal Leslie Franks said. The sixth-through eighth-grade school serves families from the expanding Wood Ranch housing development in western Simi Valley.

“All the kids here had a class schedule and we had our helpers out there showing the new sixth-graders to their rooms,” Franks said. “Of course, there’s always a challenge in the parking lot, but in a few days, things will calm down.”

Back at La Mariposa in Camarillo, first-grader Kenton Anspaugh knew what he liked best about his new school.

“There’s bones inside the climbing wall on the playground,” Kenton said after his class toured the campus with teacher JoAnn Reith. Actually, Kenton was describing a scorpion-shaped indentation inside the plastic climbing wall meant to resemble an arachnid’s skeletal remains embedded in rock.

“I like the lunch tables,” Kenton’s classmate, Madison Hodson, said.

“The monkey bars,” offered another student, Alex Littaua.

Sitting at their low-slung tables, the children colored a picture of a butterfly with the words “Welcome to La Mariposa” across the top. They were impressed when Reith passed out a much-needed item to each of them.

“I bought you all an eraser as a gift,” Reith said.