District Change Endorsed for Camarillo High

A proposal to move Camarillo High out of the Oxnard high school district got a boost this week when a citizens committee gave it a thumbs up.

Although the 10 committee members, who were appointed by school board officials from throughout Ventura County, were worried about the financial effects of such a move, eight of them voted to recommend it to the state.

The vote Wednesday was the latest step in an attempt to create a new unified school district that would merge Adolfo Camarillo High School with the 14 preschools, elementary and middle schools in Camarillo’s Pleasant Valley School District. Adolfo Camarillo is now part of Oxnard Union High School District.

Sandy Berg, president of the Pleasant Valley school board, was thrilled by the 8-2 vote recommending the move. “This was huge,” she said. “It was a landslide.”

The recommendation now goes to the state Board of Education, which will conduct its own hearings and studies before deciding whether to put the proposal before voters.

The committee agreed the move would have no negative effects in eight of nine categories under study, covering such things as ethnicity, community identity, facilities and educational programs, said Stan Mantooth, an associate superintendent in the county superintendent of schools office and secretary of the committee.

But on the ninth criterion, financial effect, committee members said the action could cause hardship to either district, because of differing medical benefits to retirees, Mantooth said.