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Mesa kicks off school year
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More from Education: K-12Mesa School in Somis might be adding to its school grounds this year.
Officials at the one-campus Mesa Union School District, which started its 2007-08 school year on Monday, have been working to acquire a L-shaped swath of lemon grove adjacent to the school. They want to use the land to improve the parking lot and create a play field for students.
District officials are negotiating with private landowners and working with state agencies on the project, four years in the making, said Superintendent John Puglisi.
About 570 students started back at Mesa School on Monday, and Puglisi said opening day "went swimmingly."
Mesa School has a few new teachers and a new principal, Marilyn Renger, who came from Balboa Middle School in Ventura. The K-8 school also has a new project. "We're exploring space and time," Puglisi said. "We've turned our playground into an astronomical exploratory."
Throughout the year, students also will be videoconferencing with scientists around the world and learning how their class studies apply to the day-to-day work of real scientists.
The school has built a relationship with the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and other agencies, providing students access to thousands of scientists.
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