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High school board gets warning of crowding
It makes no decision about how to spend bond money
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More from Education: K-12The Oxnard Union High School District needs another school if it wants to ease overcrowding on its campuses, officials said at a Thursday board meeting.
Each of the district's six regular high schools has exceeded its capacity, said Assistant Superintendent Randy Winton. That includes Pacifica High, its newest school, which has topped its limit by more than 1,000 students.
The district as a whole is more than 2,200 students over capacity. If a new high school appeared today, Winton said, "We could fill it up."
He presented those figures to the board and nearly two dozen audience members, which included representatives from other districts and city planning departments, at a special meeting Thursday afternoon.
Several scenarios also were presented, including possible campus enrollments if the district built only one new school, in Oxnard or on land already purchased in Camarillo; or built both schools at various sizes. The board took no action.
"You have excessive overcrowding in the city of Oxnard (schools) already," Oxnard resident Al Velasquez told trustees Thursday. "We are in need of a school in Oxnard today."
Plans have previously called for the district to build two campuses in Camarillo and Oxnard and voters passed a $135 million bond measure nearly three years ago to help make that happen.
The district has yet to spend that money or start building, and a proposal to remove Camarillo and Somis students from the district has moved forward. About 3,000 students and two campuses, Camarillo and Frontier high schools, likely would be removed from the district under the Camarillo unification proposal.
Oxnard Union and Camarillo's K-8 Pleasant Valley School District have been at odds over the unification proposal. A state board still must consider the issue. If it moves forward, local voters also would get a say.
Meanwhile, Oxnard Union trustee Steve Stocks said, "We have really lost a lot of money waiting for unification. We can't waste any more of our bond money."
Some construction costs have doubled since 2004, and Winton estimated it would now cost more than $141 million to build a new high school. The state would likely pay about a third of those costs.
Val Rains, a former Pleasant Valley school board member, said Thursday that she thinks a new school in Camarillo is still needed. Camarillo High School is the least crowded of the district's regular campuses, but hundreds of Camarillo students also attend Rio Mesa High School.
She asked the Oxnard Union board to take into account new housing developments in the Rio area and Camarillo.
The board plans to meet again to discuss the issue, and Rains also asked that a future meeting be scheduled in Camarillo.
Posted by sslocal on September 14, 2007 at 10:50 a.m. (Suggest removal)
We all know that a new school is needed. The question is, where will it be built?
Why did the state have to foot the bill? Do we not charge developers money to fund this sort of thing?
Posted by KidsfirstinOX on September 14, 2007 at 2:12 p.m. (Suggest removal)
sslocal, developers usually do fund for schools, but alot of times these monies are going to fund elementry schools. Developers feel families with young children will move into these new developments. Everyone knows that through grade 3 there can only be a max of 20 students in each class. So that's why all these new elementary schools went up in Oxanrd and Rio school district. Everyone forgets about the junior high and high schools that become overcrowded due to all the new homes and elementry schools being built.
How can we make a difference? In the city of Oxnard there are planning commision meetings on Thursday evenings. You as a citizen can voice your opinion on what effect new homes and/or businesses will have in our community. But you have to make sure you attend the evening the comission will be hearing the request to pass a plan. If it passes the planning commision, you still have a 2nd chance to try and stop it. Attend the city council meetings on Tuesday evening, again attend the day the actual event will be heard, as the planning comission may approve, but the city council makes the final decision. Let your mayor and council know what an effect new homes being built in our community has with our kids and their schools. The bigger crowd that you can get to go with you the better. They will not forget who you are. I am saying this in hopes that people in the community will step up and let our school districts and city council know that we are all very concerned. Everything has a domino effect and in the case of our kids the situation of the junior high and high schools the effect is greater as our children are not getting educated. I especially feel for the teachers that are trying to teach a class of anywhere from 40-50 kids in a class.(Think about it daycare facilities have to have 1 adult for every 7 children.Wow!)I have heard of children being unable to purchase or get low income lunches as the lines are too long from the overcrowding of the schools. Our districts need to really look into building new junior high and high schools. Remember everyone we need to put our "KIDS FIRST" as they are our future.
Posted by OxnardNative on September 17, 2007 at 12:24 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Overcrowded high schools? No, say it's not so!! Quick build more homes and bring in more people Oxnard, we have plenty of water too!!!
Posted by randumb on September 30, 2007 at 9:14 p.m. (Suggest removal)
There is like a limit of like 38 students, but there is always like over 43 enrolled for that class in that period. We got Pacifica like not even that long a go and we still have this problem? Rebuilt Oxnard High. Seriously there are some wasted space in those classes. Like at least 7 students don't want to be there, but are there just wasting space. Kick them out and let the people who want to learn be there.
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