Declining enrollment forces officials to consider closures
With fewer students, district receives less state funding
By Michelle Knight knight@theacorn.com

Despite a booming city population, growth in the Pleasant Valley School District has mirrored the statewide trend of declining enrollment. The situation forced the board of trustees last week to approve forming an advisory committee to consider whether the district should close one or more schools.

For several years, forecasts have increasingly overestimated the number of actual students enrolled in the district, Superintendent Ken Moffett said.

In 2004, projections exceeded enrollment by 38 students; the following year, the difference was a drop of 96 students. Last year, the disparity ballooned to 191 students-a difference of six classes of 30 students each.

If enrollment figures continue to decline, the district could face financial problems, Moffett said.

Adding to the situation is the January opening of Rancho Rosal Elementary School, which is another school for the district to run.

Moffett said operating more schools than enrollment numbers support is too costly for the kindergarten through eighth grade district and siphons away resources-such as teaching and administrative staff-from where it could be used elsewhere.

"What scares the daylights out of me as your superintendent is the time factor," Moffett told the board.

He and the trustees are concerned whether the committee- that will be composed of seven to 11 teachers, administrators, parents and members of the business community-has enough time to meet and analyze district data so they can give the board its recommendation by February. If they recommend closures and the board approves, the district would have enough time to enact them for the 2007-08 school year. If they go beyond February, the district would have to wait at least another year to find relief.

If one or more closures are recommended, the committee will offer suggestions on where new boundary lines should fall and uses for the proposed surplus property. Committee meetings will be open to the public.

The trustees acknowledged closing a school is an emotionallycharged issue for parents and students.

Miller said change is always uncomfortable at first.

"I think it's important not to be governed by our fears," she said. "This is a course of prudent projected vision ... I'm not afraid of that."

Board president Ron Speakman said forming a committee is no guarantee a school will close. But he said the board must discharge its responsibility to teachers and students by having a committee analyze the issue.

"The single last thing an elected school official wants to do is close a school," Speakman said.

The trustees considered closing Los Altos Middle School last year but decided against it in response to the community and the former superintendent's recommendation to keep it open. But sixth grade enrollment is so low that the district had to send those students to Las Colinas and Monte Vista middle schools this year.

In 2002, enrollment declined in central Camarillo but grew in the city's eastern reaches; the district

closed three schools. About the same time, charter school University Preparation and La Mariposa Elementary schools opened. Meanwhile, Bedford Open School, now Los Senderos Open School, moved to the Los Nogales site.

The district's goal is to get the most efficient use out of its resources, which include teachers and administrative staff, by populating kindergarten through fifth or eighth grade schools with between 550 and 700 students. On middle school campuses, the district wants between 1,000 and 1,200 students.