Dropout rates up for Camarillo high schools
Campuses across state reported an increase in dropout numbers
By Michelle Knight knight@theacorn.com

More than 500 freshmen, juniors and seniors dropped out of schools in the Oxnard Union High School District during the 2006-07 school year, according to a recent report.

Becky Buettner, the district's assessment director, gave the report to the school board on Jan. 16.

The figure, 513, represents just over 3 percent of the district's 16,300 students and is up from 432 drop outs in 2005-06. Hispanics made up the overwhelming majority of dropout students at 400, followed by 76 white students.

Pacifica led all the other high schools in the district with 102 students who didn't attend during the school year or who left before completing it and, in either case, failed to enroll elsewhere. Rio Mesa was second with 90.

Adolfo Camarillo High School had the least number of dropouts among the district's traditional high schools with 30 students. But even that figure represents 11 more students than the year before.

Buettner said some causes for the increase at Camarillo High could be the layoffs at Technicolor and the countywide crop freeze last year. Both incidents could have forced families to move out of the area.

Glenn Lipman, Camarillo High principal, said it may be that the missing students are in transit with their families and haven't yet settled in a place and enrolled in school.

"We have a lot of programs in place to find students," Lipman said.

For Rio Mesa, Buettner said the loss of a permanent attendance coordinator for most of the 2006-07 school year was a likely cause of the school's 3.95 percent dropout rate, the highest percentage among the traditional schools. The previous year, the school had 35 students, or 1.59 percent, leave school without graduating.

Attendance coordinators or advisers are similar to truant officers of old in that they try to locate missing students and get them to come to school. They may have the student and/or parent attend special classes or programs.

Rene Rickard, principal of Rio Mesa, said the emotionally-charged word "dropout" implies teachers, counselors and others are not doing their job, but she says that's not true.

A host of factors, some outside the school's control, contribute to the dropout numbers, such as students who move and can't be located, students who never enroll in school or students who enroll but whose new school doesn't request their records.

"We're really proactive by getting kids to stay in school . . . but sometimes family situations cause them to leave," Rickard said.

"We're very concerned about our school's dropout rate . . . because the number represents students who are not being served. Wherever they are, they need to be getting an education."

Buettner said she had expected dropout numbers for all schools to increase because of the requirement to pass the high school exit exam- students who don't pass don't graduate, and unless they enroll in another school, community college or return to their former school for a fifth year, they're considered a dropout.

In 2005-06, schools countywide saw a slight increase in the number of students who left school without graduating, going from 915 to 989. Figures across the state rose likewise the same year to more than 68,000, an increase of about 9,000 dropout students from the year before. State and county figures for last year were not available.