Unification to go before Camarillo, Oxnard voters
State board of education sends controversial issue to the ballot
By Michelle Knight knight@theacorn.com

Oxnard voters will have a say in whether there will be a K-12 Camarillo school district, the California State Board of Education ruled last week.

In making the March 13 ruling, the state board went against the recommendation of its advisory body, the Department of Education, but laid to rest one issue in a controversial plan to bring high school students into the Pleasant Valley School District.

"I'm pleased and disappointed," said Luis Villegas, Pleasant Valley superintendent. The decision gave "license" for a community to vote on a matter it won't be financially responsible to support, he said.

PVSD officials said it will be a challenge to pass a measure that includes Oxnard voters. However, Jennifer Miller, Pleasant Valley school board president, said, "We're happy that we have the chance to vote on it."

Some see the state board's decision as a compromise.

"We didn't get everything we wanted, but no one did," said Irene Pinkard, school board president for the Oxnard Union High School District. "We think that the most important part of the issue is accomplished- an all-area vote."

Pinkard said the outcome of an election that includes Oxnard voters is up in the air. "I don't think it's a guarantee it will fail or a guarantee it will win."

The Department of Education had sided with a local committee, which said in December 2006 that Camarillo and Somis voters should decide whether the Pleasant Valley School District will become a K-12 district.

Shortly afterward, the Oxnard Union High School District and an ad-hoc group of 11 Camarillo residents filed separate appeals to the state board, saying the removal of Camarillo and Somis students- many of whom are not minorities- would promote racial segregation.

Oxnard faced the loss of 2,300 students at Adolfo Camarillo High and about 800 students at Rio Mesa High and argued unification would disrupt education and strain the finances of both districts. Oxnard also wanted voters within its boundaries included in any vote on unification.

Although the state board disagreed on most points with the school district, it did open up the election area to voters within its boundaries, including Oxnard, Port Hueneme, Camarillo and Somis. The combined voter registration is 119,000, while 44,300 registered voters live in the Pleasant Valley and Somis Union school districts. The exact numbers are likely to differ because the affected school districts have overlapping boundaries.

Assistant Registrar Virginia Bloom said the election area will be limited to voters within the affected school districts' boundaries. City boundaries differ from those of school districts.

If a new school district is formed, about 75 percent of the veteran teachers at Camarillo High have said they plan to stay with Oxnard, OUHSD Superintendent Jody Dunlap.

Dunlap said she's doesn't believe there will be any need to lay off teachers.

Both school districts have said they plan to hold information forums in the coming months to educate the public on what a unified Camarillo school district may mean.