School schedules reviewed
By Bret Bradigan

Skaters faced off against school board members Tuesday night, but weren't kept spinning their wheels.

In fact, the Ojai Unified School District unanimously approved a 20-year lease extension with the city, allowing Parks and Recreation staff to make their deadline for a Proposition 40 grant deadline Monday to make the Ojai Skate Park a permanent part of the Ojai landscape.

If the grant is approved, the skate park would expand from 7,300 square-feet to 10,000 square feet. The original lease ended at the end of 2000. Under the new terms, similar to the old terms, the city will pay the school district $194 a year for each of 71 parking spaces at the Park Ride, and $4,268 a year for the skate park.

Carol Belser, the city's Parks and Recreation Department director, teamed up with Jim Berube, the district's assistant superintendent, to bring the board up to date on the project. Berube said the three-year temporary skate park has met or exceeded expectations. "I can say for myself, the experiment has been nothing but a positive ... We have little problems here and there, but nothing major."

Belser said that the lease was critical, "regardless of whether we get this grant or not. The city is interested in a long-term lease." The new skate park, with a cost estimated at $365,000, would include lights, bike rack, new restrooms, and misting devices to keep spectators cool at events. "It's what Ojai kids want," she said, as she handed out preliminary drawings.

About a dozen skaters in attendance introduced themselves, and some spoke for the need for a permanent park. Kevin Offerman said, "This park has been really good, but it's falling apart and it's really scary."
The busy agenda also included an update on last year's contentious school calendar issue. A committee of parents, teachers and administrators met about 10 times, and conducted a poll of 556 parents at all district schools. Their representative, Beth Cohen, presented those results.

Parents rated various portions of the calendar - from start dates, winter break, spring break to school end dates - either favorable, unfavorable and no opinion. Most parents, 61.5 percent, favored their current calendars, though only 31 percent favored the start date for high school and only 16 percent favored having separate calendars for different schools.

Noting the fact that only one parent was in attendance, as opposed to the auditorium full last winter when the issue heated up, Superintendent Dr. Tim Baird saw that "as a statement that the community feels they've been heard."

The most opposition to the current split schedule came from parents with children spread across the district - K-6, junior high and high school. They rated the current separate schedules as unfavorable by 84 percent, with only 6.25 percent in favor, though those same parents favored the current winter break schedule by nearly 94 percent.

Overall, Cohen said, "It seems people are relatively happy with the start and end dates," though separate start dates for high schoolers and elementary school students proved to be unpopular, as did separate spring breaks.

Cohen ended with a plea to the district to continue the concept of task forces, such as was formed for the calendar issue. She called it "a great way for you to gather input ... and a real opportunity to bring people together and build networks."

The slumbering topic of start and end times for the school day was also revived at Tuesday's meeting, in the guise of dealing with the 45-minute waits students face for Nordhoff buses. Eric Ordway, the district's transportation supervisor, presented the board with four options for rescheduling bus schedules, all of which either created extra expense - such as adding a new bus and driver - or extra inconvenience - such as doubling up with other buses, thereby increasing wait times for some elementary school students.
"These are tough options," he said. "It will impact the students, and not very positively."

Ordway said about 80 students were currently congregating around the bus station after school, a drop from the fall numbers, as students either resigned themselves to walking home, or made other arrangements.

The fourth option, to make no changes this year, but to re-route bus schedules next year for the entire district, put the "bell-time issue up for grabs," said Rikki Horne, the board's newly installed president.
The board agreed that more supervision at the bus stop was the best solution for the time being. They also agreed to review both the bus schedules and school start times in the future.

One reason for tabling that issue is that the district expects fewer students to bus around next year. Baird presented estimates that show the district dropping from 3,622 regular education students in its October census this year, to 3,504 students next year. All schools except San Antonio Elementary and Nordhoff High School will suffer an enrollment decline, with Matilija Junior High absorbing the biggest loss at an estimated 68 fewer students.

This could mean the loss of the equivalent of 6.2 full-time teaching positions, though Baird cautioned that these were estimates would be further refined. "This is our first shot out of the box."

The ever-shrinking budget also loomed large, as the district's budget officer, Danielle Pusatere, presented the first of four of her interim financial reports. Guessing that the state of California's financial disarray make mid-year cuts likely, Pusatere said that a rollover of $670,000 in categorical funds from the prior year will help absorb those cuts. That does not include tapping into any of the 3 percent reserves. Baird said, "The sky would have to be falling and the creeks rising before we go there."

Pusatere said it appears the district should be able to meet its obligations for the next two years, barring any financial meltdown in Sacramento.

That said, the district approved sending out to bid several construction projects, including renovations at Matilija Junior High School's auditorim and track. The auditorium project is set to start after the Nordhoff spring musical concludes in the spring, and should be completed by the start of the school year in August, 2004. Besides handicapped accommodations and a ticket booth, Berube said the $600,000 renovation will increase capacity from 220 seats to 298. The $80,000 track project will eliminate the chronic drainage problems, that keep part of the junior high track under water for six of the nine months of school.

Speaking of Matilija, student board representative Kevin Horswell said he visited Doug Becker, the school's principal, during a job-trade day, when a lucky student, Tyler Stallings, got to be principal for the day, and Becker took her place as a student. He received detention for having his cell phone ring during science class, while Stallings declared that there would be no homework and running during physical education classes for that day.

The meeting began ceremoniously, with the conclusion of Tim Peddicord's reign as board president, and the assumption of Rikki Horne to that rotating role. Bob Unruhe became vice president and Kathi Smith became clerk of the board. It ended quietly, as Baird said due to the lateness of hour, approaching 11 p.m., he would forgo his superintendent's report. "There's no burning issues for you to hear about," he said.

© 2003 The Ojai Valley News

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