Supporting the Proposed Academic High School in Camarillo

By Bill Little

The Oxnard High School District has proposed building a 700 student Academic High School in Camarillo. The City has a major role to play in bringing it to reality. I support the new High School as well as making sure Camarillo High School receives its fair share of improvement funding from the District.

For a number of years, the citizens of Camarillo have been asking for a new High School in Camarillo which would allow all students residing in Camarillo to attend school within their City boundaries. Presently, approximately 2,200 students attend Camarillo High School, and about 700 students, residing in Camarillo or its environs, attend Rio Mesa High School. Another 300 to 400 students attend High Schools in other districts. Based on ten years of projected student enrollments, the total number of high school age students in Camarillo (3,200 -3,300) isn't expected to change over the next decade. While these numbers do not warrant a second large, comphrensive High School, they do show that there are too many students to be accommodated at Camarillo High School due to site limitations.

The Oxnard Union High School District Board has decided to build a state-of- the- art Academy High School having a capacity for 700 students, coupled with a performing arts center, seating 700, to serve the District schools as well as the Camarillo community at large. They have committed $60 million in already available bond funds for that purpose. The Academy High School will focus its curriculum on engineering and design, health and biomedical technology and visual and performing arts. The curriculum will be rigorously academic and will satisfy California requirements for college admissions for all of its students, while providing practical skills that are immediately useful in the workforce whether a student chooses to advance to college or enter the workforce directly.

Camarillo and Somis residents will be given enrollment priority. Academic standards will be high and enrollment will require a continuous commitment by students to achieve to the best of their abilities. The Academy High School is proposed to be built on District owned property north of the Camarillo Library. The property is outside the current City limits and will require City Council approval of an annexation to the City as well as State agency approval of that annexation. However, as part of the site studies necessary for project approval, alternative sites will be studied and evaluated.

Having served on the Curriculum and Site Design Citizen Committees over a two year period, I believe that this proposal will significantly add to the educational opportunities of the students in our City. The Performing Arts Center, which will be available for community use, will add a needed dimension to the cultural opportunities of our residents. Pending the results of the environmental studies, I support the concept of an additional High School facility within Camarillo so that all of our students are able to attend High School within our City.

In recent years, I have come to appreciate just how important schools and other institutions such as hospitals, churches and charitable service agencies are to creating the quality of life in a community. I also have concluded that, in large measure, the reputation that a City has among the citizens of an area is the success of these institutions in carrying out their missions. The City Council needs to move towards having a closer, more ongoing dialogue with these institutions on a continuing basis than has occurred in the past. I will work to bring that about.