Committee Unveils Long-Range Plan to Address Crowding

VENTURA — City Council members applauded the results of a five-month study of the future need for more schools in Ventura during a joint meeting of the council and school board Monday night.

After months of intense brainstorming and drumming up grass-roots support, trustees of the Ventura Unified School District sat beside the council and listened intently as representatives of a 19-member school committee officially unveiled Ventura’s long-range plan to deal with school overcrowding.

“This is a very historic occasion. This is only the beginning,” board President Velma Lomax told the council. “As the community grows and the schools grow, we’re not going away. We’ll see you again in the future.”

While the public leafed through the committee’s report, City Council members pelted the committee with questions about the relationship between schools and growth.

The plan is the result of a rare personal and professional relationship between Mayor Jack Tingstrom and Ventura Unified School District Supt. Joseph Spirito. Recognizing that Ventura’s crowded schools and economic future were on a collision course, the men joined forces last year to form a committee including some of Ventura’s most powerful and well-connected residents.

The committee--made up of a diverse cross-section of Venturans, including business people, developers, parents and educators--met to discuss school crowding. It produced an ambitious plan to build at least two new elementary schools, one middle school and a magnet high school, all by 2010. The plan’s estimated cost: $120 million.

Tingstrom and Spirito have made a spirited showing in recent weeks to stand united behind the plan, but Monday was the first time the public, and the other council and school board members, could air their opinions.

“It means we have a road, we know where we want to go, what all our possibilities are. It’s not just piecemeal, it’s a comprehensive picture,” Trustee Cliff Rodrigues said.

Councilman Steve Bennett asked the council to consider creating a full partnership between the schools and the city by amending the Comprehensive Plan, the city’s blueprint for development, so that no building permits are issued without ensuring there is sufficient school capacity.

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Monday’s meeting, which drew a capacity crowd at City Council chambers, focused more on the plan and not how to finance it. The report suggests that the construction of new schools, and renovation of old schools, be paid for by selling off some surplus school property, assessing developer’s fees and taking one or more bond measures to the voters.

Sandy Smith, who sits on the Planning Commission and the schools committee, asked the council to set aside 300 housing allocations for school property that could be sold to enhance its value.

Trustee John Walker made a pitch to residents to support a bond measure for their own self-interest.

“Jack [Tingstrom] himself told me when he goes out to talk to people about bringing people to Ventura, they usually ask, ‘How are your schools?’ . . . If your schools aren’t good, I guarantee you your property won’t be in demand,” Walker said.

The district owns a total of about 80 acres in east Ventura. District officials said soil experts are already tromping around a 20-acre plot south of California 126, in possible preparation for a new elementary school.

Lomax said the trustees have some “serious, serious pencil sharpening” ahead of them.

“We’re running about as lean as we can,” Lomax said. “So now we have to get some creative ideas for financing.”

School boards in Ventura County rarely ask for more than $50 million or $60 million on a bond measure that must go before the voters. And historically, most measures have failed.

Bennett suggested that passing a bond measure will take a substantial effort. “From this day forward, we have to do everything possible to pass a bond measure in this city. . . . A two-thirds vote is a real challenge,” he said.

Privately, many city officials say the full $120 million may be beyond the city’s reach.

“I think that the $120 million represents the best-case scenario,” Councilman Ray Di Guilio said shortly before Monday’s meeting. “In reality, I think a number less than that will be the target. . . . But we have to start somewhere, so that would be the best of all worlds if it were possible.”

Di Guilio, who is an administrator at Moorpark College, envisions a competition between funding for new facilities and desperately needed renovations to the existing facilities--the newest of which went up 30 years ago. Di Guilio predicts that the consultant will probably recommend that the school board prepare a bond measure of between $50 million and $60 million.

Councilman Jim Friedman also sees the cost of overhauling the schools as formidable.

“It’s a heck of a lot of money,” Friedman said before the meeting. “And the only way the schools are going to be able to do what they need to do is to raise literally multimillions of dollars. It will be truly in the hands of the people who live here to decide the quality of education they want to see in this city.”

Spirito mentioned last week that the district may need to consider several bond measures to raise all the money necessary.

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The school board has scheduled a Jan. 21 study session to discuss how to finance the ambitious proposal. Ultimately, many in the community say, the school board may have to settle with only some of the plan’s most important elements and forego the others.

“It’s a whole smorgasbord table you can select from now. You can make the whole decision--for the dessert, the main course, the whole thing. We’ve got it all there. We’ve just got to select and make the healthy decision,” Rodrigues said.

A summary of the committee’s report, titled “Schools for a New Century,” can be obtained at each district school. Copies can also be reviewed at the Foster, Avenue, Oak View and Wright libraries. An unabridged version of the long-range plan can be viewed upon request at every district school and the district office at 120 E. Santa Clara St.

To obtain additional public feedback, Spirito said the district intends to hold at least four more meetings this year to discuss the committee recommendations.

MacGregor is a Times staff writer; Hong is a Times correspondent.