Ojai Unified relocates office to former middle school as teacher housing plan moves ahead
The former campus of Matilija Middle School at 703 El Paseo Road officially became the headquarters of Ojai Unified School District this month, but on Tuesday, fingerprints of the campus’s days as a middle school remained.A pile of old textbooks sat on a table parked in a breezeway below the middle school’s old logo. The door of a former administrator’s office was blazoned with a Matilija sticker.
The district's longtime headquarters at 414 E. Ojai Ave. had fallen into disrepair over the years, Superintendent Sherrill Knox said, as the district considered alternate uses for the downtown property and focused its available funding on improving school campuses. Now, the district is moving forward with plans for one of those alternate uses: a proposed teacher housing development.
The school board voted during a special meeting July 11 to table a number of action items related to the downtown headquarters and directed staff to prepare work for a project feasibility study.
Knox said advisers from the California School Boards Association recommended the study before any major action so that the district can sort out details like the proposed development's size and how it will be paid for.
The project is more than a convenience, Knox said. Ojai, like Ventura County generally, is growing prohibitively expensive for some young families and Ojai Unified has a cohort of staff headed for retirement in the coming years.
"I am worried about recruiting and retaining staff in the future if we don't add something like this," she said. "It's a problem in all of Southern California. We have the lowest wages out of the county and yet some of the highest home prices."
Last year during a round of deep district budget cuts, Matilija was shuttered and its students moved to nearby Nordhoff High School.This week, Ryan Worsham, the district’s executive director of fiscal services, arranged his new office in a former classroom with walls still plastered with star-covered paper. Worsham said he had planned to leave the celestial decor up.“I thought I’d lean into it,” he said.Knox said that staff are so far loving their new digs.
The campus won't only be offices. Some rooms will be used for classes for the district's alternative high school and online program. Some middle school and high school programs will operate in the campus gym and theater.
Not all of the district's departments will move to Matilija. Transportation employees will remain at the former downtown district office while staff try to arrange an alternate plan.
Isaiah Murtaugh covers education for the Ventura County Star in partnership with Report for America. Reach him at isaiah.murtaugh@vcstar.com or 805-437-0236 and follow him on Twitter @isaiahmurtaugh and @vcsschools. You can support this work with a tax-deductible donation to Report for America.
This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: Ojai Unified relocates office as teacher housing moves ahead
