Ojai school district zeroes in on school cuts

Ojai Unified School District trustees voted Wednesday to combine four elementary schools into two and move the district's middle school students to Nordhoff High School.

The financially beleaguered district's plan also allows up to two additional campuses to be converted to preschool and transitional kindergarten and a third could house the district's main office, relocated from its current downtown Ojai digs. The changes will significantly cut staffing while repurposing the campuses for uses other than traditional schools.

Trustees split over some details of the plan — the final motion squeaked by 3-2 — but were in lockstep on the need for closures as the district tries to wrangle a shrinking student body and depleted budget.

"The reality is you have a finite amount of resources," board president Rebecca Chandler, who backed the plan, said Thursday. "The goal is to be able to give the best education possible to all of our children, and I feel like this is the first step in that direction.

Trustees Jim Halverson and Shelly Griffen joined Chandler while Atticus Reyes and Phil Moncharsh opposed the motion.

Last month, the board moved unanimously to close two campuses as part of a $3.8 million, county-mandated slate of cuts, but honed its focus during a nearly three-hour discussion in Matilija Middle School's auditorium late Wednesday.

They settled on a proposal from Halverson:

• Turn Meiners Oaks Elementary and potentially a second site into early childhood education centers.

• Consolidate elementary students at two K-6 campuses, with potential for one to house a K-8 program.

• Combine middle and high school at Nordhoff High School's campus.

The decision requires district staff to select two sites from the current Mira Monte Elementary, Topa Topa Elementary, San Antonio Elementary and Matilija Middle school campuses to house the pair of elementary schools.

Superintendent Tiffany Morse said Thursday that the district was working on making some of the changes for the start of next school year, but that some elements might "need to be phased in."

"We're working diligently on site plans, trying to map out the best options given the many variables involved," she said. "We're trying to minimize the number of transitions and trips across town that families have to make."

Reyes and Moncharsh both indicated they favored an alternate configuration that would split elementary students between campuses dedicated either for kindergarten to third grade or fourth to sixth grades.

Reyes said Wednesday that he was still worried about what could happen to K-6 schools if enrollment continues to drop over the next few years.

"What does it look like in the out years?" he asked, noting that smaller schools could be forced to combine grade levels. "I hope I'm wrong. I hope it all works out."

County oversight

The need for cuts was thrown into sharp focus earlier in the evening by a presentation from Eva Lueck, a fiscal consultant contracted by the Ventura County Office of Education to help the district get its budget in order.

County superintendent César Morales had previously ordered the district to submit a $2.3 million slate of budget cuts by Jan. 20. Trustees quickly submitted a draft of a three-year, $3.8 million reduction plan, but on Wednesday Lueck said it wasn't enough.

She said the district needed to make the $2.3 million in cuts to its unrestricted fund, not to specially earmarked funds, and that approximately $1 million worth of the district's plan "really didn't pencil out."

"There were assumptions in there that we could not validate," she said.

Lueck also said that the county was upping the required cuts to $3 million after further review. The best way to make that progress, she said, was to increase the district's planned nine layoffs to 20.

"When we are talking about reductions of any significance, it is reduction of staff," Lueck said.

Chandler said the board had submitted the plan as a "placeholder" in order to meet the county's tight deadline.

"Now that the staff has that framework to build on, they can analyze what cuts need to be made to meet (the county office's) needs," she said.

Lueck also pointed out that the district had yet to complete its budget audit for last school year, saying it was "very concerning."

Morse said the district's extended audit was "very common," and that the district had missed an earlier window to complete the audit because of a lack of staff.

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 school district zeroes in on school cuts