Housing Density within Oxnard Elementary School District
By Lawrence Paul Stein.
To: Mr. S. David Fateh
.
Oxnard’s Harrington Elementary School
Director of Facilities
Oxnard Elementary School District
1055 South C Street
Oxnard, CA 93030
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Mr. Fateh:
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Families with high disposable income who have school aged children often look at school test scores when deciding where they want to move. The school test scores within the Oxnard Elementary School District are considerable lower than those in Camarillo and Ventura. Too many students who actually decide to go to college who come from the Oxnard Elementary School District need remedial classes in high school and college before taking the core classes. One possible reason for these results might be school districts who do not have to build new schools can use their resources for more effective learning tools. I do not recall that the elementary school districts in Camarillo or Ventura have built any new schools in the last 20 years, but several new schools have built within the Oxnard Elementary School District in the same time frame.
The number of people living in a housing unit is considerable higher than in neighboring communities such as Camarillo and Ventura. One could ask the city of Oxnard how many bedrooms are there in the housing units within The Oxnard Elementary School District. The city can determine how many 1 bedroom, 2 bedroom and 3 bedroom apartments are within the school district. The city can also determine how many 1 bedroom, 2 bedroom, 3 bedroom, 4 bedroom and 5 (and more) bedroom homes there are within the school district. The school district knows how many elementary aged students reside within the school district.
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As the Director of Facilities, Mr. Fateh, you know that there is a need for more school rooms. The school district has been short of adequate classrooms for over 30 years. This shortage was one of the reason the school district had a year round program for over 20 years. It has only been a few years that the school district has had a normal school year program. One of the reasons is that there are more elementary school children per housing unit within the district than outside the district. Many homes within the school district house multiple families. It is not unusual for a family to live in a garage, a family to live in a trailer in the back yard of a house while the house is occupied by a third family. It is not unusual for 8 people to live in a 3 bedroom apartment or house within the school district. Such living conditions are rare in Camarillo and Ventura. I contend that the higher density affects the quality of education students are receiving from The Oxnard Elementary School District compared with neighboring school districts.
The city of Oxnard Planning and Development Department is partially to blame for approving high density housing projects before sending those plans to the Planning Commission and City Council for official approval. The city of Oxnard Code Compliance, a division of the Planning and Development Department can be partially blamed for not enforcing housing safety codes. Much blame should be placed on the school district for not publicly opposing new development and the impact new development has on the school district. The school district was not there when the 2020 / 2030 General Plan was being discussed and 30 housing units per acre housing limits were approved. The school district is not there when Specific Plans get modified from 4 housing units per acre to 8 housing units per acre. The school district is happy to lobby for new bonds, but the school district is not lobbying to change the state law to increase developer impact fees. I contend that developer impact fees pay less than 15% the cost of new schools within the school district. What does your analysis show as the percentage of developer fees that go towards the construction of new schools? What does your analysis show as the number of students per housing unit within the school district compare with that of Camarillo and Ventura?
Respectfully submitted,
Lawrence Paul Stein
Larry Stein is an accountant and former Oxnard Mayoral and Treasurer candidate, who has been following City of Oxnard financial issues for over 20 years.
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If we want to save our community (and nation), our goal cannot be to do the best job of implementing a failed system.
Oxnard insists on treating too many students as if they’re incapable of learning without Spanish support, and their children live down to those expectations.
Regarding the districts that outscore Oxnard schools: don’t rule out more sophisticated test-tampering (giving our test materials early, letting teachers teach to the test, outright cheating during the testing, etc.) as part of the discrepancy, either.
The existing educational malpractice model being served up daily to ALL our children, needs to be replaced with the Stronghold Model: a proven way to get unimaginable academic growth, by making it the LOWEST priority in our schools: behind a school environment based on strong moral/spiritual values, school-wide drug-testing, mandatory monthly Parent Education meetings, zero tolerance for misbehavior, required part-time employment and regular community service for all students.
Paul White
The problem you’ve noticed is not unique to our area, but is in fact an issue nationwide. In fact, the system was designed to work this way. This is why the rich stay rich and the poor stay poor. We do not have equal opportunity in this country. And I doubt that you are going to be able to find a politician willing to create a new system where the children of the poor compete on equal footing with the children of the rich i.e. their donors. Can you imagine a world where every kid, from every neighborhood, nationwide, had the same chance of getting into Harvard? Where it all depended on native intelligence and hard work? How long do you think racism and white priveledge would last in that scenario? Equality starts with our kids.
To say that the Oxnard School District lags Ventura and Camarillo is understating the problem.
In English Language Arts, 3rd grade Oxnard students rank 18th of the 18 school districts in Ventura County. 18% meet or exceed the standard. In Ventura County, 40% of students meet or exceed the standard.
In Math, 3rd grade Oxnard students rank 17h of the 18 school districts in Ventura County. 20% meet or exceed the standard. Countywide, 43% meet or exceed the standard.
In ELA, 8th grade Oxnard students rank 18h of the 19 school districts in Ventura County. 27% meet or exceed the standard. Countywide, 49% meet or exceed the standard.
In Math, 8th grade Oxnard students rank 18th of the 19 school districts in Ventura County. 12% meet or exceed the standard. Countywide, 35% meet or exceed the standard.
What? Ignoring the elephant in the room? I’ll ask the questions that politically correct people will not ask…….”What relationship is there with low test scores and illegal alien’s? Do they have a common language with those who have high test scores?”