At the general meeting of the GOOD CLUB on October 14, two speakers were introduced by Dori Jones and addressed the issue of how lack of funding has impacted our local schools. The first speaker was  Robin Lefkovitz, President of the Oxnard Educators’ Association, followed by Denis O’Leary, President of the Oxnard School Board.

Robin Lefkovits made several major points: Serious instability for the first six weeks of the school year due to changing site and teacher assignments. By June 2009, 76 teachers had been laid off, of whom 23 were hired back one by one on permanent contracts; of the 31 left, about half have accepted part time work of less than 20 hours per week, without benefits; the rest are either unemployed or doing substitute teaching. Many primary classes have more than 30 students; most upper grade classes have up to 36 students. In the QEIA schools, combination classes have been created in order to fill each room to capacity, thereby preventing closure of the achievement gap made possible by reduced class size which had been the stated purpose of the QEIA schools. It is less expensive to pay the penalty that schools have to pay when they fail to keep the student-teacher ratio at 20-1 than the costs incurred by keeping it at the required low ratio. Resources for instruction materials have been cut so that they either are in limited supply or unavailable. The schools are overcrowded; funds for school bussing have diminished. Teacher morale is low.

Robin gave a few examples of what teachers have to cope with: “The copy machines at my school are always breaking down. The day before school started neither one was working. I was told I could go to Kinko’s if I needed copies for my students and I wouldn’t be reimbursed.” “My fifth grade class is over capacity at 36 students. My principal just told us to expect “temporary students” even if we are full, who will remain in the class until the District figures out what to do with them. I have no extra desks, books or materials.”

Denis O’Leary’s main topic was Measure E, the funding initiative for the Oxnard School system. In two years, $18 million were cut from the local school budget. He has had meetings with the governor’s legislative assistant Paul Navarro, which resulted in a donation of $2,000. Several other people are meeting with Navarro as well advocating a tax on oil like Alaska or Texas; most legislators support such a tax, but not enough to break the 2/3 stranglehold. Measure E is a parcel tax, which, at $99 per parcel, will not generate more than $ 3 million per year. Seniors over 65 are exempt. Planning for new schools in new developments has run into some serious obstacles: At the Seabridge development, a school was part of the original proposal, but then was left out “inadvertently” in the final plan. The proposal for the Teal Club development includes 1,000 houses, but no school.  $64 million bond money was used for the Juan Lagunas Soria school on 5th street and will be used for another new school.

Dori Jones announced that volunteers are needed for a phone bank on the evening of Monday, November 2, in support of Measure E, and also for volunteers to drive voters without transportation to their polling places on Tuesday, November 3. Please see the information on the front page for how you can help pass measure E.
Ruth Capelle, Secretary