Bell rings early in Oak Park

District gets a jump on the new school year



OPENING DAY—Zara Mirchi sends her daughter, Aita, off to class at Medea Creek Middle School. Below, the breakfast and lunch menu board for the first day.

OPENING DAY—Zara Mirchi sends her daughter, Aita, off to class at Medea Creek Middle School. Below, the breakfast and lunch menu board for the first day.

Students went back to school in the Oak Park district on Tuesday, more than two weeks earlier than other school districts. The early start means the school year ends in May.

The Oak Park Unified School District Board of Education moved the calendar up last year to reduce student stress over the winter holiday and give teens more time to study for Advanced Placement tests at the end of the year, Superintendent Tony Knight said.

The early August start means the first semester ends before winter break and students won’t have to worry about using the holiday to study for exams.

Meanwhile, projected enrollment for the 2016-17 school year is 4,590, slightly lower than last year.

“This expected drop in enrollment is primarily due to our planned class size reduction in grades kindergarten through three, of 24 (students) to one (teacher),” school district consultant Cliff Moore said. “This year we accepted the fewest number of inter-district (out-of-district) students for any year since the 2007-08 school year.”

Still, more than 40 percent of the student body comes from out of the district.

“We will not know the exact percentage of resident-to-interdistrict until after our fall enrollment has been firmed up after Labor Day,” Moore said.

Preschool/elementary

At Brookside Elementary, Casey Kaufman was hired as a teacher for the Discovery Kindergarten program. Discovery Kindergarten is similar to a pre-K program that exposes students to kindergarten standards and lessons at a slower pace.

A new kindergarten teacher was also hired—Amy White.

A ribbon-cutting on Tuesday celebrated the newly updated kindergarten yard.

Lynette Hiday, an early childhood special education teacher, joined the Oak Park Neighborhood Preschool.

Speech and language specialist Meghan Blum joined Oak Hills Elementary School.

At Red Oak, three new teachers were welcomed to the team, including credentialed physical education teacher Christy Amaral, first-grade teacher Julie Matthews and fifth-grade teacher Erin Somers.

Jon Duim, principal of Red Oak, said Matthews is a 10-year teaching veteran, and Somers was a student teacher at the school last year.

Medea Creek Middle School

Two new P.E. teachers joined Medea Creek Middle School, Kathryn Klamecki and Casey Webb. Neva Fast retired this year. A music teacher, Elayne Roesner, also joined the middle school team.

Allan Prescott will teach woodshop at Oak Park High School, and Zaloa Goiri Virtu was hired to teach chemistry.

New classes at the middle school include animation and the history of sports.

Some sixth-seventh-and eighth-grade language arts/social studies classes will introduce technology to help students access online information for their curriculum.

The science department plans to use the school’s garden to convey science standards to students.

“Hands-on science activities will involve planting, composting and tracking genetics,” Knight said.

The band and choir programs have also expanded this year, he said.

Counselors at Medea Creek have introduced WEB (Where Everyone Belongs), a peer-to-peer program to help students transition from elementary school to middle school.

Oak Park High School

At Oak Park High, digital electronics and video production classes are now being offered.

Knight said the video production class hasn’t been offered for the past four years.

New physical education classes are also being offered at the high school, including court sports, walking for fun and another section of tennis.

Other programs have been introduced or expanded. The engineering program now includes two sections of Engineering I as well as an advanced course.

Knight said that this year a digital resource library in English is up and running. Each student will have individual use of a laptop or tablet. The one-to-one technology program will extend to science classes this year, Knight said.

Now that Oak Park High has a winning marching band, a color guard class has been added this year.

OVHS/OPIS

Three new Ventura County Innovates courses have been added at Oak View and Oak Park Independent high schools this year, said Stuart McGugan, director of alternative education for the district. The Innovate classes are a collaborative program between schools, businesses and community partners to prepare students for the workforce.

McGugan said the Ventura County Office of Education provides a teacher for the program. George Gabriel, a composer, producer and music producer, will teach the new sound engineering class at the school on Fridays.

McGugan said Gabriel shares the school’s “passion of providing engaging opportunities for students into potential career pathways.”

Other new classes at the alternative school are child development and health science emergency medicine.

Oak View received the highest Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC) accreditation last year, McGugan said. The accreditation is good for six years.

“Due to a strong opening year, we are continuing with our incentive program at OVHS,” McGugan said. “Students who have earned perfect attendance, have behaved well at school and completed all of their work for the week are offered the option of spending Friday pursuing their own interests,” he said.

Students can use the time for earning extra academic units, or they are free to work at a job, perform community service or pursue a hobby.

“We feel students are developing the valuable life skills of time management, organization and communication,” he said.


 

 

WHAT CLASSES DO YOU HAVE? —Seventh- graders Morgan Hoyeaux, left, Saisidharth Senthilnathan, Josh Whittington and Jack Carr check their schedules during the first day of school Tuesday at Medea Creek Middle School in Oak Park.

WHAT CLASSES DO YOU HAVE? —Seventh- graders Morgan Hoyeaux, left, Saisidharth Senthilnathan, Josh Whittington and Jack Carr check their schedules during the first day of school Tuesday at Medea Creek Middle School in Oak Park.

OFF TO CLASS—Kindergartner Cody Stroupe, 5, waves to his parents during the first day of school Tuesday at Brookside Elementary in Oak Park. Las Virgenes schools don’t begin until Aug. 24.

OFF TO CLASS—Kindergartner Cody Stroupe, 5, waves to his parents during the first day of school Tuesday at Brookside Elementary in Oak Park. Las Virgenes schools don’t begin until Aug. 24.

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