Las Virgenes Unified School District students return to class Aug. 21, and at two of the campuses the parking situation will be a whole lot easier.
The expansion and renovation of Lupin Hill Elementary School in Calabasas is still underway, and when it’s completed later in the year, the school on Adamor Road will have new classrooms, administrative offices and a multipurpose room with a teaching kitchen and restrooms. The multipurpose room is half complete and is expected to be open by the end of the calendar year.
A new drop-off zone and parking lot with 44 additional spaces will be ready on the first day of school, however.
The building and parking lot improvements at Lupin Hill are expected to cost about $12 million.
At Round Meadow Elementary School in Hidden Hills, a second drop-off and pick-up loop has been installed to improve the traffic flow at that campus. The staff parking lot has been redone and features 22 additional parking spaces.
In other work, a new running track was installed at A. E. Wright Middle School in Calabasas, paid for by the Parent Teacher Association.
At Sumac Elementary School in Agoura Hills, the front of the campus features more than 500 new plants. The landscaping project was performed by school volunteers.
Renovation work was also done on the libraries at Round Meadow and at Willow and Yerba Buena elementary schools and Lindero Canyon Middle School in Agoura Hills.
Both Calabasas and Agoura High schools will open with new Alternative Learning Centers designed to meet the needs of students who perform better academically in a nontraditional setting. The spaces have been coined The Shop and The Center. Las Virgenes Superintendent Dan Stepenosky said the areas serve as “welcoming environments.”
New faces, new places
Stepenosky said the 15 schools in the district will continue to focus not only on the achievement of the students, but also on their health and welfare.
A new leadership position, dean of student safety and wellness, will begin this year. Ryan Corriea, a former intervention coordinator with Lindero Canyon Middle School, was named to the post. Corriea also taught high school social studies and coached varsity tennis and football.
The position is funded by a $1-million grant from the state’s Tobacco Grant Program.
Jacqueline Duncan, former assistant principal overseeing academics at Calabasas High School, joined the district office in Calabasas as the new administrator of data and teacher support.
In other administrative moves, Michael Roberts was welcomed as the new principal at A.E. Wright. Roberts is the former principal at Dinuba High School near Fresno, and held positions as principal, assistant principal, athletic director and learning director for the Fresno Unified School District.
Gia Jantz joined A.E. Wright as assistant principal. Jantz hails from the Conejo Valley Unified School District where she worked as Colina Middle School’s dean of students.
Curtis Bruno has joined the Agoura High School leadership team as an assistant principal overseeing activities.
Eli Kashman is Agoura High’s new dean of student support. Kashman launched his teaching career at A.C. Stelle as a math teacher, and in 2018 he became the school’s intervention support coordinator.
Calabasas High School also welcomed several new administrators over the summer.
Martin Freel was chosen as the school’s new assistant principal overseeing athletics. Freel previously served as a special education teacher at A.E. Wright Middle School, and was appointed department chair for the school where he ran its Social Communication Program. He also worked at Lindero Canyon Middle School as dean of student safety and wellness.
Courtney Watkins is the new assistant principal overseeing academics at Calabasas High. Watkins moved to the position after teaching three years of chemistry, biology and environmental biology at the school.
In addition, Nicole Goldstein was named dean of student support at Calabasas High School. Goldstein has been with LVUSD since 2010 and has worked with the school’s special education students. Most recently, she served as a special education case manager in the district’s elementary and secondary schools.
Results driven
Participation in the school district’s Advanced Placement classes increased for the fifth year in a row, Stepenosky reported.
Student success getting into University of California schools also has risen. The superintendent said a high school freshman seminar course in partnership with Moorpark College and an additional math graduation requirement have contributed to the higher UC eligibility rate.
All eight- and 10th-grade students in the district take the preliminary, or PSAT, testing.
“Our eighth-grade scores went up 3% and our 10th-grade scores when up 10%,” Stepenosky said.
A district-wide counseling center that supports students in preschool to 12th grade is open in the evenings so entire families can receive support.
The Las Virgenes district has continued to partner with Moorpark College to help students earn an associate degree by the time they graduate from high school. Students in the Early College Academy take one college course per semester on campus to achieve this goal.
Linda Menges, president of the LVUSD Board of Education, said in addition to the Early College Academy, the district will expand the AVID (Advancement Via Individual Determination) program to middle schools.
“AVID’s goal is to close the achievement gap in education,” Menges said.
Additional literacy and language coaches have been hired at all elementary schools, Stepenosky said.
Enrollment
Stepenosky said the district is purposely trying to reduce the number of students who attend Las Virgenes schools using an out-of-district permit.
“We have a 1.5% enrollment reduction, which has been approximately the same for the past five years,” he said. “Nearby school districts have in excess of 50% permits, and that creates challenges.”
District enrollment is 11,000, down from about 11,500 in recent years.