State of the school district presentation not a big attraction for residents

Despite the recent outrage over school closures and a budget crisis, only about 40 people- mostly administrators and teachers- showed up to hear Conejo Valley Unified's first "State of the District" presentation at the Thousand Oaks High School Performing Arts Center last week.

District officials discussed declining enrollment, test scores and impending budget cuts, and attendees received a copy of CVUSD's annual report, which included feel-good stories about students, teachers and the district.

Superintendent Mario Contini profiled the district, the third-largest in Ventura County, serving about 22,000 kids at 32 sites. He also emphasized the idea of balancing the number of English-language learners and socioeconomically disadvantaged families among district schools.

Although the population of these students is low compared to many other California school districts, it's concentrated in six of the district's 20 elementary schools. Contini said balancing the schools would benefit all kids.

Contini also recognized CVUSD's new student resource officers, deputies Chad Bourget, Jerry Lopez and Jeff Oswald.

"The SRO program is not a result of unsafe schools but a proactive move to keep our schools and communities safe," Contini said.

Dep. Superintendent Jeff Baarstad tackled the tough financial issues of declining enrollment, budget cuts and layoffs.

"Unfortunately, declining enrollment has hit CVUSD," Baarstad said. "And since much of our funding is made up of perstudent allocation, it's placing great stress on our budget."

Compounding the issue are Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's cuts to the state education budget, which Baarstad called "easily the largest cuts in this generation."

The event included performances by Westlake High School's chorale group "A Class Act," Newbury Park High School's Jazz Band and Thousand Oaks High School's Chamber Ensemble.