Public Schools Open Doors
Alisa Sasso, Madison Sasso, 12, Hannah Duke, 5, Andyn Flores, 5 and Autumn Frazier get ready for Hannah’s and Andyn’s first day of kindergarten at Topa Topa Elementary Tuesday morning. Photo by Scott Wintermute
Despite budget cuts, layoffs, OUSD maintains hopeful tone
By Cole Bettles
Buy some clothes; fill your car with gas; purchase all those books; temporarily stimulate our economy with avaricious spending, because ladies and gentlemen, it is back to school.
Parents, you may remember the butterflies that rapidly filled your stomach as you entered your first day of school. Will somebody say something about my new outfit? Will I get a bunch of homework on my first day? Did mom pack me a good lunch?
Despite a declining enrollment, a tight budget from the state and a recession, the first day of school was characterized by optimism and excitement. Ojai’s new superintendent, Henry S. Bangser, has set this convivial tone for principals, administrators and teachers.
Bangser said, “My highest priority is meeting people. By the end of the school year, I will know the name of every faculty member in the School District.”
Bangser shared a few funny moments with students yesterday morning, when he made his first visit to every school. To see Bangser in action and get an idea of what is going on in Ojai’s school, attend the fist board meeting of the school year on Sept. 1 at 5:30 p.m.
“The students were here on time and eager to get started. We anticipate a great school year,” said Sue Arce, vice principal at Nordhoff High School. Nordhoff seemed especially vibrant on this first morning, and many students were surprised to see how colorful the school was.
The producers of “Easy A,” a movie filmed at Nordhoff during the summer, decorated the buildings at Nordhoff with blue and gold. Dan Musick, principal of Nordhoff, thought the chromatic buildings animated the campus and agreed to keep Hollywood’s vision of high school. This year, Nordhoff will be celebrating its 100th year.
There is much to look forward to in the 2009-2010 school year, administrators said. Considering the fiscal hardships the School District is enduring, it is imperative that parents and community members stay involved and attend school fund-raising events. If schools can keep expanding on the already successful fund raising, programs will not be cut and teachers are less likely to lose their jobs.
Ojai and the Ojai Unified School District also welcome new teachers, Kevin Blaine and Peter Hickock.
The district passed its $23.87 million budget recently, which included a cut of five days from the school year.
It is a shame, Ojai because it is small town could have the best public school system in the state. It could be like Montecito Union, small, fast, flexible, innovative, low overhead, abiltiy to engage the public honestly. Instead we are stuck with a bloated adminstrative staff and a uncreative school board who is stuck in the past. Perhaps the new Supt. can come in with new ideas and jump start the OUSD. Doing the same thing over and over again just will not work.
Parent:
Mrs. Widders did work for Nordhoff, she retired. As far as the View goes, it was very informative about “The Tangled web they weave”. They are all tied together in one way or another. Keep up the good work THE VIEW. The information in that piece was accurate!
WOW! WOW! WOW!
So much misinformation and fishing in the dark is really impressive.
I would like to start OSDPW (Ojai School District Parent Watch) in order to make the activities of the OUSD more transparent and end the illegal behavior of “closed” meetings. Parents have the right to be informed unfiltered, honest and straight forward. The OUSD has failed on this one royally and the current board needs to be watched very closely.
Any ideas? My email is: Nicolaus.Sommer@gmail.com
the View is a piece of crap. Mrs. Widders does not even work at Nordhoff
27 Aug 09 10:11pm:
OUSD is like the government, its all about the Admin. not the kids or People. WOW! is that a fact Berube made $700 per day? for what? where is the accountability, maybe he was appointed by Obama as the Ojai School Czar.
Anna, you are not making it either! Get out of teaching!
THE TEACHERS AND CLASSIFIED STAFF ARE THE EVERYDAY PEOPLE WHO TEACH OUR CHILDREN, THEY ARE NOT OVER PAID, BUT THE ADMINISTRATION IS AN ABSOLUTE JOKE, DID ANY OF YOU SEE (THE VIEW) NEWSPAPER? IT READS OH THE TANGLED WEB WE WEAVE!! MR BERUBE MADE $700.00 PER DAY TO BE THE INTERIM SUPERINTENDENT? THAT IS ABSURD, YET OUSD WANTS TO CONTINUE TO MAKE CUTS TO STAFF AND YET WHERE ARE THE CUTS IN ADMINISTRATION? AN ASSISTANT SUPERINTENDENT, AND A DIRECTOR OF FISCAL FINANCIAL SERVICES AND THEY BOTH COULD DO ALOT OF THE SAME DUTIES, WHY DO WE NEED DUPLICATES LIKE THAT? WHY DO WE NEED DIRECTORS, SUPERVISORS WHEN YEARS AGO THEY DIDN’T EXSIST AND THEY ARE WAY OVER PAID. GO BACK TO SIMPLIER TIMES. LET THE SUPERINTENDENT OVER SEE HIS STAFF WITHOUT ALL THE DIFFERENT SUPERVISORS,DIRECTORS,ETC. THAT WOULD SAVE A TON OF MONEY.
Just try teaching 150 kids a day. You pathetic losers would never make it.
Are teachers over paid? Look at the supply and demand and let the market answer the question. In Ojai we have a lot of teachers and the demand is going down. So salaries would logically be dropping.
and firefighters, and police officers, and healthcare workers…they are the critical workforce every community needs and deserves (except of course, Anon. 5, he’s on his own) and they should be paid a living wage at the very least
Teachers are like lazy welfare recipients: Sucklers of the governement teat.
Teachers are like the firemen: Overpaid, obsolete, and recipient of welfare. Who else has a part time job with full time pay? What a joke.
You can rent a house or apartment just like the rest of us none homeowners. Your job does not entitle you to owning a home.
$65K is not enough to afford a house in Ojai or Ventura!
$35,000? The average teacher salary is $65,000 for 175 days of work. This works out to be $371/day plus benefits. The adminstrator salaries are even more obscene.
It is with great excitement that I can finally, after too many years, say I no longer have anything to do with the nonsensical circus called the Ojai Unified school district. I’ve bailed for a private school in Ventura that actually does their job, takes kids seriously and actually has the same amount of school days as most schools in this country. To all that belong to this pathetic district, I suggest you get out your calendars, count the actual school days then try to justify a $35000 salary for six months of work. And that’s the lowest salary you will find considering that hasn’t gone up. I’m low balling. TRULY the OUSD has absolutely no credibility on any level.
Yes OUSD why is that? You want or have made cuts in all areas except one (ADMINISTRATION,UPPER MANAGEMENT,SUPERVISORS,DIRECTORS). Why don’t you make any cuts in these departments? If you are thinking about mid-year cuts (according to the Ojai Valley News edition on Friday) why not make them there? That would be alot of money to save and you could keep the reserve a little higher than the 1% the state now says you can have instead of 3%? I have to agree with the statement above OUSD no CREDIBILITY!!!!!
Welcome new teachers, Kevin Blaine and Peter Hickock. Number of teachers fired is zero. OUSD credibility is also zero. Why do they send out 68 layoff notices and end up hiring 2 new teachers?