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Ventura Unified outlines school-closure committee plan; board and community press for earlier notice to families
Summary
The Ventura Unified board heard a detailed plan to form a district advisory committee to evaluate school closures using California Department of Education criteria. Trustees and parents pressed staff to narrow the timeline and say which campuses will be off the table to avoid disrupting TK/kindergarten enrollments.
Ventura Unified trustees reviewed a staff proposal and a presentation from School Services of California on how the district would investigate possible school closures and recommended forming a district advisory committee to advise the governing board.
The proposed process would use objective criteria guided by the California Department of Education, convene a broadly representative committee (commonly known as a 7-11 committee but typically expanded to ~20 members), and run a series of meetings through the summer and into the following school year. Consultant Brianna Garcia of School Services of California told the board the committee should develop clear, objective criteria and review demographics, facility needs, educational programs, fiscal impacts and equity considerations before making recommendations to the board.
Trustees and parents repeatedly pressed staff about timing and the effects on families making school-choice and kindergarten/TK decisions. Trustee Sabrina Rodriguez said parents of incoming TK or kindergarten students “would want to know that before they enroll,” asking whether the schedule could be adjusted to avoid placing families in the position of selecting a school that might close. Garcia and Superintendent Dr. Antonio Castro said the timeline carries trade-offs: compressing the work risks missing critical details such as transportation and special-education placements, while a longer review may still leave some families unsettled.
Staff said the earliest practical implementation of any closure, if ultimately recommended and approved, would likely be fall 2027 because of required policy changes, transportation and special-education adjustments, and the school-of-choice calendar. Trustees also discussed removing clearly nonviable campuses (for example, sites with capacity constraints such as large comprehensive high schools) from the committee27s consideration to reduce needless work, but Garcia urged the board to be prepared to explain any off-the-table decisions and to keep the committee27s review broad and data-driven.
What happens next: staff have released an application for committee members and expect the first round of meetings to be scheduled in the coming weeks; the board will receive committee recommendations and retains authority to accept, modify or reject them. Garcia said the goal is a transparent, documented process so community members can follow the criteria and data used to reach recommendations.
