CAMARILLO : Trustees to Consider 2 New School Buses

Pleasant Valley school district staff will ask the Board of Trustees tonight to consider spending $66,000 to buy two new buses and lease two portable classrooms to accommodate a growing number of students living in eastern Camarillo.

Associate Supt. Howard M. Hamilton said the Pleasant Valley Elementary School District expects that an additional 95 students who live near Las Colinas School will need to be bused next year to Monte Vista Intermediate School.

The new buses will cost the district $48,000 after the state reimburses 55% of the expense, he said.

Hamilton said the portable classrooms, which will cost $18,000 to lease for the year, will be needed to increase Monte Vista’s capacity.

Hamilton is recommending that the trustees, staff and community members also continue to study bringing middle schools to the district. The middle school issue has drawn opposition from some parents who do not want their children bused away from their neighborhood schools.

Trustees are considering starting middle schools and changing district boundaries to handle the crowding that would have been lessened had a $55-million bond issue been approved by voters in November. The bond issue, which was narrowly defeated, would have provided funds for school construction and renovations.

District officials anticipate crowding to grow to serious proportions by the 1993-94 school year.

“We have space available for next year,” Hamilton said. “It’s the following year that becomes the crunch.”