Leading Schools Into Future : Oxnard: High school district Supt. William G. Studt has won a battle to relocate a high school and the respect of his staff.

In the few short weeks since he assumed the job of superintendent of the Oxnard Union High School District, William G. Studt has wasted no time in asserting himself as chief of the 11,600-student district.

Despite some strong opposition from the community, Studt helped push through the district’s plans to relocate Oxnard High on farmland outside the city’s northwest boundary. Its present site is considered unsafe because of its proximity to the city’s airport.

Critics said the move would open up the agricultural greenbelt outside the city limits to large-scale residential and commercial development. But Studt argued that the city, not the district, is responsible for what happens to the surrounding farmland.

When City Council members expressed reservations about providing services to the new school, Studt and the school board vowed that the district would build with or without the city’s help.

The council eventually agreed to provide the services, and the district, which has been granted $30 million from the state for the replacement school, plans to break ground early next year.

The relocation plan, Studt’s first true test of leadership, earned him high marks with school officials.

“I would rate him excellent,” said school board President Steve Stocks. “He’s got the personality we really need to lead this district.”

Gary Davis, superintendent of educational services, agreed.

“He was a very good choice for superintendent,” Davis said. “He’s not afraid of sitting on the hot seat. He’s a very decisive man and he has a clear focus.”

Stocks said Studt, 47, also enjoys the confidence of staff and the district’s 440 teachers.

“He’s very personable,” Stocks said. “He’s well-liked. Half the battle is being people-oriented.”

But Studt has not impressed everyone. The superintendent managed to anger some officials of the Oxnard elementary school district, which adamantly opposed the relocation of Oxnard High to the northwest site.

Elementary school board member Jack Fowler said he was outraged at the emotional speech that Studt made to the City Council in which he implied that a vote against the district’s plan would be a vote against Oxnard High students.

Fowler said Studt’s intent was to distract attention from the real issues and concerns about opening up the greenbelt to more development. If building a school in the greenbelt was to spur rapid development, Fowler said, then the elementary school district would be forced to build additional schools that it cannot afford.

“His behavior has been hysterical,” Fowler said. “He just misleads and confuses people.”

Studt defended his actions, saying he was looking after the interests of students. He said he still cannot understand why elementary school officials felt compelled to get involved in the debate.

“We had an agenda,” he said. “We believe it was correct.”

Before being named acting superintendent in May, Studt served as the district’s personnel director for five years. Before that, he served as assistant superintendent of the Modoc Joint Unified School District in Alturas and taught in schools in Los Angeles, Coalinga and the Antelope Valley.

Last month, the Oxnard school board appointed him as the permanent replacement for former Supt. Ian Kirkpatrick, who resigned from the district in May because of “philosophical differences” with the school board.

Kirkpatrick had come under fire for failing to get a bond measure passed that would have generated funds to construct a new high school. Officials say the new school is needed to relieve overcrowding at the district’s six campuses in Oxnard and Camarillo.

While not blaming Kirkpatrick for the bond’s failure, Studt said he thinks that the district could have done a better job of getting information out to voters sooner on the need for a new campus.

He said that one of his priorities will be to improve communication between the district and the community and to state clearly the district’s goals and the reasoning behind its sometimes controversial decisions.

“The mode of operation used to be, ‘Go about your business, just don’t be too visible,’ ” Studt said. “We’ve been going about our business in a very low-key way. I don’t believe education can go about its business in a low-key way.

“We need to be very visible. We need to get out there and sell our wares. We need to let the community know what it is we are doing.”

To accomplish this, Studt has reached out to the media.

He recently hosted a get-acquainted luncheon for the press and nominated one journalist for a state education award, based on an editorial column written in support of the failed bond measure.

Studt said he doesn’t expect to win favor with the media through such acts but hopes to lay the groundwork for a more open and trusting relationship.

Studt’s next big challenge will be to get a new school built.

The district has already committed $9 million to buy a site on the city’s northeast side, but now it must raise the money to build the school. Studt said the most viable option is to hold another bond election.

He said he is confident that a ballot measure sponsored by Assemblyman Jack O’Connell (D-Carpinteria) and recently approved by the Legislature will make it easier to get a bond measure passed.

The initiative will be placed on the ballot in June, 1994. If approved, it will give voters the opportunity to decide whether local bond measures for school projects should be passed with a simple majority vote, rather than the two-thirds vote now required.

Studt noted that the Oxnard bond measure that failed earlier this year collected a majority vote.

“We believe we can go back to the voters of the district with a bond measure,” he said. “If we can get the information out to the public early, then I don’t think we will have any problem.”

In the meantime, Studt said the district will have to use more portable classrooms and consider redrawing school boundaries to help relieve overcrowding.

Another issue that Studt and the school board must wrestle with is Oxnard and Pleasant Valley elementary school districts’ interest in annexing two high schools within the boundaries to create their own unified systems.

Both school districts have hired a consultant to examine the effects of uniting Oxnard High with the Oxnard elementary district and Camarillo High with the Pleasant Valley system.

Studt said he believes that the two elementary districts simply want to enhance their revenues by annexing the high schools, which receive more state revenue per student than elementary schools.

Officials from both districts have said the biggest benefit would not be financial but having one administration and instructional staff.

Studt said that losing the two high schools would hurt his district financially and upset the racial balance of its student population. The district’s enrollment now is 31% white and 69% minority.

He said that if the predominantly white Camarillo High School were lost, the district’s minority population would rise another 10.5%.

As an alternative to unification, Studt has proposed that the high school district and the seven elementary districts that feed into it consolidate transportation, food and maintenance services to help cut down on expenses.