‘Spring School’ : Migrant Youngsters Get a Taste of College

As classmates headed to the beach on the first day of spring break, more than 200 migrant schoolchildren gave up their free time Monday to attend extra classes on the campus of Ventura College.

Kindergarten through eighth-grade students from the Santa Paula Elementary School District took over 11 classrooms on the community college campus. The students are enrolled in a four-day program designed to both improve their English and encourage them to stay in school.

For some students, the decision to trade a week of relaxation for daily bus trips to the Ventura campus to learn about literature, arts and science was easy.

“My friends said, ‘Aren’t you bored with school right now? This is your vacation,’ ” said Julian Posadas, 12, a seventh-grader from Isbell School. “But my dad said it’s a good thing to come to see what a college campus is like. We can find out more about college and what they do here.”

“They have a lot of activities, and it’s better than staying home and watching television,” said Elena Perez, 12, who attended “spring school” last year with her twin sister, Elisa.

Gildardo Villasenor, a special-project coordinator with the Ventura County school superintendent’s office, which worked with the district to set up the program, said the spring session “instills in these students that this community college is someplace they can go to one day.”

School officials said they were pleased that 209 of the district’s 500 migrant students signed up. There are about 6,500 migrant schoolchildren in Ventura County, officials said.

“They want to be here. They really do,” Villasenor said. “A lot has to do with how enthusiastic the teachers are. Part of it is being on a college campus. They’re college students for a week.”

In the Santa Paula district, the program started three years ago, said teacher Nellie Marquez.

“We brainstormed and decided we would focus on dropouts and encouraging students to attend college,” Marquez said. “We needed to take them out of the school environment and put them in a college environment, where they could be comfortable.”

The program was so successful in kindergarten through eighth grade that as its graduates reached high school, they requested a similar opportunity to return to the campus for spring break programs, Marquez said. Even students whose parents are not migrant workers have requested similar programs on the Ventura College campus, she said.

A three-day program for about 35 students from the Santa Paula Union High School District begins today in another classroom on the Ventura campus.

Also, about 150 migrant students from the Rio Elementary School District began a similar four-day program Monday for students in that district’s Rio School, officials said.

The county allocates more than $3 million annually to 13 districts countywide for migrant education programs, based on the size of the migrant student population per district, said Garry Galvan, a special projects coordinator. The county also offers summer programs for migrant students at the county’s three community colleges, officials said.

The Santa Paula Elementary School District will spend an estimated $28,000 for its spring program, Marquez said.

As third-grade teacher Teresa Trujillo led her class on a campus tour, she told them: “This is where you’ll be coming when you graduate, or maybe Northridge or Santa Barbara.”

Trujillo’s teaching plan for Monday was based on a book called “The Bunny That Slept Through Easter.” She reviewed it and extracted a science lesson on how a rainbow is formed.

Other student activities for the week included a lesson from professional artist Lonnie Miramontes on how to make masks, a lecture by a radio station consultant on managing a business and a presentation on music and culture by the group Music Americana.

During a break outside the cafeteria, Gerardo Marquez, 7, a first-grade student at McKevett school, gazed around the campus and announced a decision. “I want to be a student here,” he said.