From a three-year-old attending a neighborhood preschool to a college student seeking financial aid, Ventura County students of all ages benefit from an organization you may not have heard of. Find out how the Ventura County P-20 Council is uniting the community to enhance education in this edition of Focus on Education. Read it below or click here to view on your mobile device.   ...

Newly-released results of the 2015-16 California Healthy Kids Survey (CHKS) for Ventura County show many positive trends for local students. The use of alcohol, marijuana and cigarettes is down; drinking and driving is less prevalent; and fewer students report being bullied. However, the survey does illuminate some challenges facing some Ventura County kids. Hispanic students report feeling less safe at school and less connected to their schools than their white classmates.During the same period...

Special needs students at the Phoenix-Los Nogales School in Camarillo got a big holiday surprise today when members of the Oxnard Police Department SWAT team arrived along with Santa to present them with holiday gifts. The gifts included new shoes donated by the New Balance Factory Store in the Camarillo Premium Outlets, toys provided by BG Solutions and shirts donated by Marquez Termite Control in Oxnard. Phoenix-Los Nogales paraeducator Becky Roberts first coordinated this holiday event six ye...

Don't miss the 10th Annual RtI2/MTSS Symposium and Gold Ribbon Schools Showcase coming Wednesday, February 1, 2017 to VCOE. This year’s presentations feature Gold Ribbon Schools and PBIS/CHAMPS exemplars and special guest Sanger Unified School District, who will share their signature practices. Additionally, Curriculum and Instruction content specialists will provide separate breakouts to address a variety of Common Core best practices.Topics will include:• Car...

The following opinion piece by Ventura County Superintendent of School Stan Mantooth appeared in the Ventura County Star on Sunday, November 20.Two days after the presidential election, nearly 1,000 high school students in Oxnard held peaceful demonstrations to express their fears and concerns. Like many students throughout our diverse county, they are feeling uncertainty about the future following a presidential campaign in which civility and compassion were in short supply. In exercising the g...

Families of at-risk students are invited to the free "Agency 101" resource fair on January 25. The event brings social service providers together in one place to answer your questions about programs and services that can help students overcome their challenges and get back on track in school and in life. Stop by anytime from 1:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. to learn about community resources, fees, eligibility requirements, funding streams and more in these areas:• Prevention• Leg...

The 2016 Ventura County Education Report to the Community is your window into the state of local public education - from the many triumphs and successes to the issues and challenges educators are working to address. Browse the report to learn about the following topics and much more:• Increase in Ventura County CAASPP state test scores• Efforts to close the achievement gap• New statewide school accountability system• The critical need for new teachers• Exc...

Three Ventura County Schools were named National Blue Ribbon Schools for 2016 today by U.S. Secretary of Education John B. King, Jr. The Blue Ribbon Schools are selected based on their overall academic excellence or their progress in closing achievement gaps among student subgroups. The Ventura County winners are among just 279 public and 50 private schools to be selected nationwide. The local winners are:Environmental Academy of Research Technology and Earth SciencesConejo Valley Unified School...

At a ceremony today in Camarillo, local dignitaries celebrated the grand opening of a new, state-of-the-art classroom that represents the exciting future of career technical education in Ventura County. The brand new TECH (Test & Evaluation Collaboration Hub) Center is a high-tech immersive environment that teaches students about aviation by putting them in the pilot's seat. The TECH Center recreates a modern control center, where students can guide remotely piloted vehicles on exciting ...

Ventura County Office of Education Communications Manager Dave Schermer has received two awards from the National School Public Relations Association (NSPRA). VCOE received NSPRA's Award of Excellence in the category of electronic newsletter for its Focus on Education publication and an Award of Merit for the redesign of the VCOE website. The winners were selected from a pool of 965 entries submitted by schools and districts nationwide in NSPRA's 2016 National Sc...