WITH ALL THE TALK ABOUT reforming public education these days, it's wonderful to see a high school which is already blazing trails on its own. I dropped by the new campus of El Camino High School at Ventura College last week for a tour with Principal Kelsie Sims.

The four-year independent study public high school, formerly situated on Dean Drive, now shares its campus with Ventura College. Students can earn an associate degree while in high school without paying college tuition and enter a four-year university with considerable credits already completed. With the cost of a college education so high these days, El Camino High School's unique independent program makes good sense.

It's the only independent study high school located on a college campus which offers the full range of A-G series college prep courses and is accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges.

Sims is the kind of principal every teen-ager wants. Young and energetic, she juggles multiple tasks with ease and keeps tabs on everyone with a motherly eye. While talking to a visitor about the school recently, she stopped mid-sentence to open her office window and call out a friendly greeting to a passing girl.

STUDENTS COME FROM all over the county and from neighboring Los Angeles and Santa Barbara counties, too. Many of the 300 enrolled are dynamic teens already busy making their mark on the world. "El Camino provides an opportunity to students to explore their passions and interests and still have it be a high school experience," Sims said.

There's the young woman who now ranks third in the world among female surfers; another is a competitive ice skater and one senior plays in a local symphony orchestra.

Students take classes at VC and also work one-on-one with a teacher. They have full access to college facilities such as the library. "All of my students are over there studying," Sims said. Many concurrently complete certificate programs in various disciplines.

Students also volunteer their time around the city. "I have a high school student in nearly every elementary school in the district," Sims said.

It's clear El Camino has figured out a way to meet the challenge of educating today's busy teens.

El Camino High School, located at 61 Day Rd. in Ventura, is holding a ribbon-cutting ceremony for its new campus at 3 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 5. For more information about the school, which is still accepting students, call (805) 289-7955.

THE STOP WAL-MART VENTURA COALITION has earned a place on the fall 2009 ballot for its anti-big box initiative and may have even collected enough signatures to trigger a special election at the beginning of next year.

A random sample of the almost 13,000 signatures submitted to the County Elections Division showed an estimated 9,000 of the signatures could be valid; 8,900 signatures are needed for a special election, something organizers were hoping to avoid. Elections workers will now need to go through each petition by hand for an exact count to determine when the measure will ultimately go to voters.

Coalition organizer and Santa Barbara City Councilman Das Williams said he doubts a special election will be triggered.

"We do not believe that much more than two thirds are valid," Williams said. "It was a tough decision as to when we stopped gathering signatures. If we had turned in fewer, we would have risked not qualifying. We felt better erring on the side of more. The advantage of having 15 percent and a special election would be to have this law on the books before Wal-Mart can move in, but the disadvantage is the possible cost to the city. That's why we stopped the effort early, because we would rather save the city taxpayers some money."

A special election could potentially cost the city hundreds of thousands of dollars extra.

IRONICALLY THE GROUP which was hoping to trigger a special election for its own measure, the Ventura Citizens' Organization for Responsible Development (VCORD), was unable to produce enough signatures to do so. The view-protection initiative will go to the voters in the fall of 2009, even though the city is currently working toward the same goals through its own view protection task force. The members of that group will be ratified on Sept. 8 and should produce guidelines for the Council to vote on as early as next spring, well before VCORD's measure can be voted on, rendering it essentially moot.

I've always thought the Stop Wal-Mart Ventura Coalition's efforts were somewhat moot, too. Our own General Plan and upcoming Victoria Corridor Plan forbid big-box development at the old K-Mart site, anyway. What the initiative will do is keep a Wal-Mart Supercenter from popping up in another area where zoning would allow that sort of development, such as near our Auto Center. Wal-Mart likely does not want to be there. They'll either walk away or take over the existing 90,000-square-foot K-Mart space, something the initiative can't prevent. But that will be largely due to our city's own citizen-generated General Plan.

I'm not a particular fan of initiatives. Bad laws are often made when special interests take over the public policy process. It could also be argued that special interests influence some of our legislators too much through campaign donations. However, this has not traditionally been the case in Ventura municipal elections which are often run on shoestring budgets.

But it is safe to say that many initiatives are generated by those who feel powerless to influence public policy any other way and are particularly devoted to a cause.

"12,875 signatures is something that we are very proud of, since it indicates the level of enmity Venturans have against Wal-Mart," Williams said.

ONE THING THAT YOU CAN ALWAYS count on Mayor Christy Weir for is an eye for the aesthetics of her city. Since initiating her "Beautify Ventura" award several months ago, she has honored a citizen or business every month who has contributed to the attractiveness of our surroundings.

So that graffiti-covered atrocity of a train bridge over the 101 Downtown has been on our mayor's hit list for a long time. It's one of my pet peeves, too, as I reported in an earlier entry.

"It's such an eyesore," Weir said. "And because of its prominent location, people
traveling on the freeway identify it with Ventura, which isn't good for business."

So recently Weir went to Assembly member Pedro Nava and asked for assistance. Nava in turn wrote a letter to CalTrans. And slowly the wheels of change are grinding along.

There's been lots of finger pointing going on between the City, CalTrans and Union Pacific over who is actually responsible for this unwelcome mat to our city. "Both CalTrans and Union Pacific could not agree up until almost a month ago," explained Jerry Breiner of the Downtown Ventura Organization. "Finally CalTrans took the ownership of the maintenance."

The goal is to not just paint the bridge, but prevent future graffiti with increased security, fencing, and perhaps lights and cameras, Weir said.

The Downtown Ventura Organization has even grander ideas, Breiner said. "There has been much talk from the Downtown community to do something special there, to make it a true gateway with something other than silver paint. Public Art could get involved: pretty much anyone other than CalTrans painting it would be great."

In the mean time, if you know of an uglier bridge anywhere in the world, please send me a photo. I'll post it.

ANYONE HEADING DOWNTOWN on Sunday should stick around until 7 p.m. when well-known contemporary swing band Big Bad Voodoo Daddy is scheduled to play at the foot of City Hall and march with a percussion section in tow all the way to the grand opening of the Watermark restaurant at Chestnut and Main.

Once there, they'll play from the open rooftop bar in a event somewhat reminiscent of when the Beatles played from the rooftop of Apple studios. Music fans take note; the show is free.

I went to the "soft opening" of the Watermark on Monday night. Owners Mark and Kathy Hartley and Jim Rice have a hit on their hands. If you want to go, better make reservations. I predict it will be packed. The food is great and the three dining levels are remarkably comfortable and full of historic ambiance. My favorite spot is the rooftop bar W20 with its retractable roof, comfy banquets, fireplace, aquarium and great views. A private dining room with its own terrace is tucked in the back.

Hartley, a musical agent who represents many top acts, was a major force behind the recent Kevin Costner event Downtown and promises to bring even more great entertainment our way.

The Watermark is a much-anticipated and welcome addition to our bustling Downtown.

BY NOW, DOWNTOWN VENTURA Organization Director Rob Edwards is probably sick of going to City Council meetings with yet another request.

The energetic and savvy DVO head has asked for increased police presence, better lighting and sanitation in an effort to amp up business and tourism Downtown and improve property values. City budget cuts have foiled some of his efforts. So Edwards and other Downtown stakeholders have a better plan - a Property-Based Business Improvement District (PBID).

It's a pretty simple idea: property owners form a group to determine the area's needs over and above what the city can provide and work from there to determine the costs of extra services, which could include outside marketing efforts. Extra assessments are then attached to property tax bills and the money is collected by the county and returned to the non-profit group formed by the stakeholders to oversee expenditures. Unlike a tax imposed by a government, assessment rates are determined by those paying and thus they also decide how to invest those pooled resources.

The DVO took the first steps to get the ball rolling with a series of three town hall meetings this week to determine interest in the idea.

The plan has the support of Downtown titan Dan Frederickson, former president of Kinko's and builder of the area's newest class A office building. He has been very vocal about Downtown's safety at night and the need for a greater police presence. "Having the police visible around the area has a phenomenal impact," he said.

ALSO EXPRESSING SUPPORT are business owner and community activist Doug Halter and Chamber of Commerce CEO Zoe Taylor, who said she has worked in other cities with PBIDs in place. "By far they have become better communities."

The boundaries of the improvement area paying the assessments will be determined by a steering committee made up of property owners and any other interested individuals. That steering committee is in formation and first met on Wednesday. By state law, the assessments can be based on one or all of these three attributes: a commercial building's gross square footage, street frontage, or a vacant parcel's square footage.

Any decision to proceed would go through a petition and then a ballot process voted on by property owners with 51 percent of the vote needed to pass. Greater weight would be given to those who own more property. It would not need citywide approval, but would require ratification by the City Council and public hearings. The PBID would sunset in five years when it would be subject to another vote.

Extra services could be performed by the city or through private means.

"We are exploring this idea," Edwards said. "We'd be forming this district to enable ourselves to invest more and thus do for ourselves rather than returning to the city with hat in hand every month. Business Downtown will improve because of it. It's empowering and a very viable funding mechanism that works in over 1,000 other towns in America. It's like a homeowners association, but for commercial properties in a defined neighborhood district: Downtown Ventura."

AFTER A SIX-MONTH EFFORT, the Stop Wal-Mart Ventura Coalition submitted almost 13,000 signatures to Ventura's City Clerk today in support of an effort to keep a Wal-Mart Supercenter from being built on the site of the old K-Mart building on Victoria Avenue.

"We are confident that we have collected more than enough signatures to qualify our Ventura Super Store initiative for the ballot. The sheer number of signatures should make it clear to the city and to Wal-Mart itself that Venturans don't want Wal-Mart here," said Livable Ventura chair Nan Waltman.

If passed by the voters, the initiative would prevent a store of 90,000 square feet or more which sells nontaxable items like groceries on more than 3 percent of its floor space. The measure also forbids "piece-mealing" -- making an existing smaller store larger to create a Super Store.

According to Stop Wal-Mart organizers, the initiative would be retroactive should the corporation decide to put in a store before the voters have a chance to decide on the issue in the fall of 2009. It would then be up to the courts to enforce it.

THERE IS THE POSSIBILITY the initiative could go before voters earlier. If at least 8,900 signatures are valid, it would trigger an early 2009 special election, but the coalition would prefer to avoid this because it would cost the city much more than placing it on the ballot in November 2009, the date of the next regular municipal election. The county is required to report within 30 working days the results of the signature verification.

As I reported in the previous entry, Wal-Mart does seem intent on building on the site, but hasn't made anything official yet. The Stop Wal-Mart group thinks a move is imminent.

"We have information that Wal-Mart will receive bids for construction this fall," said Livable Ventura staffer Das Williams.

A vote by the citizens would be the best way to settle this issue which has certainly divided the community.

I OPENED MY MAILBOX yesterday to find a letter from Aaron Rios, who's in charge of public affairs and government relations for Wal-Mart. It was addressed to Marie Lakin, Co-President, Ventura Education Partnership, and it was hand-signed and mailed to my home address.

Rios went on to say that as a "community leader," my advice and input was being sought about the possibility of a Wal-mart Supercenter going into the vacant K-Mart site on Victoria. He wrote that a follow-up phone call would be made to me to arrange a meeting.

Now I suppose I could've just kept quiet about the letter. Or I could've met with him to figure out what they're up to. Neither is quite my style.

Instead, I'm going to answer him through the blog and I probably won't make either the pro-Wal-Mart or the anti-Wal-Mart camps very happy.

Dear Mr. Rios,

Sincerely,
Marie Lakin

A FULL STAFF OF SCHOOL RESOURCE OFFICERS are about to be restored to our high school campuses after being missing in action for several years.

On Monday night, the City Council will vote on authorizing an agreement between the Ventura Unified School District and the Ventura Police Department to reinstate this valuable program citywide and I couldn't be more thrilled that this is finally happening. I expect it to pass overwhelmingly.

The city and schools partnered to bring back this much-needed program which was whittled away year after year and finally pulled due to a loss of grant funding and the city's need to put the officers back out on patrol to reduce 911-call response times. One officer was put back at Buena High School in January but more were needed.

The SRO program is a true example of "you can pay a little now or a lot later." The right intervention can make all the difference in a young life. These three officers will also respond to calls around the areas of the schools, provide law-related information to students and parents, maintain a safe environment and perform a myriad of other duties.

The SROs will also work with the School Attendance and Review Board to visit the homes of children who are truant from school. There is often a reason why these kids aren't in school and it isn't pretty.

I KNOW WE'D ALL LIKE TO THINK that there aren't drugs, alcohol and gangs at our campuses, but sadly, it's all there. In the past, the SROs have even been able to solve outside crimes by working through tips gleaned from students.

I've been helping to highlight the value of this program for years. One year through Save Our Schools we privately raised enough money to buy back the middle school SRO for one year. I volunteered my time to make phone calls for the city's Public Safety Initiative which would have restored the program. It failed after receiving 61 percent of the vote. I have addressed the City Council numerous times on this issue and sat on a task force with the Chamber of Commerce to help study ways to privately raise funds. None of this solved the problem.

Where is the city's half of the funding coming from now? It will come from the new 911 fee, which will offset the city's costs for operating the 911 call center and free up dollars for the SROs and a roving team of officers for trouble spots in the city. In all the hubbub over the fee, what it will actually pay for has been lost in the squabbling.

It hasn't been easy for the school district to come up with its half of the funding, either, in these troubled budget times. But they considered it a priority and made it happen.

If the program helps put just one young person back on track, the long battle will have been worth it.