The principal at De Anza Academy of Technology and the Arts (DATA), Clara Ortiz, recently made the decision to un-core classes at DATA Middle School. This was prompted after warnings from the Ventura Unified School District (VUSD) that some teachers at DATA were teaching under violation of proper credentials for core classes, courses where an educator teaches multiple classes or subjects to the same group of students in a single day. The decision is believed by many to be ill-informed and many families believe that they should have been consulted before decisions were made.
The conflict originated as VUSD warned DATA that some teachers were violating their Multiple Subject Teaching Credentials. These credentials allow teachers to participate in core classes and require educators to teach the same group of students multiple subjects in a single day. According to the district, math and science were to be taught on separate days. However, Alex Wulff, a teacher at DATA accused of this, explained that “on paper … I teach math one day and science the next day; that is completely not accurate.”
Greg Bayless, Gina Wolowicz and Deidre Monarres addressed this issue in September 2024, saying that there are four options to solve this problem. One could rework the master schedule or label classes with new course codes, however, they say that, “DATA’s master schedule is too small” to rework and that no math or science course labels exist. This left Ortiz with two other options.
Ortiz was given the choice between “un-coring” and “de-blocking” to solve the issue. Blocking is a type of schedule that allows for longer class periods without lengthening a school day as fewer classes are taken each day. Ortiz concluded that it would be best for the school to “un-core,” however, this led both teachers and families to become distressed. Many saw this decision as rushed. This is due to multiple reasons, the main one being that Ortiz is new to DATA as of this year. As Russell Helmstedler, a current math teacher at DATA puts it, “The timeline in which we were asked to solve [this dilemma] is really accelerated.”
The IDEA Academy, a program at DATA, and its supporters have become increasingly worried about these recent events. The IDEA Academy is a three-year math and science-based pathway open to all students at DATA. The program has been praised highly by parents and students alike and has fueled a large part of DATA’s enrollment. Julie Ferrel, a parent at DATA, said the IDEA Academy is reliant on “focus and in-depth learning” as well as the ability to “crossover and apply what they learned” to other classes. Coring and block scheduling provide this. She stated that the absence of these “will end this program.”
This issue of teachers with improper credentials has been documented for approximately nine years now; this poses the question of why this affair has to be raised now, and with such urgency. As stated by Alex Wulff, “There is a crisis put in place, which is a strange crisis because it wasn’t a crisis last year and it wasn’t a crisis the year before that.” However, he does not believe this to be a malevolent action against DATA and the IDEA Academy. He explained that “someone wants to check the boxes to line things up,” and they’ve ended up knocking things over in the process.
On Nov. 15, 2024, VUSD sent a memo to the DATA Student Site Council (SSC) proposing the removal of block scheduling in favor of a six-period school day. On Nov. 26, the SSC voted on the change, ending in a final verdict of nine to three, in favor of keeping the block schedule. A victory for DATA’s parents, however as the memo states, “the SSC vote on the bell schedule will not have an impact on the decision to un-core.”
VUSD has been faced with a problem and has dealt with it, in their eyes efficiently and correctly. To many, however, the decision reflected a poor line of action that was not enacted to support the students, staff or community at DATA. These individuals have claimed that time must be taken and the community must be acknowledged when dealing with these types of dilemmas, something VUSD has failed to take into account. Striding forward, the community of DATA hopes to be more informed and acknowledged as they look to continue to foster a positive community at the middle school.
