Group Urges New Structural Study of Historic School

VENTURA — In its fight to save a 1920s neighborhood school, a midtown Ventura neighborhood association has urged school officials to conduct another structural engineering report using a firm more familiar with historic buildings.

Two reports by firms hired by the Ventura Unified School District and released in February cast a pall over the “Save Our School” group’s effort to preserve Washington School on MacMillan Avenue.

A soil study by Earth Systems, an environmental firm based in Ventura, indicated the loose soil beneath the school could prove a safety hazard and may cause the building to sink 9 inches in an earthquake.

A structural engineering report completed by the Santa Barbara-based engineering firm Ehlen & Spiess Inc. concluded the 71-year-old school would be cheaper to raze than to renovate.

The neighborhood association, concerned that both reports could doom the school, has requested that the school district hire engineers who have more experience with materials, construction techniques and retrofitting used in pre-1940 historic buildings.

“Part of the value of the Washington School building is that it is a functional example of historic seismic retrofitting,” the group wrote in a letter given to school trustees this week. “Only a structural engineer who specializes in historic building has the experience to interpret and save the historic integrity of the building.”

Midtown neighbors, who hope Washington School will be open for students in the future, said their section of the city typically gets overlooked by the school district.

“I think just from the history of things in Ventura, there’s been a fear of being ignored,” said Dana Clayton, a midtown resident and Save Our School member. “A lot is done on the east side but mid and west side tend to get ignored.”

At this point, the board has not responded to the request for another study, but district officials said they are comfortable with the reports and the qualification of the consultants who prepared them.

School officials point out that Ehlen & Spiess has worked on a number of historical projects, including seismic renovations for the 1860 Pristy Ranch Adobes in Santa Cruz, the 1920 Santa Barbara Airport main terminal and the 1924 Santa Barbara News-Press building.

“We told [Save Our School] they were welcome to hire someone and pay them to do another study,” said Joseph Richards, the district’s assistant superintendent. “We feel confident with the report and we feel the person we hired was qualified.

“They haven’t identified any portion of the report they are concerned with, and they haven’t challenged any portion of the report that would make me concerned there is something wrong.”

Washington School was closed in 1983 after enrollment decreased. School officials had ordered the studies, in part to determine whether the campus would be a suitable site to combine enrollments from Pierpont and Lincoln elementary schools, two of the district’s smaller schools.