Triton Academy, a school that serves Ventura County students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) will begin the 2018-19 school year at a new location. The school, which provides highly acclaimed programs for students with ASD, will be moving to a temporary site near the Camarillo Airport after the current school year.
For the past ten years, Triton Academy has operated at a campus at 700 Temple Avenue in Camarillo which is leased from the Pleasant Valley School District (PVSD). In August, PVSD announced that it anticipates needing the site for its own students for the 2018-19 school year, prompting a search for a new home for Triton Academy.
The Ventura County Office of Education (VCOE), which operates Triton Academy, has identified a new location for the school on property it currently owns at 550 Airport Way in Camarillo (click here for map). The site is the former home of the Cowan Center, which used to be VCOE’s conference center and has been serving as a storage facility for the past several years. VCOE plans to demolish the aging building and use relocatable structures to create a temporary home for Triton Academy on the site. “We are very pleased that the vital services Triton provides will continue uninterrupted,” said Stan Mantooth, Ventura County Superintendent of Schools. “Since Triton students come from all over the county, it was important to find a central location and we have achieved that with this site.” The new location will include all of the specialized facilities at the existing site, including a motor-sensory skills room, a life skills lab and confidential meeting spaces for therapists and specialists.
The superintendents of the county’s twenty school districts approved the plan for the new site last Friday. Funding for the new campus is being provided by VCOE and Ventura County SELPA (Special Education Local Plan Area), the agency that manages special education services in the county. “We’re very grateful to SELPA and our local superintendents for making this move possible,” said Superintendent Mantooth. “I’d also like to thank the wonderful staff, parents and students at Triton Academy for their patience and understanding with this process,” he said.
Work on the new site will begin immediately to ensure the campus is ready to welcome students at the start of the next school year. To accommodate the construction, Triton Academy’s summer school (Extended School Year) program will begin later than normal. The tentative summer school dates are July 2 through July 27, 2018.
Triton Academy will likely be moving yet again in the next few years. VCOE is planning to build a new, state-of-the-art campus for the school on vacant property it owns next to its Conference and Educational Services Center on Adolfo Rd. in Camarillo. That campus isn’t expected to open until at least 2020.
More About Triton Academy
Triton Academy provides a highly-regarded educational program for students with ASD. By using a comprehensive, trans-disciplinary planning and service delivery process, Triton Academy’s programs specifically addresses the language, communication, behavioral, sensory, and social needs that are often associated with ASD. The school serves students in third through twelfth grades and currently has an enrollment of 81 students who come from thirteen different school districts in Ventura County.
Triton Academy was developed in response to the increased need to support students with ASD. It has been recognized as a model school throughout the state due to its highly specialized programming and research-based methodologies. Triton Academy’s programs—supported by the collaboration between parents, students, teachers, specialists, paraprofessionals, and administrators—leads to successful student outcomes and safe learning environments.
VCOE has set up a webpage to keep parents, employees and the community up-to-date about Triton Academy’s impending move. The webpage can be reached at vcoe.org/triton-move.