OXNARD : D.A. Says School’s Raffle Is Illegal

A private Catholic high school in Oxnard is seeking new sources of money because Dist. Atty. Michael D. Bradbury’s office declared its annual raffle illegal.

The raffle, held each of the past 20 years at Santa Clara High School’s spring fiesta, raised about $60,000.

“Our tuition and fees do not cover the cost of each student,” said Sister Anne Eugene Metcalf, the school’s principal.

At a news conference Friday, she said the school would bow to the district attorney’s opinion and not hold the raffle. It is asking for private donations, she said.

This year’s tuition is $1,700 for Catholic students and $1,850 for non-Catholics. The actual cost for each of the about 750 students is $2,300, she said, and the raffle has paid the difference.

Metcalf said tuition, which was prepaid earlier this month for next year’s students, would not be increased to compensate for the loss of the funds.

“We just have to make new plans for finding other sources of income,” she said. “We have got to raise that money, and I feel confident that we will come up with something else.”

In response to protests from parents and school officials, Assemblyman Jack O’Connell (D-Carpinteria) introduced legislation Thursday that would place on the November ballot an amendment to the state Constitution allowing nonprofit and charitable groups to operate raffles. Two previous attempts, in 1988 and 1989, passed the Assembly but died in the Senate.