OXNARD : Schools File Plan to Cut Commuters

The Oxnard Elementary School District on Monday filed a plan with the county that would reduce the number of employees who commute to the district’s office in downtown Oxnard.

Robert Foster, the district’s risk manager, said his plan promotes car-pooling, bicycling or walking to work and using buses. The district will also establish a guaranteed ride-home program for people who need to go home because of an emergency.

In addition, the district will make a nine-day, 80-hour work schedule available to employees that the district can spare.

Last Wednesday, Foster told board members that he is concerned that the plan may not be accepted.

“The Air Pollution Control District is very subjective,” Foster said. “There have not been a whole lot of plans that have been accepted.”

Foster said the district looks favorably on plans that use incentives, such as paying employees to car-pool or through giveaways, such as trips to local amusement parks. Because of recent budget cutbacks, those kinds of incentives are not feasible for the district, Foster said.

Board members informally approved Foster’s plan last week, saying they expected that the budget would probably have to be $3,000 to $4,000 a year. Foster had suggested spending a minimum of $565.

The Board of Supervisors approved a regulation in June, 1989, that employers with 100 or more employees must have at least 1.35 people in each vehicle arriving at the workplace during peak morning hours between 6 and 10 a.m. That’s about four people for every three cars.

Foster said one problem is that about 120 people work in the district office, but 20 to 25 of those employees leave the office daily to work in the district’s schools.

“We could file a plan that says everybody in the building will car-pool one day a week. That sounds reasonable, but some people will never car-pool,” Foster said.