OAK PARK : School District Has Classes for Adults

The Oak Park school district will become the newest entry in the Ventura County adult education market when it begins offering a variety of workshops, classes and lectures at the end of January, school officials said Monday.

“This is an experiment,” program coordinator Paula Jensik said. “We felt there was a real need in this community for an adult education program. There are other programs in the area but absolutely nothing in Oak Park.”

Jensik said, however, that the list of class offerings was drawn up in consultation with other area adult education programs to avoid too much overlapping of the subjects being taught.

“We planned this program so that it would not infringe on anyone else’s established adult education program,” Jensik said.

Among the classes being offered at Oak Park are five state-subsidized courses that will require no enrollment fee. They are a computer applications class, two English as a Second Language classes--including one for language and one for computers--a writing class and a contemporary history class.

Courses in the arts, business and marketing, health and safety, and self-help classes will be among the 16 classes being offered this semester, which begins Jan. 31. Registration starts Friday.

The Oak Park Adult School also will offer a lecture series on a wide range of topics such as “Tax Advantages for the ‘90s and Beyond,” “Master a Winning Job Interview,” “Attention Deficit Disorder” and “Israeli/Arab Resolve.”

Jensik said the district was aiming to enroll at least 25 students in each of the classes but that the absolute minimum number of students to keep classes open would be 20.

For registration information, call the Oak Park Unified School District at (818) 707-7953.