Sensitivity Training Is Urged for Trustees : Education: Teachers group wants Oxnard school district board to learn about Latino culture. Spanish-language interpreter and a mediator for meetings are also recommended.

The Oxnard Elementary School District board should undergo cultural sensitivity training and provide a Spanish-language interpreter at its meetings, a Latino teachers group said Monday.

The Oxnard chapter of the state Assn. of Mexican American Educators recommended in a letter to the school board that each of the five trustees--three of whom are white and two Latina--attend training sessions about Latino culture.

The educators made a similar recommendation last fall after tensions between board members led to public acrimony, but the board took no action.

And Monday, while most board members said they will consider the suggestions, Trustee Jack T. Fowler said Latinos are the ones who need to adjust.

“Everybody should be supportive and understanding of other people’s culture, particularly those who come to the United States,” Fowler said. “They should be delighted to be in this country and should make an effort to learn our ways.”

A local Latino leader said that Fowler should not quickly dismiss the Latino educators’ recommendations.

“All we are asking is fairness,” said Arturo Hernandez, co-chair of the Latino Coalition for Fair Representation. “We need to sit down and learn about each other instead of passing judgments.”

The debate Monday was the latest round in an ongoing dispute about whether the school board is effectively serving the 13,000-student Oxnard district, Ventura County’s largest and most heavily Latino. About 80% of students are Latino.

Tensions between trustees have recently eased, members said. But the Latino educators’ group said improved communication is still needed. It recommended not only a board interpreter and sensitivity training but also that the district hire a mediator to help board members work together.

The board generally agreed Monday that a mediator is probably not necessary. And all five members agreed that funds are too tight to provide an interpreter at all board meetings.

Board President James J. Suter said the educators’ association has placed a log on an old fire.

“This letter to me is just a way for them to start stirring up stuff again,” Suter said. “Suddenly, we started getting along wonderfully. We have no need for a mediator.”

Fowler said having an interpreter at all meetings would be wasteful.

“It is too expensive just to have a translator sitting there just in case someone who doesn’t speak English shows up,” Fowler said.

Similar to other heavily Latino school district, such as Fillmore and Santa Paula, the Oxnard district has a Spanish-speaking interpreter who is available for board meetings if the district is notified of the need.

If someone shows up at a meeting unexpectedly, the board can use its two Spanish-speaking members, Supt. Norman R. Brekke said. In addition, Brekke said school staff members who speak Spanish often attend board meetings.

But school board members remained split about the need for sensitivity training.

Suter said he is willing to undergo sensitivity training only if complaining Latino educators take it with him. “I don’t mind taking sensitivity training if the people who wrote the letter take it, too.”

But Trustee Mary Barreto said the board needs to understand the culture of the large majority of district students before making decisions that affect them.

“By sitting on the board you have to want to help children,” Barreto said. “We should take the responsibility to teach all children well. And to do that effectively, we need to understand from where they come.”

Trustee Dorothie Sterling said that she would undergo sensitivity training if the board decides there is a need for it.

“People can always learn from one of those experiences,” Sterling said.