OXNARD : District, Jobs Agency Resolve Pact Dispute

The Oxnard Union High School District and a local jobs agency have resolved a contract dispute that had threatened the existence of a work-training program for about 150 welfare recipients.

School officials and the Oxnard-based Job Training Policy Council have agreed to a new contract, approved by the school board last week, under which the council will reimburse the district each month for the costs of running the program.

“It was really a cooperative move on both our parts,” Assistant Supt. Bob Brown said. “We were able to sit down and work it out.”

The Oxnard school board has for seven years operated a program for adult welfare recipients called Greater Avenues in Independence, or GAIN.

The federally funded council pays about $83,000 to the district each year to run the program, which includes courses in English as a Second Language and remedial math and reading.

In addition, the district receives about $156,000 from the Ventura County Public Social Services Agency and another $134,000 from the state Department of Education for the program. But the payments from the county and state are contingent upon the school district first having a contract with the jobs council.

And the council proposed last fall to change its GAIN contract to allow payment of only half the $83,000 upfront, withholding the rest until after the yearlong program is done.

Jobs council officials had said they needed time to audit the school district’s expenses for the program each year before paying out the federal funds.

When this proposal sparked angry complaints from school officials, council officials agreed to meet with the district to work out a new contract.