County Board May Not Seek Grant for Job Training : Education: Some panel members say the federal program has too many mandates. About 50,000 county students could be affected.

The Ventura County Board of Education may turn down a chance to go after a $500,000 vocational-training grant, an action that could scuttle job-training programs for 51,000 county high school and community college students.

Board President Wendy Larner and Trustee Angela N. Miller said Friday they won’t approve the grant application because the program has too many federal mandates.

And a third trustee, Marty Bates, said he is troubled by parts of the thick document, although he has not yet decided how he will vote.

Bates is viewed as the swing vote, because the other two trustees, Al Rosen and John McGarry, have strongly embraced the federal program.

“I don’t know what my conscience is right now,” Bates said. “But there are some real questions that I think remain unanswered.”

For Larner, the central question is whether federal bureaucrats should have a say in local education.

“I see a real dependence on the [government] as to where students are going to work and for guidance on what kind of jobs they will seek,” she said. “We could be limiting children’s career choices and self-determination.”

The application for the grant was submitted to the county board by nine Ventura County school districts and three community colleges, as well as the superintendent of schools office, to put them in the running for a portion of the $15-million federal pot.

If the county board refuses to approve the grant application, officials will have to scramble to find another school district willing to act as the local coordinator, said Charles Weis, county superintendent of schools.

And that could place Ventura County under a cloud when funding decisions are made in January, he said.

“It might show that the lead agency does not support it,” Weis said. “And the funding agency looks for any opportunity not to fund because there is so much competition for dollars.”

The board will debate the issue at its meeting Monday at 6 p.m. in the board room at the county superintendent of schools office in Camarillo.

A vote on the application is scheduled for Nov. 27.

A group of Ventura County educators, employers and others has worked on the grant application for several months, Weis said. The money is attached to an education reform package signed into law by President Clinton last year.

The School-to-Work Opportunities Act provides seed money so that local communities can come up with their own systems to prepare high school students for the transition to employment.

It is different from past vocational education efforts because all students are introduced to job opportunities and the skills they will need, not just students in separate career-training programs, Weis said.

That exposure is needed because even though many high school seniors intend to go to college, the overwhelming majority of students enter the work force shortly after graduation, he said.

Ventura County business leaders agreed to team up with education officials to go after the dollars because they believe in the program, said Ed Lyon, education chairman for the Ventura County Economic Development Assn.

“When these kids graduate, they are going to have skills that make them hireable,” Lyon said.

Under Ventura County’s proposal, students would tour factories, law offices--even landfills--to get an idea of what is required of them in the work force, said Jacquie Richardson, a Simi Valley education consultant.

“At the law office, you tell them these people have four years of college and then law school, and that is what you need to get a white-collar job,” Richardson said. “There are about 35,000 legal ways to make a living and kids know about 10 of them.”

Another aspect of the program is improving communication between high school officials and administrators in Ventura County’s three community colleges. The idea is to eliminate overlapping requirements and to create clearly defined career paths for graduating students, Lyon said.

“Before this, the high schools and the community colleges just didn’t talk to each other about what [students and employers] needed,” he said.

But it is precisely that kind of coordination that concerns Larner. The program would be administered jointly by the U.S. Departments of Education and Labor and managed locally by a centralized office in Camarillo.

“It specifies that managerial activities be given to appointees rather than elected representatives,” she said. “I don’t like that.”

Miller said she, too, is concerned about federal dictates.

“It’s forcing all kids to go and work at one of these businesses that would be part of the program,” Miller said, referring to internships that make up part of the grant. “I know my daughter for one doesn’t have time for anything like that.”

Bates, who was seated for a four-year term in January, said he is continuing to gather information and won’t make a final decision until he has heard all of the arguments. He is meeting today with school board members from the Conejo Valley and with a trustee from the Ventura County Community College District, Bates said.

“I am prepared to vote either way,” he said. “This may be the most important thing we will vote on in the short time that I have been here.”