Supt. Weis Ignores Board Decision, Accepts Grant : Education: County schools chief determines he has authority to accept $500,000 in federal job training funds without trustees’ approval.

A continuing power struggle between Ventura County schools chief Charles Weis and the County Board of Education escalated into a public showdown Monday as Weis announced he will ignore a board decision and accept $500,000 in federal job training funds.

“I don’t like being portrayed as someone who is pitching for a fight,” Weis said. “But I have to stand up for the school districts, the parents and the students. That is my job.”

Standing before a roomful of the county’s top school officials, including six school board trustees and three district superintendents, Weis said he has determined he has legal authority to accept the money without his governing board’s approval.

“I would not be doing the job that I was elected by the people of Ventura County to do if I let this opportunity for our county slip away,” Weis said, drawing applause from the educators.

Conservative county board Trustee Angela N. Miller, reached for comment, immediately denounced Weis’ action. The county board’s vote was legitimate and Weis should abide by it, Miller said.

“He wants total control, so it is really no big surprise,” Miller said. “This is just another example of him being a maverick superintendent and being unable to work with an elected school board.”

Miller and board President Wendy Larner, who have pushed a religious-right agenda since their election to the board, were joined last week by conservative Trustee Marty Bates in voting against accepting the $500,000 grant if it were offered.

The majority cannot fire Weis because he is elected, Miller said Monday. But it can take its own action, including seeking its own legal opinion on the vote, if necessary, she said.

No immediate action is necessary, however, because the county schools office will not know if it has won any of the $15 million in federal funds available under the School-to-Work Opportunities Act until next month, Miller said.

“If and when something needs to be done about it, we’ll deal with it,” she said.

Larner could not be reached for comment. And Bates said he would not discuss Weis’ action until he has a chance to read the state laws cited by the superintendent as giving him authority to accept the money.

But Bates said he is confident he made the right decision and is undeterred by the growing backlash from the county’s education leaders.

“It is my firm belief that [Weis] represents the education community very well,” Bates said. “And the board should represent the non-education community.”

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In his brief remarks, Weis said he has researched state education law and found that he has sole authority over whether the county schools office will accept federal funds.

State Education Code 12400 gives him the power to “perform all acts necessary” to receive and spend money from the federal government, Weis said, reading from a copy of the law.

No such similar authority is granted to the County Board of Education, he said. Although he suspected he had such authority, he agreed to bring the grant for the board’s review because the board members had requested that he do so, Weis said.

Weis’ announcement caught some school officials by surprise, in part because Weis had previously said he would be trying to circumvent the board’s decision by finding some other high school district or the community college system to manage the grant.

Thomas Duffy, superintendent of the Moorpark Unified School District, said he had already begun initial discussions with his board to take over management of the school-to-work funds if the county schools office was unable to do so.

But it is a relief that that step will not be necessary, Duffy said. As an umbrella agency providing administrative services to the county’s 20 local school districts, the county office is the most efficient place to keep track of the program, he said.

“It’s very important we not lose the opportunity to receive these monies,” Duffy said.

The grant would be used to create a countywide education program aimed at introducing high school students to a variety of careers, officials said. It expands upon a vocational-training program already in place at most of the county’s 17 high schools and includes the three community colleges.

Weis disputed the county board’s contention that the grant includes too many federal mandates and that students would be channeled into choosing a career at an early age.

The grant does not force any student to choose a career or to even participate in the program, Weis said. Those decisions are left up to the students and their parents, he said.

Marla Petal, a member of the Hueneme Elementary School District governing board, said several Ventura County school trustees bumped into each other at a conference last weekend.

And the county board’s recent vote was the main topic of discussion, she said.

“We were horrified,” said Petal, who said she attended Weis’ news conference to show her support for his position. “The effect of their decision was to undermine local control of education. It makes you wonder what’s next.”

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Besides Petal and Duffy, other educators present included Dolores Didio and Dorothy Beaubien of the Conejo Valley Unified School District board, Judy Barry and Carla Kurachi of the Simi Valley Unified School District governing board, Oxnard Elementary School District Trustee Mary Barreto and that district’s superintendent, Bernard Korenstein, and Ventura Unified School District Supt. Joseph Spirito.

Weis and the three-member majority have clashed in the past. Weis openly denounced the trio’s March decision to exclude representatives from Planned Parenthood and AIDS Care from teacher-training seminars.

Each side presented legal opinions stating they had final authority on who would act as speakers at the county-sponsored workshops. The issue still has not been resolved and the county schools office has not held any AIDS-education seminars since that vote.

Weis in recent months has retreated from his confrontational stance, often struggling to find middle ground with the conservative trustees. But it is time to take a stand once again, Weis said.

“I will continue to try to be accommodating,” Weis said. “But when an issue affects all the kids in Ventura County, I have to do something.”