Vocational College Closes Its Doors

Watterson College Pacific, a private vocational school in Oxnard, closed its doors Friday in what appears to be a permanent shutdown.

No one answered the business school’s main number for its North Oxnard Boulevard campus, and school officials at another Watterson College Pacific in Vista near San Diego did not return several telephone calls Friday.

George Martinez, coordinator of the school’s business program, said he believed that the school closed in part because it could not continue to offer financial aid to students.

“Both the management and the teachers who were hoping to see the school through this financial crisis were really disappointed,” he said. “Unfortunately, it wasn’t possible.”

Barry Eglit, owner of the property at 815 N. Oxnard Blvd., said he won a legal judgment against the school in January requiring management to pay him $125,000 in back rent and property taxes. He said he has received nothing toward the judgment.

“They have been going down slowly for a long time,” Eglit said, adding that the school had been renting the concrete building from him for about 11 years.

Under the school’s beige-and-red sign Friday, another sign listed the property as “available.” Inside the school’s front lobby, a printed notice read “The school will be closed on Feb. 23, 1996, for repairs due to heavy rains.”

Eglit said he doubted that explanation.

Alicia Kurz, a salesclerk at B & K Auto Parts next to the school, said an instructor told her that today was the end.

“Teachers were given their last paychecks. No one seemed to know what happened,” Kurz said.