Board to Consider HIV Program Grant

The Ventura County Board of Education will consider Monday whether to apply on behalf of several school districts for a state-funded grant to teach HIV prevention.

The $20,000 grant would fund programs to train students to be peer educators on HIV prevention and to develop presentations geared to students, parents and administrators, particularly at junior and senior high schools with the highest teen pregnancy rates.

Benefiting from the grant would be five school districts: Ventura Unified, Oxnard Union, Fillmore Unified and the Briggs and Rio elementary districts, which have junior high schools.

The funds would be used to continue and expand programs developed under a similar grant approved by the board last July by a 3-1 vote, with one abstention. In that action, board member Angela N. Miller voted against the grant application while then-board President Wendy Larner abstained.

Last spring, Miller and Larner voted against allowing Planned Parenthood and local AIDS advocacy groups to train teachers on AIDS prevention and sex education. That decision sparked a bitter debate and an unsuccessful recall drive against the two board members.

The decision also angered some local school board members who accused the county board of overstepping its authority.

Five school districts have filed resolutions objecting to the latest grant proposal, urging county officials to not “usurp the local control” of school boards. Opposing the grant request are the Rio Elementary, Fillmore Unified, Ojai Unified, Santa Paula Union and Santa Paula Elementary districts.

“As customers of this office, the local boards want to get the services we provide, not be told what services they should get,” said Ventura County schools chief Charles Weis. “And I agree with them.”