$3-Million Grant for Job Training Secured for Schools

After finding a way to sidestep opposition from the Ventura County Board of Education, administrators have landed a $3-million federal grant for job training designed to link classrooms with businesses and give students a taste of the “real world.”

“This enables children to see a future for themselves,” said Charles Weis, the county’s superintendent of schools. “It enables them to see that they can make a contribution to the world. That’s powerful stuff.”

The School-to-Work Opportunities grant--rejected by the county school board in a controversial decision three years ago--will be paid out over four years and shared by five high schools, one community college and an undetermined number of middle and elementary schools. The schools will receive the first increments before spring.

The money will go toward expansion of career exploration programs, and will eventually grow to include the district’s 190 schools, Weis said.

Programs such as job shadowing, internships and mentoring that already are in place in some schools will grow with recruitment of companies in fields ranging from food services to health care, Weis said.

The grant comes from a federal allocation of $15 million to bolster career awareness for youths ranging from kindergarten to college age.

While local economists and educators extolled the benefits of the grant, the issue was contentious nearly three years ago when it came before the county board.

The board, often at odds with Weis, voted 3 to 2 in 1995 against receiving a $500,000 grant from the program. Opponents contended at the time that vocational programs were already in place in Ventura County and the money would just create too much government.

Marty Bates, one of the opposing board members, declined to say whether he would favor the grant today. But “I still believe it will create an extra layer of bureaucracy, if we’re talking about the same grant,” he said.

Weis, however, said he would not be bringing the grant to the board for approval because federal regulations do not require it.

“Now, since learning what I can do with federal funds, [board members are] not involved in everything,” Weis said. “In terms of working with school boards of Ventura County, that’s my job, not theirs.”

The county superintendent’s office again applied for the money in 1996 and 1997 before securing the grant this year. The first $1 million will arrive in November.

Three months ago Weis formed a leadership board with 30 organizations from the private and public sectors to decide who should get the money and how it should be spent.

Educators now are preparing for the changes the money will bring to the schools: a redesigned curriculum, more teacher training, updated materials and new relationships with business.

Liaisons may be hired to work with business leaders, conceivably making schools a one-stop shop where students can go to learn and practice their knowledge, officials said.

“Anything that can be done that can expose kids to the realities of the workplace is the best experience there is,” said Steve Kinney, president of Greater Oxnard Economic Development Corp.

The key word, educators say, is reality--a concept that is difficult to teach with limited budgets and a rapidly changing world.

“I would say realism is probably the biggest problem I have,” said Donna Pitzler, a work-experience coordinator at Moorpark High School. “Because of the media and what they hear adults talking about on television, they all think they’re going to be CEOs.”