VENTURA COUNTY NEWS : Conference Center Planned at Airport : County: School board OKs Camarillo site for project to replace facility with potential structural problems.

The Ventura County superintendent of schools office is planning to construct a $9.2-million building at Camarillo Airport to replace the Cowan Conference Center, which officials say needs to be torn down because of potential structural problems.

The proposed 56,000-square-foot, two-story building would be a state-of-the-art conference center with additional space for administrative offices, officials said.

County school board members voted 3 to 2 last week to approve the site for 550 Airport Way, reversing their earlier decision to build the new center between Verdugo Way and Adolfo Road in Camarillo, next to the current administrative offices.

Trustees Ron Matthews, Marty Bates and Yvonne Bodle voted in favor of the Camarillo Airport site, while Al Rosen and Janet Lindgren cast the dissenting votes.

Matthews, who initially voted for the Adolfo Road property, said he changed his mind for financial reasons.

“It just made good fiscal sense, without a doubt,” Matthews said. “We don’t have to spend $1.5 million on land when we’ve already got 17 acres out there.”

The county schools office owns land at Camarillo Airport but would have to pay about $1.5 million to buy property near Adolfo Road, where the cost of building a new center is estimated at $10.5 million.

The Cowan Conference Center, which was built in the 1950s as a military commissary, serves about 30,000 people a year, administrators said. County educators said the center needs to be replaced for educational and structural reasons.

Because of an expected jump in enrollment, Ventura County schools will outgrow the current conference center within a few years, said Stan Mantooth, assistant superintendent for the county schools. Even now there is no large auditorium room to hold graduation ceremonies or countywide academic events.

Also, a report on the Cowan Conference Center recommended it be replaced within a few years for seismic reasons. Mantooth said engineers concluded that the conference center might last through one earthquake, but not two.

“We want to be proactive,” he said. “We don’t think the building’s unsafe now, but we want to take care of it well in advance.”

Plans for the new center call for a large conference room on the first floor and administrative office space on the second floor. There would also be space for an instructional materials display center and a room resembling a college lecture hall.

The county schools office would probably rent out 10,000 to 15,000 square feet until it needed the space.

“The conference center is a central portion of the services that we provide to the school districts, and I’m pleased that we are going to replace it,” Ventura County Supt. of Schools Chuck Weis said. “It is a necessary expense.”

The project would be financed by state block grant funds earmarked for construction projects, officials said.

County schools staff members preferred the Adolfo Road location. That site would have allowed the office to consolidate its administrative staff members into one area. Currently, there are offices on both Verdugo Way and Airport Way.

Moving the conference center to Adolfo Road also would have allowed for expansion of educational programs at Camarillo Airport. Gateway Community School, Phoenix School and the Regional Occupational Program School are all situated at the airport.

Trustee Lindgren also favored the Adolfo Road site. “I don’t feel that it was the wisest decision,” she said. “It seemed like the land should be utilized out there first for student programs.”

But the majority of the trustees preferred the airport site because it is cheaper and allows for collaborative efforts with the community college district, also situated at the airport.

“There are so many possibilities of cooperation between Ventura County schools and the community college district that nobody has investigated,” trustee Marty Bates said. “And this will give us the opportunity to do that.”

Weis said he disagreed with the board’s decision, but said he is still looking forward to having the center built.

At the next board meeting, trustees are expected to select an architect and approve the cost of the facility. Construction could begin as soon as next summer, with the center opening by 2002.

“The board is the ultimate authority on this, so we just need to move ahead and build the best conference center we can,” Weis said.