Santa Paula : Schools Approve Clean-Air Incentives

The board of the Santa Paula Union High School District has approved spending about $2,500 as an incentive for employees to participate in a Ventura County plan to reduce air pollution.

The money would be awarded to school employees, and its use would be restricted to buying school and classroom supplies, said Tahir Ahad, the district’s director of fiscal operations.

Last June, in an effort to comply with a new county regulation called Rule 210, the school district submitted a plan to the county Air Pollution Control District outlining how school employees could help reduce pollution by increasing car-pooling, bicycling and other ways to get to work.

However, county officials rejected the plan, saying it lacked sufficient incentives to get teachers and other employees to participate.

Other school districts have offered time off or gifts to their employees.

But Santa Paula school officials questioned whether such incentives are legal, arguing that they may constitute a gift of public funds.

The board’s action Wednesday, by a 5-0 vote, may resolve the legality issue, because the money would be used only to buy school supplies, Ahad said.

“We’re not giving people money to take home for their personal use,” Ahad said. “They’ll be getting extra money on top of the normal allocation, but it will be used only to supplement or enhance the educational program.”

The district’s revised plan still must be approved by the county, Ahad said.

If the plan is approved, the department in the school district that has shown the most improvement in reducing car trips by the end of the school year will be awarded money to buy additional supplies next school year, Ahad said.

If the plan is rejected, Ahad said, “it will be back to the drawing board.”