Despite recent cuts to the Conejo Valley Adult School’s budget, students and staff have received some good news.

The Ventura County Board of Supervisors has approved a $50,000 grant and the donation of medical equipment from local hospitals for the school’s medical technology programs.

Supervisor Linda Parks submitted a proposal for the grant at last week’s Board of Supervisors meeting. The grant will help launch programs for surgical and radiological assistants.

“Providing funding to help train people who are underemployed or unemployed in these two medical professions will help them get good-paying jobs and also assist the Ventura County Medical Center in its recruiting for these positions,” Parks said.

Conejo Valley Unified School District board member Betsy Connolly had approached Parks about the possibility of a grant.

Connolly also credited Parks’ staff with “opening the doors” for a collaboration between the Ventura County Medical Center, Los Robles Hospital and the adult school.

Ventura County Medical Center has pledged to donate up to $2,000 of surplus surgical equipment, including forceps and scissors, by Sept. 1. Los Robles Hospital and Medical Center is also considering donating surgery instruments for the programs.

“(Parks’) proposal has to do with the launching of two programs the adult school had on the drawing board for some time,” Connolly said. “As a result of all of the cuts, we weren’t going to be able to make it happen.”

Connolly thanked Parks “for watching out for us, for seeing that job creation is something we do and for expressing confidence that we would make the money work.”

“The grant allows us to start a program for two key job areas at a time when job creation opportunities are so important,” Connolly said.

CVAS Principal Mike Waters said Connolly and Dep. Superintendent Jeff Baarstad, both of whom attended the supervisors meeting last week, were instrumental in the passage of the proposal.

“There was outreach by Dr. Connolly, and we were put into the position of responding to a chance for a grant,” he said. “With a push from Dr. Connolly, we did well. We are grateful for support we are receiving, and we hope to do really, really well training our students for work opportunities.”

The medical department of the district’s Adult Education program has tripled in the last few years, which Parks attributed to the greater number of unemployed adults and the strong interest in job training and reentry into the growing job market.

Parks noted that Supervisor John Zaragoza was supportive, saying the county’s donation would bring in hundreds of thousands of dollars as the unemployed become part of the workplace.

The county’s Health Care Agency director, Mike Powers, told Parks that there are shortages of skilled surgical and x-ray assistants.

The need for surgical technicians is expected to increase by 25 percent and for radiological technicians by 17 percent by 2018, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor and Statistics.