The state Attorney General's Office has agreed that an Oxnard school administrator should have been allowed to speak publicly about his demotion at a 2006 school board meeting.

District Attorney Gregory D. Totten had requested the state's opinion in December after telling Oxnard Union High School District officials they had broken state law.

Thomas Ito asked to speak during the public comment portion of a March 2006 meeting of the district's board after he was demoted from assistant principal at Channel Islands High School to a biology teaching position at Oxnard High School. District officials would not let him speak, saying it was a personnel issue.

In the opinion, state Attorney General Edmund Brown Jr. and Deputy Attorney General Marc Nolan cited the Ralph M. Brown Act, which provides for open meetings of public bodies, as well as public comment periods.

Because state law required the board to approve the demotion, it was fair game for public discussion, they wrote. "Moreover, the staffing of key administrative positions within a school district is of significant public interest."

They also concluded that while the Brown Act allowed the district to discuss the matter in closed session, it did not restrict the conversation only to closed-door meetings.

The attorneys also found that state law allowed Ito to attend the meeting. Ito had complained that aside from disallowing him to speak, Superintendent Jody Dunlap told him to leave the meeting — an allegation Dunlap has denied.

Ito's attorney, Jack Futoran, said Ito had been "completely vindicated" by the opinion.

Roger Rice, the school district's assistant superintendent for human resources, said it will uphold the opinion. He noted that Ito was allowed to speak about the matter at a later meeting.

Ito's situation was unique, Rice said. "Our board doesn't have any interest in squelching public comment," he said. "The issue at hand was whether an individual employee matter was raised to the level of public interest. Our position has always been that it does not."

Rice did not give a specific reason for Ito's demotion. Following the dispute, Ito was reinstated as an assistant principal at Rio Mesa High School and is now back at Oxnard High School as an assistant principal.

Totten's office said the violation was not willful, and it would take no further action against the district.

Futoran said he is working to see that the district compensates Ito for lost wages and attorney's fees.

After a day of work at the school Tuesday, Ito said, "I'm going to let (Futoran) work on that part of it and just focus on my job right now."