Parents Fight New Football Stadium Plan : Oceanside School Board Asked to Fund Scholastic Programs

Outraged at the Board of Education’s decision to spend $420,000 on construction of a football stadium rather than on other capital improvements and instructional supplies, a growing number of parents here are demanding that trustees rescind their action and reallocate the money.

United by what they describe as the board’s disregard for the district’s more pressing scholastic needs, a core group of about 20 parents has circulated petitions condemning the stadium allocation and requesting redistribution of the special state funds earmarked for educational improvements. Nearly 700 signatures have been collected, and rumors of a recall effort are in the air.

On Tuesday night, one parent brought the group’s protest before the board. Charging that trustees have a bad case of “misplaced priorities,” spokesman Charles Groves asked that the board “acknowledge this mistake” and reallocate the funds in a more “appropriate way.”

‘Legislative Intent’

“When we heard of the allocation, it was clear to us that the board had gone off the deep end and turned its back on the educational needs of this district,” Groves said. “To make sure we weren’t off base, our group conducted field surveys to see if, perhaps, all was well and the (current) allocation was justified. But we found that across the board there are needs--for physical plant improvements, for textbooks, for maps and globes in the libraries.”

Given those needs, he argued, and given the “legislative intent” of the $600,000 in state educational improvement money the district received, the board had no right to spend more than two-thirds of the sum on construction of a stadium at El Camino High School.

The trustees defend their action, calling completion of the stadium a longstanding and important commitment and asserting that the allocation in no way indicates the board’s priorities are athletics first and the classroom second.

“I have yet to see any need in our 19 schools that has not been met,” Board President Robert Nichols said. “So, rather than beat a dead horse, let’s go on with the agenda.”

But Groves and those he represents were not satisfied, and do not view the matter as “a dead horse.” After the meeting, he said he plans to send the petitions and a written complaint to the trustees and request a reply.

“If there’s no action on this, then we’ll begin exploring some other options,” he said. Groves has sent letters to national, state and local officials protesting the action and requesting input. Already, he said, Assemblyman Robert Frazee (R-Carlsbad) has expressed “his surprise” at the allocation and has pledged to ensure future state funding is accompanied by a more complete description of legislative intent.

Groves said that although a recall election “is a massive undertaking and something I hope we can avoid,” he would not rule out that possibility.

Unanimously Allocated Funds

The hullabaloo over the issue began in September, when the board voted unanimously to allocate funds for the stadium, a project that has been on the books for eight years. That action left unmet nearly $300,000 in educational requests contained on “wish lists” solicited from principals at the 19 schools, and spurred protests from students, faculty and other district employees.

Anita Hammond, president of the Oceanside Teachers Assn., said that the money could have been better spent on reducing the number of students per class, eliminating textbook shortages and rescinding cutbacks for library aides, health aides and custodians, all of whom are on an 11-month work schedule.

Danielle Sanford, a student representative to the board, wrote an editorial for the Oceanside High School student newspaper, citing poor plumbing, old science equipment and a lack of field trips as evidence that the money was badly needed elsewhere.

Even the office of state schools Supt. William Hoenig commented on the matter, with an aide to Hoenig saying that, while the board did not violate the letter of the law, the funds were to be used to restore programs, to improve curriculum and to purchase equipment, “not to build football stadiums.”

Finally, the parents jumped into the fray.

“We’re not out to bury the stadium or anything,” Groves said. “It’s just that we feel it was irresponsible of them to make such an investment when even a cursory walk around the campuses reveals some real problems.”

Image Not Enhanced

Groves sounded another theme in his address to the board Tuesday night, saying that financing a football stadium in lieu of a more academic project will not enhance Oceanside’s image.

“When high-tech industry people come in here and start asking around, they’re going to hear about this,” Groves said. “Then they’re going to hear about what our test scores look like and they’re going to begin wondering if Oceanside is where they want to be.”

Through it all, the trustees have argued that the stadium is needed to round out El Camino High School, whose football team now practices at home but plays its games five miles away at Oceanside High. Trustee Bibs Orr said that the stadium is important because “there are many students who would drop out of school if not for the fine, disciplined sports programs we have.”

She added that there were some “Mickey Mouse” items on the lists of requests submitted by the school principals and that the “critical needs of every school have been filled.”

(In November, the board approved a pared-down version of the principals’ requests that totaled $49,000. The remaining items will be included in a five-year capital improvements project the district will launch next year.)

Nichols said he views all the fuss over the stadium as “a big school rivalry thing” between Oceanside and El Camino high schools.

“I’d believe that this was more than a purely emotional issue if I wasn’t hearing people saying, ‘Let’s fix the cafeteria at Oceanside (High School), let’s fix the track at Oceanside, let’s do this or that at Oceanside,’ ” Nichols said. “There are just people who want to put this money into Oceanside, not El Camino.”