Burbank Fuss Over School Funds Cools

Embarrassed Burbank School District officials spent much of this week’s Burbank City Council meeting talking their way out of dispute that developed after they implied that the council cared more about restrooms than classrooms.

The implication was made during last week’s school board meeting, when school officials protested that, of federal urban development funds allocated to the city, more money was being used to repair toilets in Burbank’s Golden Mall than to improve school facilities.

The council Tuesday night put off a resolution of the issue by agreeing to explore ways in which both the restrooms and the schools could be improved. But the compromise came only after school officials were lambasted by the council for suggesting that the city placed a higher priority on bathrooms than classrooms.

“I felt that was an unfair statement,” Mayor Mary Lou Howard said. “Since 1982, the city has given the schools more than $2 million, and we have supported the schools all the way.” Most of the city money came from building and property purchases, Howard said.

Newly appointed School Board President Bill Abbey called the suggestion “unfortunate,” apologized to Howard and told her that the bathroom reference had been deleted from the district report presented Tuesday to the council.

The report, prepared by district Supt. Wayne Boulding and his staff, complained that Burbank schools had not received fair consideration in the recent distribution of money from the federal Community Development Block Grant Program. Of grants totaling over $1.4 million, $100,000 was allotted for the repair of toilets in the Golden Mall and the school district was given $70,000 for the improvement of its facilities.

Text of Statement

“If members of the City Council concur that the Golden Mall restrooms are more important to the residents of Burbank than the condition of its schools, it is the hope of the district that the needs of the public schools will be given more consideration in the years to come,” said an earlier version of the district report.

Although he withdrew the controversial statement, Abbey repeated his assertion that the improvement of schools is as important to the community as the refurbishing of streets, parks and alleys.

The block grant funds are designated for community improvements and expansion of job opportunities “for persons of low and moderate income.”

For the 1985-86 fiscal year, the district requested $2.8 million for school improvements.

But the city originally received just $1.3 million from the block grant program for all of its projects and a citizens’ advisory committee recommended that the schools get only about $25,000. The council later allocated an additional $45,000.

Extra Unspent Funds

It was when $145,000 in unspent federal funds from the previous fiscal year also became available that the city earmarked $100,000 of the funds for improvement of the mall bathrooms. The remaining $45,000 was appropriated for the nonprofit organization SHINE (Senior Help--Information and Networking for the Elderly).

Abbey said the district never had an opportunity to apply for the unspent funds, which became available when two projects scheduled to use the money could not do so, according to Gary Brown, Burbank’s community development block grant administrator.

Brown said the district would not have been eligible for the unspent funds, anyway.

Issue of Eligibility

“The Department of Housing and Urban Development stipulates that these funds be expended within a timely manner, and there is a deadline,” Brown said. “These projects are already in place and prepared, but the school projects are not. We would also have to identify the projects and determine eligibility.”

He said the school projects could not be completed by June 30.

Brown said the federal funds are to be used for “urgent needs, low-to-moderate income benefits, such as jobs for low-income individuals, and the elimination of slum and blight.”

Acting City Manager George Nony said he was exploring other ways of paying for the repair of the restrooms, which have been damaged by vandals and have been described by Howard as being in “disgraceful condition.”