Showdown at Campus Corral : Seven students at North Hollywood High must sell blue-ribbon steers or default on loans.

The dilemma facing some very worried people at North Hollywood High School can be summed up quite simply:

“Our problem is we have six steers at the high school,” teacher Carol Drag said.

The solution is not as obvious at it might seem. A call to the Humane Society to take them away will not solve anything.

These six steers, with cutie-pie names like Lucky, Blackie and Micky Moo, actually belong on campus. Or rather, they used to belong there until they began outstaying their welcome this week. If they stay much longer, seven students will default on loans totaling $8,700.

The steers and the students, who belong to the school’s branch of the Future Farmers of America, are casualties of the livestock auction held last weekend at the San Fernando Valley Fair. The bidding on the blue-ribbon steers was so low that the students bought them back to keep their losses as low as possible. Bids were averaging 85 cents a pound; at that rate, the students figured, they would have come up about $500 short on each animal.

Temporary Reprieve

Retrieving the livestock, however, gave the students only a temporary reprieve. The loans they obtained last year from Security Pacific Bank in North Hollywood to buy the calves come due late next month.

Between cattle feedings this week, the students have been contacting businesses in the Valley in hopes of finding a few meat lovers to buy the animals. Each steer will provide the owner with enough steaks and hamburgers to keep a barbecue pit working into the winter--about 465 pounds on the average.

The students need $1,700 per steer to cover the loans and other expenses, said Drag, the high school’s agriculture teacher, who adds that much of the purchase price is tax deductible. Drag can be contacted at the school by those interested in buying a “tender and juicy” steer.

Unaware that their keepers’ peace of mind hinges upon their demise, the steers can be found each day in the high school’s overgrown vegetable garden, grazing amid last season’s pumpkin crop and unattended zucchini plants, which are still capable of producing vegetables half the length of baseball bats.

The cattle definitely do not figure into the students’ plans.

“It’s hard to have a career and a large animal.” said Mayra Santos, 18, of Pacoima. Minutes earlier, Santos and her partner, Angie Ruiz, were chasing their steer, Stanley, around the garden, one grabbing the tail and the other trying to lasso a halter across its snout. (Only Stanley remains a discipline problem; the others have been tamed considerably, including Lucky, who kicked a student during his first day on campus and sent him to the hospital.)

Worried About Education

The student ranchers, who had hoped to make money for college from their endeavor, now worry that their animals will force them to postpone their educations if they have to get full-time jobs to pay off their loans.

“We have to pay it back,” Ruiz said. “We’re all worried about it.”

Meanwhile, the students maintain the routine they began at the start of the school year. They arrive early each morning to care for the animals, some of them riding the bus two to three hours to get there. During the school year, many spent five hours a day before and after school and during breaks with their animals. Their responsibilities prevented them from going on the senior class trip to Hawaii.

What does the bank think about this sad story?

“We aren’t going to make it too difficult for them. They are kids,” said Hans Naesheim, an assistant vice president at the bank, which has been handing out loans for FFA fair projects for years.

Noting that he will not make the final decision, Naesheim said the bank might write off what remains of the loans after the students get what they can for the animals or refinance the loans with “very easy terms.”

“This might be a good lesson for them,” the banker observed. “Things don’t always turn out as they should.”