School Cuts Put Off After Parent Pleas

After two hours of emotional pleas from parents and teachers, the Huntington Beach Union High School District Board of Trustees decided Tuesday night to wait until its next meeting to make $2.5 million in budget cuts the board’s president called inevitable.

President Bonnie Castrey made it clear that the cuts must be made and that “there will be a great deal of pain” regardless of which programs and positions are cut.

District officials said the proposed budget cuts are necessitated by a combination of declining enrollment, less state money than anticipated and decreasing lottery funds.

The problem is one shared by other districts in Orange County. Even districts with increasing enrollment, such as Saddleback Valley Unified, are facing budget problems because they are receiving less in state funds than school boards had counted on.

Sacramento Pressure Urged

Tuesday night, Castrey urged the overflow audience at the district board room in Huntington Beach to put pressure on Sacramento to restore state money for public education. Even if that happens, continued budget cuts will be necessary in the district because of declines in high school enrollment, she said.

Huntington Beach Union High School District governs the five high schools in Huntington Beach, as well as Fountain Valley High and Westminster High.

The proposed budget cuts that brought the most vocal opposition Tuesday night involved school athletics. More than half of the 30 people who addressed the board spoke against proposed elimination of athletic trainers and a possible transportation fee charged to student athletes.

Michael O’Malley, athletic trainer at Huntington Beach High, led off the long line of speakers with a plea that trainer positions not be slashed.

“Such a decision would jeopardize the health, safety and well-being of our student athletes,” O’Malley said. “You have no right to ask these athletes to do without this care. . . . You have a moral and legal responsibility to provide this care.”

Bryan Dobbins, vice president of the company that operates Pacifica Hospital in Huntington Beach, similarly urged the school board not to cut athletic trainers at the high schools. “You have a model system (of athletic trainers),” he said. “To have anything less than full-time trainers just doesn’t work.”

Dr. Peter Reynolds, a Huntington Beach orthopedic surgeon who donates professional services to the school district, said athletic trainers are vital to protecting student athletes. “What’s in jeopardy isn’t just jobs, it’s the jeopardy of a health-care system for all athletes in this district,” Reynolds said.

Twelve of the 30 speakers homed in on the trainer issue. Five others urged the board not to impose fees on student athletes for transporation to games and other activities. A proposed “co-curricular fee” would also affect such student activities as bands and theater groups, but the protesters only mentioned athletics in their statements to the board.

David VanHoorebeke, athletic director at Huntington Beach High School, told the school board that imposition of such a fee would be unconstitutional. VanHoorebeke referred to a state Supreme Court decision of about four years ago in which the court ruled that if a school district offers athletics, it cannot charge students for participating.

Other speakers urged the board not to cut classroom aides, custodians, support workers, art and work-experience coordinators and other positions under consideration for elimination.

Three speakers representing the Huntington Beach Administrators Assn., a professional group, urged the school board to appoint a Blue Ribbon Citizens Commission to study long-range budget cuts. One of the suggested areas of study was whether the district should close one of its high schools.

Castrey told the audience that when the board does vote on the budget cuts, “it will be after thoughtful decision.” She said some positions will have to be cut, however, because most of the budget is for salaries and benefits.