2 Popular School Programs Saved : Board Orders Restoration of Funding for Minor Sports, Gifted Education

After a packed marathon public hearing in which parents and students decried proposed budget cuts, the San Diego city school board late Tuesday said it will retain several minor sports and will restore a substantial portion of the gifted-education program, which had been targeted for reduction.

However, instrumental music instruction for elementary-school students will not survive the budget cuts, board members said.

The board consensus means that school district administrators will have to look for $500,000 to $1 million in cuts elsewhere--perhaps in transportation, military education or reducing the number of vice principals at secondary schools--as part of the $7.8 million that must be slashed to balance next year’s budget. At the board’s next meeting at 3:30 p.m. Monday, Supt. Thomas Payzant will reveal new areas where he can come up with additional savings. A final budget will be voted March 10.

The emotionally charged crowd, which overflowed the board chamber, argued that a one-third cut in the educational program for gifted students, also known as GATE, and the elimination of several sports and primary-level instruction in instrumental music would not only be damaging for students but also for the fabric of San Diego’s and the nation’s future.

“The proposed (one-third) cuts in (gifted education) will clearly undermine quality public education in San Diego . . . and precipitate a spiral of decline we’ll be unable to stop,” Dick Murphy, a Municipal Court judge and former City Council member whose daughters attend the program, said to sustained applause.

“How can our school board do something to hurt students?” asked Kris Fillat, a member of the Serra High School field hockey team, one of the several sports--along with golf, swimming and water polo--that were proposed for elimination. “I’m scared. I want to go to college and (an athletic scholarship) is the only way I can get there.”

Instrumental “music (instruction) in elementary schools is part science, mathematics, foreign language, physical education . . . but most of all, it is art: humanism, feeling, emotion,” Dean Hickman, a 10-year music teacher in the city schools, said in arguing to save that program from elimination.

The message to the board was that those specific cuts identified by Payzant were the incorrect ones to make in trying to balance a budget that will receive almost no increase in state funding for education under Gov. George Deukmejian’s proposed state budget. The cuts, if added to $2.8 million in reductions already made in reading and other programs, could affect sports, language, textbooks, libraries, gifted education, and major support services for teachers in numerous other areas.

Payzant later learned that the board, while agreeing that the budget must be cut, was not entirely happy with his specifics.

“To put it bluntly, I sense there are three votes for restoring $400,000 for GATE and $200,000 for athletics,” Payzant said. He had proposed eliminating $400,000 in district funds for GATE in addition to $600,000 in state funds that Deukmejian wants eliminated for the program, which covers 8,000 gifted and talented children.

The board agreed that it would be unable to come up with the extra local money to cover any state funds cut but said that GATE is too important to suffer a one-third slash in its $3.2-million budget.

Numerous speakers in an organized presentation had told the board earlier that the GATE program represents the very best that the public schools can offer, especially since San Diego is one of the few remaining urban school districts nationwide that still offer such a program. Many districts have eliminated it or fund gifted programs at very low levels, resulting in the parents of such children choosing private schools if they can afford the tuition.

“I was in a gifted program in the Los Angeles (public schools) many years ago, and that is why I stand before you today,” said Paul Saltman, a well-known UC San Diego biologist. Speaking directly to board President Kay Davis, Saltman noted that both of them serve on a educational task force that talks of improving school quality.

“Why talk ideally about what we should be doing if, when push comes to shove, excellence becomes the trivial word that relevance became in the 1960s?” Saltman said.

William Nierenberg, the internationally known former director of the UCSD Scripps Institution of Oceanography, lamented such cutbacks at the same time President Reagan and other government officials at all levels ask America to improve its ability to compete with Europe and Japan in future technology and scientific discoveries.

“The schools are a key element, as is the role that gifted students have to play,” Nierenberg said. “I’ve taken this (program) for granted for all these years.”

But even while restoring the local GATE funds, the board asked San Diegans to lobby the governor and the Legislature heavily for more money, not only for gifted children but also for the other programs that must be reduced or cut.

They agreed with Albert Williams, a GATE student at Freese Elementary School, who said to loud cheering from the audience: “Governor Deukmejian should spend some money for children who have a big future ahead of them.”

The board said that the minor sports have helped many children enjoy themselves and learn responsibility and leadership. Earlier, drug-abuse counselor Michael Newell had told the board that his daughter “learned skills both as an athlete and as an individual in playing field hockey” at Mission Bay High School. Noting the positive effects that sports can have on “at-risk” children, Newell said: “You can eliminate sports now . . . and as a counselor, pay me later.”

A weary Payzant was asked to look at several other areas for saving to compensate for higher GATE funding and continued minor sports, including high transportation costs for special education and integration program students. Davis wondered about the $9 million spent each year on transporting 3,000 special education students, as well as ROTC program costs. Susan Davis and Jim Roche asked Payzant to look at reduced vice principal staffing, saying that less supervision on secondary school campuses could be less harmful to school quality than other program cuts.

But Payzant did persuade a majority that the instrumental music program has been in poor shape for years and, even if continued, could not be made into a high-quality program. He said that special magnet programs for music at several primary schools will be continued, although he conceded that a lack of overall elementary school instruction could mean fewer band and orchestra members down the road in junior- and senior-high schools.