Groups Form to Push for School Funds

Two Huntington Beach area groups organized Monday to counteract cuts in spending for education that would be forced by Gov. George Deukmejian’s proposed state budget.

In the Huntington Beach Union High School District, the formation of a private fund-raising group was announced. The group’s goal is to raise $100,000 to try to save the jobs of full-time athletic trainers at six district high schools.

And in the Ocean View (Elementary) School District, a citizens committee was formed to put political pressure on the governor and the Legislature to increase funds for next year’s education budget.

Walkout by Students

In the move to save the athletic trainers’ jobs, education officials acknowledged that student unrest over the proposed cuts prompted a walkout of about 120 students at Fountain Valley High on March 6. A second scheduled student walkout planned at Huntington Beach High last Friday was averted by teachers and administrators.

“I was counseling a girl on Friday morning, and she told me, ‘Please hurry, because I’ve got to make the walkout in third period,’ ” Assistant Principal Jeannine Lucas said.

“We knew the walkout had been planned because there had been student flyers handed out,” Lucas said. But the flyers didn’t tell the time. After I learned about what period they were talking about, we got word to all the teachers to please step out into the halls during third period. Students who started walking out saw the teachers and walked right back to class.”

While the aborted walkout caused no problem, Huntington Beach Union High School District officials on Monday acknowledged that considerable student and community unrest still exists over the Board of Trustees’ decision last month to cut the full-time trainers. Athletic trainers provide first-aid treatment and therapy for student athletes at Huntington Beach High, Edison High, Marina High, Ocean View High, Westminster High and Fountain Valley High.

The trustees, faced with declining student enrollment and the governor’s budget allowing only a 1.1% increase in spending for next year, voted Feb. 24 to eliminate $1.3 million in district programs and staff. One of the cuts was $100,000 for full-time athletic trainers. The board, however, left $65,000 in the budget to keep part-time athletic trainers next fall.

Scores of parents and students turned out at two consecutive board meetings to protest the cutback. Trustees, however, noted that they had few alternatives and had to balance the budget.

After the cutback, several residents of the Huntington Beach-Westminster-Fountain Valley area expressed interest in forming a private fund-raising foundation, said Bill Boswell, athletic coordinator for Huntington Beach Union High School District.

Will Seek Funds

“The group is going to be called the Huntington Beach Sports Medicine Foundation,” Boswell said. “The foundation is going to try to raise $100,000 so that with that money and the $65,000 the district has allocated, the athletic trainers can be kept full time next year.”

Boswell said the foundation already has received a $2,000 donation from Humana Hospital Westminster.

The move to organize a citizens’ action group in the Ocean View district was launched Monday night during a districtwide meeting of parents at Harbor View School in Huntington Harbour.

“We are a group of parents organizing ourselves so that we can write and petition the (state) Senate and Assembly and the governor for more money for education,” said Suzie Janeski, one of the organizers. “We know other groups are being formed in other districts, and maybe we can make all our voices heard. We want Gov. Deukmejian to know that we need more money for our schools.”

Janeski said Ocean View elementary schools face a $1.1-million budget cut next year unless the Legislature and the governor add more money than now proposed to state education funding.

Like the high school district, Ocean View has had declining student enrollment during the 1980s. Fewer students result in less money for school districts because state funding is based on the number of students enrolled.

Even school districts with growing student populations face budget cuts next year, however. School districts in south Orange County, the most rapidly growing part of the county, have said that they, too, face painful budget cutbacks next year if more money is not restored to the state education budget.