Group Needs $12,000 by Aug. 15 : Show to Be Staged to Keep Teacher

The Fountain Valley High School Vocal Music Foundation, which is trying to raise $28,000 to save the job of the school’s music teacher, will hold a benefit show and champagne reception Aug. 12 at the B’nai Tzedek Temple in Fountain Valley.

The musical performance will be the last chance for the group to raise the money they must hand over to the Huntington Beach Union High School District, which says it will keep music teacher Ted Reid only if the parents come up with $12,000 by Aug. 15 to pay for Reid’s first-semester salary. The balance, $14,000, will be due at an unspecified time in the fall.

Reid, who has been at the school three years, was one of 32 teachers who were told they will not be rehired in the fall because of the district’s declining enrollment. In two years, officials say, enrollment at the district’s six high schools has decreased by 2,200. While school enrollment overall in Orange County is increasing rapidly, expensive housing costs in some coastal communities and other areas have kept out younger families with children.

Parents Started Campaign

But parents of Reid’s students say they believe so strongly in the music program and in his ability to teach their children an appreciation and knowledge of music that they started the campaign to keep him.

Reid was teaching three classes of music, as well as two classes of English, and was director of the school’s three award-winning choirs. If the foundation raises $28,000, the district has agreed to keep Reid on as a part-time music teacher.

The parents’ group had raised about $6,000, along with pledges for other unspecified amounts of money, and this week received another $1,000 in donations after news stories about their effort, said Pat Harney, one of the parents leading the fund-raising effort.

The biggest donation so far has been $500 from a Newport Beach lawyer who called Harney this week after reading about their effort.

“He said it made him see how important music had been to him, so he’s sending us a check for $500,” Harney said. “But we still have so far to go.

“Our time line is so short,” she said. “We’re just going everywhere and asking everyone for help.”

Admission to the benefit is $10. For more information contact Harney at (714) 963-3778.