MISSION VIEJO : Gifts for Academic Decathlon Proposed

Mayor Robert A. Curtis will propose giving $5,000 in city funds to each of Saddleback Valley Unified School District’s four high school academic decathlon teams to help them survive.

Curtis said Tuesday that he will make the proposal at tonight’s City Council meeting at which the city’s next budget will be discussed.

The school district’s Board of Education voted last week to drop funding for the academic decathlon teams at Mission Viejo, Trabuco Hills, Laguna Hills and El Toro high schools as part of $4.3 million in budget cuts. The district made the cuts because of Gov. Pete Wilson’s proposal to slash the state’s education budget by $2 billion, which would cost the district $4.8 million in state funding next year.

Laguna Hills won the county and state competitions and finished second in the national competition in each of the last two years. The other schools have finished in the upper third of the county competition. No other Orange County school district has dropped its academic decathlon programs.

“These are very worthwhile programs,” said Curtis, who was an individual award winner in 1972 as a member of Mission Viejo High’s team. “The skills and the time necessary to develop them are comparable to what is required of high school athletes in programs such as football.”

It will take about $8,000 per academic decathlon team to keep the program alive, officials said.

“This (grant) would be a big help,” said Janet Hooper, Trabuco Hills’ head coach. “I’ve already raised about $1,800 through candy sales, and we would be able to raise any other money we would need next year. This grant would be unbelievably generous.”

Each school has nine-member teams at the 9th-, 10th-, 11th- and 12th-grade levels. About 90% of the money pays for the salaries of each school’s five coaches, with the rest spent on books, supplies and study aids for the students. The teams study three to five hours daily in the weeks leading up to the Orange County competition, which is held in November.

Curtis said his proposal will ask that the district repay the city if it receives extra money from the state. He said he will also ask that the cities of Laguna Hills and Lake Forest repay Mission Viejo for financing the Laguna Hills and El Toro high school teams when those communities are incorporated in December.

Curtis said the city periodically finances school activities.

“For example, we give $2,000 each year to each high school for their drug- and alcohol-free grad nights,” Curtis said. “The (academic decathlon) is one of the few programs that promote this type of academic excellence.”