LAGUNA HILLS : Decathlon Teams Have Hopes Raised

U.S. Sen. John Seymour (R-Calif.) pledged Friday to raise $25,000 to save Saddleback Valley Unified School District’s academic decathlon teams, while Assemblyman Gil Ferguson (R-Newport Beach) said that he doubts that cuts in the state education budget will be as deep as some believe.

Seymour and Ferguson were at a Laguna Hills High School rally honoring the school’s academic decathlon team, which won the state championship in March and finished second in the national competition in April, both for the second consecutive year.

The pair presented the nine-member team with resolutions from the Legislature and Congress after the team received a standing ovation from their schoolmates.

Some of the team members, as well as some teachers and classmates, wore black ribbons to protest state and district budget cuts that threaten the program. The Saddleback school board voted last week to eliminate the $40,000 needed to fund the program at Laguna Hills, El Toro, Mission Viejo and Trabuco Hills high schools as part of a $4.3-million budget reduction. The cuts were necessary, officials said, because of Gov. Pete Wilson’s threatened $2-billion cut in next year’s state education budget.

“I’m aware that this program is short of funds, and I have talked to the principal and assistant principal, and they have told me they are going to try to raise the money through private contributions,” Seymour told the students. “I want you to know that I am going to help you raise it. This program is too good to let go.”

Both Seymour and Ferguson were greeted with polite applause and a smattering of boos when introduced at the rally, but the students cheered loudly when Seymour made his pledge.

Seymour said he will approach Orange County aerospace firms for donations, using the pitch that one of the categories in this year’s decathlon was space exploration. The money would go to fund all four teams in the district.

“It’s going to be hard, because the aerospace companies have lost a lot of business recently,” Seymour said. “But I think it can be done.”

Ferguson said after the rally that he believes education will suffer severe cuts only if state taxes are not raised as part of a plan to eliminate the state’s $14-billion budget deficit.

“Schools are going to have to tighten their belts, but my primary concern and the primary concern of most Republicans, is that we will raise taxes and still lower revenue for schools,” Ferguson said in an interview. “If taxes are going to be raised, and it appears they will be, we will insist that money go to education before it goes to health and welfare, prisons or anything else.”

Since the cuts in funding for the academic decathlon teams, several companies and individuals have contacted the schools about donating money, officials said. Mission Viejo’s City Council voted this week to give each of the teams $5,000, including those at El Toro and Laguna Hills highs, which are not in that city. The council hopes that the cities of Laguna Hills and Lake Forest will reimburse Mission Viejo after they are incorporated in December.

Teddy Chen, a Laguna Hills High junior who would be the captain of its team next year, said Seymour’s pledge was good news.

“With his support there is a good chance that we will be able to get enough contributions to continue,” he said.