New Section Feasibility Reviewed : High schools: Superintendents look into logistics of breaking away from Southern Section, and combining county’s public and private schools.

Another step toward possibly forming an Orange County Section in the California Interscholastic Federation was taken Tuesday when county superintendents met to review a study of the idea’s feasibility.

Barbara Wilson, a former deputy superintendent for the Tustin Unified School District, presented the study in a meeting at the Anaheim Union High School district office. The Saddleback Valley Unified School district paid Wilson $5,000 to conduct the study.

Interestingly, while one catalyst for the study was the perception by some county schools that they had not had enough say in the controversial proposal to add Catholic high schools to public leagues, officials said those schools possibly could be included in a new section.

The county’s 69 high schools are members of the Southern Section, which includes 482 schools from Calexico to Mammoth Mountain. Except for Santa Ana Unified, every county district was represented at the meeting.

“There was no vote taken today, but we distributed the results of the survey and Barbara did a walk-through on the study,” said Peter Hartman, Saddleback Valley superintendent.

Among the concerns of the county superintendents were cost projections for forming a section. School districts are making large budget cuts for next year.

Wilson said she roughly estimated initial start-up costs--including building, staff, office equipment and the first year’s operating budget--at $600,000.

The study also project that dues would increase. High schools currently pay 23 cents per student to compete in the Southern Section. Wilson said the new dues would fall somewhere between that and the 65 cents she said the San Diego Section now pays, adding she said she did not expect it to be more than 40 cents per student with expected corporate sponsorship, community support and playoff revenue.

Ed Dundon, superintendent of the Garden Grove Unified School District, said major corporate sponsorship is necessary when considering a county section.

“There is some guess work in the estimated cost per student,” Dundon said. “We have to be prepared for a wider variance.”

Michael Miller, superintendent of the Los Alamitos Unified School District, said the meeting focused on the procedures for forming a new section.

“Basically, we looked into the logistics of forming a section and how we would govern our schools,” Miller said. “Obviously, one of the positives of forming a section is that we would get more say in how we govern ourselves.”

Hartman, who over the past two years has led some public schools’ resistance to allowing Catholic high schools to join public leagues, said he was uncertain whether the four Catholic schools involved in the county releaguing controversy would be included in a county section.

“They probably would (be included), but that hasn’t been decided yet,” Hartman said.

Currently, the four schools--Santa Margarita, Mater Dei, Servite and Rosary--compete in athletic leagues with other Catholic high schools.

Recently, the Southern Section’s Executive Committee and General Council approved a decision allowing the Catholic schools to compete in public leagues in 1992.

“I think this meeting had to happen considering all the water that has gone under the bridge,” Dundon said. “I would think the private schools would be included in a new section. I don’t think you would want to exclude those schools.”

Times Staff Writer Chris Foster contributed to this story.