Payzant Frowns on School Bingo Proposal : Education: Madison High parents want to use the game to bring in money for unmet needs, but the superintendent says that, state lottery funds notwithstanding, gambling sets a bad example.

After seven years of operating nighttime adult bingo once a week, the parents running the educational foundation at Castle Park High School in Chula Vista have accumulated a nice kitty of $300,000.

The substantial endowment generates monthly interest that pays for a variety of student programs, which otherwise would go unfunded in a time of tight public money.

Now, parents with a similar foundation at Madison High School want to take a page from Castle Park to raise funds and cover some of the $150,000 worth of unmet needs at their Clairemont area campus, including a modern computer lab.

But, where Castle Park received the support of its Sweetwater district administrators when it floated the idea in 1984, Madison faces opposition from San Diego Unified officials, who don’t like the idea of gambling at one of their campuses.

At their weekly meeting Monday, eight of 12 top assistants to Supt. Tom Payzant voted to oppose the idea because, as one put it, “children would be eating lunch in the same cafeteria where there would be gambling at night.”

One person who attended said that “there was almost a moralistic attitude within” the meeting, and added, “If it is such an issue of right and wrong, why aren’t we turning back lottery money to the state?”

Payzant said Thursday that he “is opposed to opening up public schools as facilities to bingo” or any other type of gambling.

“I was a strong supporter of the (state) lottery, but I think I let my guard slip on that, and I would oppose it if I had to do it over again,” he said. “Adults have to model behavior for young people if we are to influence their behavior . . . and (to support bingo) sends an inconsistent message.”

The San Diego school district, the nation’s eighth-largest, has no policy on the matter, and the five trustees will be under no obligation to follow a negative recommendation from Payzant and his staff. The district must approve the foundation’s use of Madison’s cafeteria or auditorium in order for the the bingo games to begin.

Madison parents have vowed to go around the administrators and persuade school board members to back their efforts.

“I’m incredibly frustrated,” Glen Barfell, vice president of the Madison foundation, said this week. “This shouldn’t be an issue at all. Bingo is strictly regulated by the (San Diego) police,” who would not give the go-ahead if the games failed to meet their requirements, he said.

“What is immoral about bingo?” Barfell said. “The lottery is gambling, so what’s the difference? Why is it OK to get money from the lottery to cover problems like drugs, AIDS and gangs, and we can’t raise money for computers?”

Both Barfell and Madison foundation President Ray Wilson asked whether the extensive bingo games run by Catholic and other parochial schools throughout the country, as well as numerous public school districts in California, indicate a lower level of morality on the part of those institutions.

“This is a fund-raising issue, not a moral issue,” Barfell said.

Catholic schools regularly run adult bingo games, said Vincent Whelan, financial officer for the local diocese.

“A substantial number would be forced to close if it weren’t for bingo,” he said, adding that the ethics of the game have never been an issue.

For example, Blessed Sacrament School in East San Diego uses bingo to raise $110,000 of the $155,000 needed annually to operate the school, Whelan said.

Castle Park Principal Elisabeth Cogdill said bingo has been “terrifically successful” at her school, generating money that allows students to travel for band competitions and take music classes, among other things. Southwest High School in the Sweetwater district also has regular bingo fund-raisers.

“There’s a lot of work involved because all the workers have to be parent volunteers,” Cogdill said. “We get (as players) a lot of community types, a lot of senior citizens, people who enjoy bingo and go from our school one night to the church down the street the next night.

“We play up the fact that they are supporting the school,” Cogdill said, adding that many of the players would otherwise have no contact with public education.

“I’ve heard no criticism of what we are doing,” she said. “I think people accept the fact that this is one of the things we have to do so that we can do well for kids.”