Crisis Management for Prep Funding : Conference: High schools must look for corporate and community sources.

The future of high school sports looks bleak enough that top national educators gathered in Los Angeles this week to see what is salvageable.

Sweeping financial cuts in education over the past couple of years have devastated many district budgets. Athletics have not been spared.

The Los Angeles Unified School District cut 20%, or $940,000, from its athletic budget last June, and board member Mark Slavkin said more cuts are on the way.

“To put all your eggs in one basket and hope athletics will be solely supported by the general fund would be a huge mistake,” he said. “We have to be realistic. More cuts are on the way, and athletics will not be a top priority.”

Slavkin said there might soon be a day when high school athletics receive no district funding.

The crisis has hit such proportions that the Amateur Athletic Foundation sponsored a two-day conference this week to see if some solutions could be found.

Among those in attendance was Brice Durbin, executive director of the Kansas City-based National Federation of State High School Associations. The national federation governs athletics in all 50 states, including the California Interscholastic Federation.

Durbin reiterated that solving financial problems is his top priority.

He said the short-term solution is going after corporate and outside support, and the long-term solution is increasing awareness that the funding process for education, including athletics, has to come from more than a tax base.

“When every single state is addressing this issue, you know it’s a problem,” said Durbin, the national federation director since 1977. “Somehow, some way, we have to figure out how to fund education in this country, because if we can’t do that, we’re really in trouble.”

Corporate sponsorship is one solution. The CIF receives $500,000 a year from Reebok International and $200,000 from Pepsi, in return for free advertising and public announcements at playoff events. Most agree those dollar figures could and should be much higher.

But Durbin said corporate sponsorship is not reliable and can shift from year to year. He said another solution is seeking volunteers from older community leaders who can help raise funds.

“Volunteerism is a way we are going to be able to utilize the older population,” he said. “They are resourceful people, and it will pull them back into the values of schools.”

Durbin was one of several conference leaders who proposed having districts form developmental offices to solicit contributions from local businesses and alumni.

Although most agreed the financial problem is immediate, Durbin said he is confident high school sports will persevere.

“As long as we follow through with what we recognize as a problem, I think we will get through this. We were awakened. A lot of people saw the danger and what happens if you lose something. Now people are going after the solutions.”

Durbin said the CIF could help itself by concentrating on becoming a more unified organization. The CIF is the most complex high school organization in the country. The state office, based in La Mirada, governs 10 regional sections. The Southern Section, which includes most of the Southland, is the largest.

“The CIF is now starting to catch up (with the rest of the nation). It is beginning to tighten up. Until they have one general set of standards, however, they’re going to have some problems. By taking advantage of unification, they would create more public support.”

Trying to equally serve 10 sections is difficult. Statewide corporate sponsorship has to be divided in a fair manner, and in some cases, individual sections have support of businesses that are in direct competition with state sponsors. That causes tension and could result in less money.

“We’re new at this (corporate sponsorship), so the wrinkles still have to be worked out,” said Margaret Davis, associate commissioner of the CIF.

Durbin said those types of problems need to be worked out quickly if the CIF is to be successful in solving the financial problem.

Prep Notes

Brice Durbin said soccer is the fastest growing high school sport in the nation and that it will be a strong financial base for the national federation. On the other end, he said gymnastics is facing extinction. Although support is high, increasing litigation against equipment companies has made schools afraid of the financial commitment. “I don’t know whether it will survive or not,” Durbin said. . . . Drug and alcohol programs are one of the most popular services provided by the national federation. Durbin said his office is working with 102,000 schools and the number is growing. . . . Although Durbin said no successful athletic program can function without a successful relationship with the media, he says that the media should have certain limits in covering high school sports. In eligibility and hardship cases, he does not believe that an athlete’s personal background should be an open book. “It is of no public value to find out a certain athlete may have come from a dysfunctional home, yet that may have been the cause of why they missed a game or two.”