CAMARILLO : Strapped Music Program in Danger

The Pleasant Valley School District music program, saved by a parents group this semester, may be in danger of dying next year if the group cannot raise enough funds to keep it going.

The group, Save Our Kids’ Music, brought the program back to life by promising to raise $27,000 to fund it. The program had been cut from the budget, so there was no program for the first semester.

But with the end of the fiscal year fast approaching, the group is still $15,000 away from fulfilling that promise.

Group member Annette Okamura is worried that the program will once again be cut from the next fiscal year’s budget if the district is not paid the $15,000 by June 12, the last day of school. The new fiscal year starts July 1.

“I’m bound and determined that we’re not going to let these kids down again,” Okamura said.

If the group manages to raise the $15,000, it still faces a $54,000 bill to continue the program next year, Okamura said. She said parents may be asked to give donations.

Trustee Leonard Caligiuri said that, if the district could not afford to fund the music program this year, chances are that next year will not be any different.

“I guess you could say the district is finding it hard to continue current programs as it is and that the chances that we would fund the music program out of the general fund . . . are very slim,” Caligiuri said.

He said the board has not discussed whether the program will be cut out of the curriculum if the parents group does not come up with the money by the end of the fiscal year. “We haven’t really discussed next year and music,” Caligiuri said. But he added, “I imagine if they weren’t able to come up with the money this year . . . we wouldn’t send them a bill.”