$60 Bus Fee Puts Bell Gardens High Football in Trouble : Schools: Players may quit rather than pay $60 for rides to away games. Administrators say a tight budget makes the fee necessary.

A $60 transportation fee imposed by the financially ailing Montebello Unified School District on sports and other extracurricular activities is threatening to disrupt Bell Gardens High School’s highly successful football program.

More than a dozen football players have quit, several others are threatening to leave and football coaches say they may have to forfeit all games away from home.

The district, which has been forced to lay off dozens of employees and slash other services as part of $35.7 million in budget cuts over two years, imposed the annual fee to pay for transportation to and from football games and other events. The fee would be paid by members of sports teams, bands and pep squads, among others.

The conflict is expected to come to a head Friday when the high school’s junior varsity team is scheduled to travel to Downey for a game at Warren High. Players must pay at least $20 before they will be allowed on the bus, football Coach Dave Newell said. But Newell said that he expects many players not to pay and that coaches will refuse to participate unless the entire team makes the trip.

Varsity and freshman games scheduled Sept. 25 at Downey High also appear to be in jeopardy. Two varsity reserves quit earlier this week, citing the fee, and other departures are anticipated.

“I can tell you that 80% of the football team will quit if this fee goes through,” said junior defensive back Edgar Urea, who is also the Student Body treasurer. “I’m pretty well off financially, but even at that I am considering quitting the team.”

A similar charge has been imposed at the district’s other two high schools, Montebello and Schurr, but athletic directors said they have had no problem collecting the fee.

The fee struck a nerve in poverty-stricken Bell Gardens, where Lancer football is viewed as an extension of the community. More than a quarter of the city’s residents live below the federal poverty line, according to 1990 Census Bureau figures.

“This fee is ridiculous,” said Irene Morataya, mother of junior varsity player Raul Muniz. “Here we are trying to keep kids active, off drugs and out of gangs, and the school decides to (hurt) one of the most important ways of doing that--sports.”

Football players at Bell Gardens already pay about $200 a year for shoes, practice jerseys, insurance and other fees, Newell said.

“It’s a struggle just to come up with that,” he said.

The city has contributed about $60,000 for athletics to help offset the school budget cuts and is talking to the district about giving more, a Bell Gardens spokesman said. But paying for specific things such as the transportation has have not been addressed.

A district administrator said he believes that low-income families can apply to have the fee waived, but he was unclear as to how school officials will determine who is eligible. Newell said he believes that few football players will qualify.

According to coaches, at least 15 players from the school’s freshman, junior varsity and varsity teams have quit since Sept. 4, when the fee was announced. Newell also claims that rumors about the fee this summer caused a huge drop in the number of boys who went out for football. The junior varsity team, for example, usually has about 60 players. This season there are only 38 boys on the team.

Newell, who has a 132-40-3 record in 15 years, said he fears that Bell Gardens may face sanctions from the Southern Section CIF if the football team does not play its games. But a spokesman at the Southern Section CIF office in Cerritos said it is unlikely that Bell Gardens would face disciplinary action under the circumstances.

“If they’re broke and can’t afford a bus, then the two schools have to work it out,” spokesman Scott Cathcart said.

Newell said players and coaches have talked about using private cars to get to games. But that appears to violate district policy because of insurance liability problems, business manager Glenn Sheppard said.

Bell Gardens High Principal Maggie Rosette declined to comment, and several district officials did not return telephone calls.

But Sheppard said that the charge is necessary to help offset $9 million in state-mandated budget cuts.

A round of budget cuts last year--including a 3% pay cut for teachers and reductions in coaching stipends--created a districtwide furor. Students walked out of classes and the district office was pelted with eggs and flour bombs during protest marches.

When the extra fee was announced on the first day of school last week, students on the campus said this week, it seemed like the last straw.

“We just heard about it. We’re poor, and I know that some of the girls won’t be able to pay it,” said junior Miriam Sanchez during a break from varsity pep squad practice. Sanchez said she has spent more than $1,000 on uniforms and other supplies. She said many cheerleaders began selling suckers at school Tuesday to try to raise transportation funds by Friday.

Not far from the pep squad, the varsity football team, wearing red helmets and white jerseys, prepared for Friday’s home game with Warren High. The cross-country team circled the field and the junior varsity, practicing on an adjacent field, prepared for its away game with its own staff.

Players said they had been told by a school administrator not to talk about the transportation fee, but several made their feelings known.

“If I have to pay that fee, I have to go to work,” said a senior lineman who did not want to be identified. “And if I work, I haven’t got time to play football.”

Said senior linebacker Juan Garcia: “I used to be in a gang. Football is the main reason I’m staying in school.”

Garcia wore a battered pair of second-hand football shoes, two sizes too large. They were held together with white trainer’s tape.

“Look at these,” he said. “I had to borrow money to buy these. I don’t know how I’ll pay to ride the bus.”