Youth Parenting Program May Be Lost to Lack of Funds : Education: The Antelope Valley district wants to start classes for teen-age mothers. If a site is not opened this school year, a federal grant could be jeopardized.

A program to keep Antelope Valley teen-age mothers in school by providing on-campus child care and special parenting classes will be shelved unless cash-strapped school officials can raise $25,000 to $50,000 in donations.

The financially troubled Antelope Valley Union High School District had hoped to begin the teen-age parenting program at two of six campuses earlier this year.

But now, almost midway through the school year, there are growing doubts that even one site will open. And if the 12,835-student district cannot open a site before the end of this school year, it probably will be ineligible for federal grant funds to try again in the following year.

The goal of the Antelope Valley program is to keep teen-age mothers in school and to pull in dropouts by offering daily child care on campus. Young mothers would attend regular and parenting classes and would be required to volunteer in the group child-care chores, overseen by staff members.

The program’s mid-year start was delayed by a series of factors including a smaller federal grant than the district expected, problems over the grant with the state Department of Education and the district’s slide into near bankruptcy because of financial mismanagement.

Now, Antelope Valley High School teacher Mary Cronkhite, the program’s chief proponent, said she hopes the community will step in to help the teen-age mothers.

“Teen-age pregnancy is a community concern. I think the community needs to take a stand and give support,” she said.

Cronkhite said she and other supporters of the program will meet today to map out a fund-raising strategy.

Because teen-age mothers in the Antelope Valley have few affordable child-care options, they often drop out of high school, Cronkhite said. And that can lead to a downward spiral of personal problems, poverty and even child abuse, she said.

Wednesday night, at Cronkhite’s urging, the district’s Board of Trustees agreed not to drop the program, at least for now. But the board said the program will start in February only if $25,000 to $50,000 in private contributions arrive to cover its potential shortfall.

Statewide, the number of children born to mothers age 19 and under has climbed from 54,569 in 1987 to more than 72,000 last year, according to state health statistics. The number of teen-age births in Los Angeles County climbed from 19,215 in 1987 to more than 25,000 last year.

Officials in the school district, which covers the entire Antelope Valley, say they do not know how many of their students are pregnant or are already mothers. But the state said the valley’s number of births by teen-agers rose from 360 in 1988 to 433 in 1990, the latest year of available numbers for the area.

Cronkhite, a 22-year teacher in the district, has her own method of measuring the problem. In her early years of teaching, Cronkhite said she might typically encounter one pregnant student in a year. But last year, she tallied 19 pregnant girls or mothers just in her own classes.

Among those was a pregnant eighth-grade girl whose older sister at Antelope Valley High School had a baby. And of the 19 high-school age students that Cronkhite tallied, two had given birth to two babies each.

Christy Stevens, a 17-year-old senior at Antelope Valley High School who has a 4-month-old son and expects to graduate in June, said she is fortunate because her mother is home during the day to take care of the baby. But she said many other girls lack that support and need the program.

“I think it’s really sad something can’t be worked out sooner. I think it’s really needed,” said Christy, who recently became the student member of a task force advocating the program. She said she would participate in the program in order to have her baby with her at school during the day.

Christy said she became pregnant even though she and her boyfriend, a former student at the school, had used contraceptive measures. She said the situation was made worse by criticism from some of her teachers and the unwanted attention of fellow students.

Isabel Barrera, a 17-year-old junior at the school who is expecting her baby in March, said her mother plans to change her shift at a convalescent hospital to nights so she can take care of the baby during the day. But Isabel said the program would allow her mother to keep the day job.

Isabel, who was abandoned by her boyfriend, said she never considered contraception. She said the 17-year-old girlfriend of her 19-year-old brother is pregnant for a second time and living with Isabel’s family. The girl had been going to regular classes but now attends an independent study program.

For the past decade, the school district had only one once-a-week parenting class geared to pregnant students. But it became a victim of district budget cuts, until last week, when a grant allowed daily class programs for pregnant students at the Highland and Littlerock campuses to resume.

But neither site offers child care. And the classes are open to students only for the semester in which they deliver their baby. The district has been unable to stick to its original plan to run that limited program at all five of its main campuses.

Cronkhite said her teen-age parenting program planned for Highland High School would be open to girls from throughout the district who already have babies. Under the concept, students with babies could utilize the child-care and parenting classes for as long as it takes them to graduate.

District officials estimate that the program would cost about $75,000 to run for the spring semester alone, but say the most they can expect in grant funds is about $50,000. That leaves about a $25,000 shortfall to start, plus the added costs of setting up and equipping the program.

Normally, the district would spend its own money to cover the extra costs. But district officials say that is not possible now after a $12-million budget reduction this year that resulted in the layoffs of 140 employees and reductions in employee salaries and benefits to recover from financial mismanagement problems.

Births to Teen-Age Mothers

1988 1990 % Change Antelope Valley 360 433 +20 Los Angeles County 20,154 24,461 +21 California 58,894 70,950 +20

Source: State Department of Health Services