GLENDALE : Hoover High Bingo Proposal Called Off

All bets are off on a booster club’s proposal to hold bingo games as a way to raise money for Hoover High School.

Parents in the Purple Circle Booster Club backed away from the idea after failing to gain support from the Glendale Board of Education earlier this week.

Boosters for Hoover High had hoped board members would consider establishing a policy to allow bingo as a fund-raising activity in the Glendale Unified School District.

But during its Tuesday night meeting, the board voiced strong opposition to bingo. No votes were required because the issue was presented only for discussion.

“I’m very disappointed that there were no open minds for trying something new, of giving (bingo) a chance,” said Ellen Walley, secretary for the Purple Circle Booster Club. “We’ve got to find new ways to find money for the schools.”

Most of the board members equated bingo with gambling and felt boosters should use other creative methods to raise money.

“I’m just philosophically opposed to it,” said board President Jane M. Whitaker, who also doesn’t favor the state lottery system.

“It is not my concept of a way for money to be raised for students. I don’t like the message it sends,” she said.

Board member Lynda Rocamora said she empathized with the fund-raising difficulties of nonprofit groups during a slumping economy and would be more open to the boosters’ proposal if bingo games were held off campus.

Rocamora, whose daughter attends Hoover High, was also concerned that such events are known to attract smokers. The district has a no-smoking policy.

Most parents at Hoover High supported bingo games, which are allowed as fund-raisers in nearby school districts in Burbank, South Pasadena and Temple City.