The Final Edition for School Papers? : Education: No one’s writing an obituary for the publications yet. But advisers say the quest for resources is starting to overwhelm them.

The presses at Crenshaw High School are up and running again, but nobody can say for how long.

For the past five years, students have produced the Cry of the Cougar off and on--sometimes monthly, sometimes quarterly, always eagerly. But the paper’s fortunes are perpetually tied to funding and the availability of an adviser to oversee publication, a responsibility many teachers are loath to take on. No adviser, no paper.

“The problem is that the district doesn’t compensate journalism teachers well enough,” said Robin Hernandez, Crenshaw’s most recent journalism adviser. “The headaches outweigh the compensation. If (a high school) has a good paper, it’s because of a teacher. Somebody is trying.”

Even with Hernandez in the publisher’s chair, the paper has had problems. A dozen students share just one computer. Few businesses have been interested in sponsorship or advertising, so there is never enough money.

“I think it’s a shame that a big high school like this can’t manage to get out a lousy school paper every month,” she said.

Crenshaw’s story is similar to those at high schools throughout California, where newspapers are dying off as school budgets have shrunk and priorities are focused on basic educational needs, said Mike Jordan, a journalism professor at Pepperdine University. To make matters worse, most newspapers are left out when companies eager to fund futuristic television and multimedia labs make large grants to schools.

School newspapers nationwide are suffering from the same problems, according to a recent study published by the Freedom Forum, a media think tank based in Arlington, Va. The study concluded that editorial and financial restrictions on high school newspapers nationwide are worse now than 20 years ago.

Jordan, who has been polling California schools, said between 15% and 20% of the state’s student-run publications may have perished in the past five years, although, he added, final numbers are not in.

School newspapers have declined to such a degree that Windgate Publishing, which publishes L.A. Parent magazine, began printing a journal aimed exclusively at teen-agers four years ago. Noise, as it is called, is written by a paid staff of teen-age correspondents and distributed throughout Los Angeles.

“We provide what high school newspapers used to provide--a training ground for future journalists,” Editor Norbert Sparrow said.

In the Los Angeles Unified School District, nearly all of the 49 standard high schools publish a student newspaper of some sort. But many come out only sporadically and almost all report problems with funding. Furthermore, most programs are completely dependent on the work of a single journalism adviser.

Part editor and part teacher, advisers traditionally concentrated on journalistic basics. But as support for student newspapers has eroded, many say their part-time advisory duties have become full-time quests for resources to keep the papers alive.

Alison Rittger, who heads the program at Narbonne High School in Harbor City, said she has spent her own money to buy computer equipment. Josephine Zarro of Manual Arts High School tried to run the presses herself. And Westchester High School’s Cyril Baird speaks of a never-ending quest for money.

“The struggle gets worse every year,” Baird said. “We find ourselves having to sell chocolate and wash cars.”

All of this comes in addition to normal teaching loads.

“Even five years ago, every school had (a paper),” said Jordan, who is conducting the poll for the Southern California Journalism Educators Assn. “They were healthy. They had experienced advisers and budgets. They were well-organized and printed frequently. What has happened in the last five years is disturbing.

“Journalism advisers are retiring or moving on and the papers aren’t sustaining themselves. Publication is going from 10 times a year to two or three.”

Although journalism classes in the Los Angeles district are electives and not a graduation requirement, they are accepted for credit by University of California schools.

The classes are not well funded because they don’t draw large numbers of students, said Dick Browning, director of the district’s Senior High School Division. Because most school newspapers lose money and because electives in general are underfunded, Browning said publication may indeed be getting more difficult.

Still, “The death of high school journalism is exaggerated,” he said. “I don’t think it’s happening yet. But there are problems that budgets play into. I don’t know if journalism has declined . . . but it’s been a problem over the last 15 years. It hasn’t been well funded and it’s getting worse.”

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Michael D. O’Sullivan, principal at Fairfax High School, referred to the death of his school’s paper three years ago as “a casualty of shrinking enrollment” in journalism classes.

But many teachers said interest would increase if they could put out a better product. Jordan agreed.

“It’s not because students don’t want to do it,” Jordan said. “Students love this type of hands-on, collaborative learning. When you don’t have a program and there’s no good adviser and no commitment, it’s easy to say there’s no interest.”

In a survey of 19 high school newspapers that stopped publishing in the past decade, the Freedom Forum study found that 52% suffered from lack of funds and 42% cited a lack of interested faculty. But only 26% cited a lack of student interest.

The Green & Gold, published weekly at Narbonne High, has won numerous awards. In 1992, it was ranked among the top five nationwide by the Columbia Scholastic Press Assn., Rittger said. The adviser since 1982, Rittger said the paper has become an important part of life at Narbonne.

“We’re showing our kids their environment through language--nothing else does that,” she said. “It’s one of the ways a school has of maintaining its identity. There are always kids without voices. That’s who we write for. I would have left teaching long ago if it wasn’t for the journalism classroom.”

But the adviser, 55, said she is tired of the fight and of the quest for funds and administrative support. She has decided to leave next year, but worries that her successor will not be able to maintain the program.

“The hill keeps getting steeper,” she said. “You can only be as successful as the school permits you to be . . . and you are not loved for it. I hope they hire someone I can train. I want them to bring somebody in so the program doesn’t die. I don’t know that they will.”

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Zarro pointed out that her paper at Manual Arts has a long history, having published both weekly and daily in the past. Still, the print shop where the paper was run off lost its funding two years ago. Hoping to keep the operation running, she tried to run the presses herself but was stopped by administrators worried about safety. As a last resort, Zarro and her class began putting out a newsletter-style paper once a month, enlisting another school to print it.

“We’re taking it in increments,” she said. “This year, the shop teacher is in the process of building up the (printing) lab again.”

Zarro said the paper’s fate rests on her shoulders.

“It’s a labor of love,” she said. “If I leave, there may be no paper. I don’t want it to just go away.”

Jordan said that a trained, well-paid adviser can make all the difference in running a program. “It has to be an administrative budgetary commitment,” he said.

The supplemental pay scale for journalism advisers in the Los Angeles district varies according to the size of the program, editions published and activities conducted, officials said. Teachers who take on journalism classes can earn an additional $1,288 to $2,780 per year, said Tom Killeen, administrator of personnel services.

The supplemental pay is competitive with what a band leader or coach might make, said Miriam Gonzales, coordinator for personnel research. This is on top of an average teacher salary of $40,981, according to figures for the 1992-93 school year.

But for many, it’s not enough, given the difficulties.

“It’s difficult to get students to write well. It’s a big headache and nobody wants to help do it. Then you go to the trouble and somebody has something negative to say about the content,” said Crenshaw’s Hernandez.

“Teaching is a thankless job and you get worn out. When you work with a bureaucracy, you are underpaid, overworked and stressed out, anyone can have a problem maintaining a positive attitude.”