ORANGE COUNTY IN BANKRUPTCY : Funds Raised for Schools to Buy Extras May Be Used for Basics

Thousands of dollars that PTAs and educational foundations have raised for extras such as computers, music and art in Orange County’s public schools might end up buying paper and pencils instead.

As school districts work to determine how they will deal with losses from the county’s investment pool, parents who raise money for schools said the crisis will probably result in fewer computers and enrichment programs for students.

Irvine Unified School District officials already have asked the schools’ private fund-raising arm to provide $10,000 earlier than originally scheduled. The district has $102 million in the pool--more than any other Orange County school district.

The answer was yes.

“We are prepared to help in any way necessary if the district should ask us for more help to meet basic needs,” said Elizabeth Thomas, executive director of the Irvine Education Foundation. “It’s all going to be a matter of survival. We’re going to have to figure out what our priorities are.”

The nonprofit foundation provides the district with about $23,000 in grants and equipment each year. Foundation money has purchased school encyclopedias, calculators and books as well as fine arts instruction and field trips, Thomas said.

The leader of Laguna Beach’s main school fund-raising group, SchoolPower, also said Thursday that the organization might use some of the $50,000 to $60,000 the group has raised for the district so far this year for basic school needs.

“We may get it to (the school board) earlier than we usually do,” said Cindy Prewitt, executive director of SchoolPower. “It doesn’t make sense to do enhancements if the basics aren’t there.”

One option, Prewitt said, would be to use the money to replace a roof at Thurston Middle School’s Artists Theatre, which is now being remodeled.

The school board decided Tuesday that it cannot replace the theater’s leaky roof, which would cost about $38,000 on top of the rest of a remodeling job.

Also threatened is a planned trip in April by sixth-graders at Castille Elementary School in Mission Viejo to a county outdoors science camp.

The Castille Parent Teacher Organization gave the district about $20,000 for the trip earlier this year--funds the district automatically placed in the county investment pool, as required by state law. Now, the $20,000 is frozen in the pool along with $74 million in district funds, said Barbara Smith, assistant superintendent for instructional services.

The group “deposited it well in advance,” Smith said. “What we have to do is hope that between now and April this whole thing sorts itself out.”

Times correspondents Leslie Earnest, Alan Eyerly and Shelby Grad contributed to this report.