Asian Community Comes Together for Irvine Schools : Crisis: Group efforts by parents of different ethnic backgrounds have resulted in $56,000 so far for the district, hit hard by the county’s fiscal collapse.

The financial woes that have beset the Irvine Unified School District since the Orange County investment pool collapsed are having one unexpected benefit: unifying several groups of Asian parents, who have contributed as much as $56,000 to the district.

One of the groups plans to add $20,000 more today from a fund-raising soprano recital.

“This fund-raiser demonstrates that we are involved, we are active and we can be mobilized,” said Louis Chang, president of South Coast Chinese Cultural Assn., one of the first organizations that enlisted the Chinese community’s help.

In addition to the Chinese community donating $41,000 to the district, the Korean American and Japanese American communities also have contributed to help the school district, which invested about $100 million in the county’s securities pool.

School district Chinese community liaison Ko-Joan Kao said the district has received about 300 checks from the Chinese community alone. The money that has been donated to the district will be presented to the district board on Tuesday.

“Parents really do make the difference in the schools,” said Dean Waldfogel, interim superintendent. “It is very gratifying to have this kind of parental support. The money will go directly to classroom supplies so we could apply the money as close to the students as possible.”

Officials said they plan to cut $3 million from the district’s $100-million annual budget next year.

“At this moment, when the budget is this tight, any supplemental income is definitely beneficial,” said June Sonnenberg, the district’s liaison to the Japanese community.

While many Irvine parents and associations have been giving to the schools on an individual basis, Asian communities have been donating as ethnic groups, school officials said.

In February, a Korean American parent group donated more than $17,000 to the district. The Japanese Business Assn. will continue to fulfill its promise to purchase items on an annual “wish list,” Sonnenberg said.

About 1,300 Chinese American, 900 Korean American and 550 Japanese American students attend the Irvine district’s 34 schools. The total student population is about 22,000, school officials said.

Members of the Chinese American parents group said they hope their effort will inspire other people in different cities to help their school districts.

“A lot of Chinese parents were giving money to the individual schools on their own, and some people wanted to earmark the money for the entire district. Then they heard the Koreans were (donating) as a group, so they said why should we give separately when we could give together and show the Chinese community effort?” said Gloria Dahlberg a member of Bravi 9, a local cultural organization that is co-sponsoring today’s recital with the Irvine Evergreen Chinese Senior Assn.

The charity concert featuring Taiwanese soprano Fanny Fan will be at the Lakeview Senior Center in Woodbridge at 2 p.m. today. Donations will be accepted.

Dahlberg, who has two children in University High School, said her 17-year-old daughter has started a fund-raiser of her own by organizing a dance performance at the Irvine Barclay Theatre.

“We want to show people that this is how you get things done,” Dahlberg said. “We hope other communities will respond too and get things done in a collective effort.”