LAGUNA BEACH : P.E. Teachers Escape District Budget Ax

A series of budget workshops intended to help the school district trim costs and raise money have not drawn big crowds.

Even discussions about charging parents to bus children to school didn’t attract many people.

But when elementary school physical education coaches appeared on a list of possible budget cuts, about 35 teachers descended on the school board meeting Tuesday night to object to what was termed an “impossible sacrifice.”

The teachers lobbied to keep the four part-time workers at El Morro and Top of the World elementary schools.

They praised the coaches, saying they enhance the health and safety of the children, organize anti-drug programs and even serve as emergency-service coordinators.

At the end of the budget session, the board took a straw vote on each of the proposed cuts, and item 51.b, “Elem. Physical Ed,” was dropped from the list.

On Thursday, Top of the World coaches Sandy Gravley and Clara Candelaria were accepting hugs and congratulations from teachers for having dodged the budget ax.

The two have worked together for a dozen years, freeing teachers for more academic endeavors. In her 16 years on campus, Gravley said, she has outlasted nine principals and three superintendents.

El Morro’s coaches are Lynn Chaldu, a former PTA president, and Penny Steris, who coordinates emergency services for the district.

The “coaches” are classified workers; they do not have teaching certificates and cannot give grades. They do, however, guide the children’s physical education activities and provide a variety of other services.

El Morro Principal Linda Purrington said the workers undergo specific physical education and health and safety training and have completed classes on conflict management.

Initially, the district paid the coaches’ salaries. But when Proposition 13 was approved in 1976, the PTA began picking up the tab.

Four years ago, when Paul M. Possemato became superintendent, he recommended that the district resume that obligation.

Teachers say the coaches juggle a wide range of duties, including helping in the evacuation during the October, 1993, firestorm.

On Thursday, Gravley and Candelaria tended to more typical tasks, including supervising playground activities, a job that Gravley said most districts assign to teachers.

“They don’t have time in their schedules to do it,” Candelaria said. “They really don’t.”