Funding On Track : Donations, State Windfall Bring Running Lanes Closer to the Finish Line at Last

The stadium at Moorpark High School was finished three years ago. But the track team is still waiting for the all-weather track that was supposed to ring the sports field.

Now--with help from a onetime windfall in state funds and a community fund-raising campaign--the runners could have their track by the start of the spring season.

Divvying up the last of $305,000 in unexpected funds from the California Legislature, the Moorpark school board agreed Tuesday night to contribute $60,000 of the roughly $100,000 needed for the nine-lane, 400-meter track.

The board also set aside $40,000 for band programs and $5,000 for choir equipment before dividing the remaining funds among the Moorpark Unified School District’s eight schools. Two weeks ago, the board agreed to spend $100,000 upgrading high school computer labs that now have 7-year-old equipment.

The sum from the Legislature--delivered to school districts after the state received more tax revenues than expected last year--brought out dozens of parents and school groups seeking support.

Track coach Dale Smith argued that his team had waited long enough for the track.

“I’ve been a coach here for 11 years, probably longer than any other coach,” Smith told the board. “I’m just hoping we get it sometime before I die.”

The $60,000 from the board will supplement $40,000 already raised by a nonprofit group called the Moorpark Athletic Community Complex Foundation. The foundation also has ambitious plans to build several additions to the sports complex, which include adding an Olympic-size pool and weight training and locker rooms at the site.

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The district has already spent more than $500,000 underwriting construction of the stadium’s concrete bleachers, and the decision to spend the additional $60,000 was not made easily, said board President Clint Harper.

But Harper said that for him, the deciding factor was that the foundation is so close to finishing the track and has already lined up both private and corporate donations.

The decision to spend the money on the track was not hard for board Trustee Greg Barker. “Parents and students shouldn’t be expected to pay for facilities. That’s pretty basic,” he said.

What was hard for Barker to figure out was how to spend the rest of the money equitably. He said that district officials needed some sort of criteria for dividing the cash to make sure that it was spent wisely.

In two meetings this month, the school board has heard dozens of pleas from parents, teachers and students involved in neglected and forgotten extracurricular activities who were looking for a share of the remaining dollars.

Barker voted against the board’s proposal for spending the windfall, saying he was worried that “the squeaky wheels” were going to get the money simply because they showed up at the meetings.

Overriding his objections, the board voted 3 to 1 to spend the money on the track, as well as set aside nearly $40,000 for band programs in the city’s two middle schools and the high school.

Band supporters argued for twice that much money, saying the musical programs have weathered years of neglect.

“I don’t teach an extracurricular activity,” said middle school band teacher Lee Schwartz. “I teach something that is basic, fundamental to learning.”

In his five years working at both middle schools, Schwartz said he has yet to see any money spent on new instruments or music.

After hearing from Schwartz and several students who told horror stories of having to share instruments still wet with several other students’ saliva, the school voted to give the band programs about $40,000.

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“It was a hard compromise, but I think the middle school will be happy to see any money,” Harper said. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen them get money in all my years on the board.”

The board divided up the rest of the money among the district’s eight schools, to be spent as each school deems appropriate.

Each of the five elementary schools will receive about $10,000; the Community High School will get $5,000; Mesa Verde Middle School will be given $10,000, as will Moorpark High School. Chaparral Middle School, which is the district’s oldest school, will receive about $18,000.