Volunteers ‘Can’t Make Up Budget Shortfall’

State funding for schools is increasing slightly because of the improving economy, but the long recession and the property tax strictures of Proposition 13 have left California’s per-pupil funding below that of most states. Volunteer helpers and business donations pick up some of the slack, but recent stories in The Times have detailed how parent volunteers are harder to enlist these days because of their greater work obligations. JIM BLAIR talked with principals and volunteers about how they’re coping.

MERLE PRICE: Principal, Palisades Charter High School, Pacific Palisades

Some people assume Palisades is a wealthy, strictly suburban school. Let me set the record straight--70% of our students travel from all over the city. We have a very diverse student body and socioeconomic profile.

In states that fund education at $9,000 per student, I might have an $18-million to $20-million budget. In California, with $4,000 per student, I’m working with $8 million. That difference could hire a lot of staff, reduce class size and provide a lot of support services. Since I don’t have that luxury, the only way I can get the supervision, counseling and tutoring is to go to the parents and the community at large. We have relied heavily on them to write grants, raise funds and work with teachers and administrators.

INA S. ROTH: Principal, Woodrow Wilson High School, East L.A.

Volunteerism is a key focus for schools, but not the answer to our budgetary needs.

We need more teachers. We always want to reduce class size to give students more individualized connection with their teachers.

But to give you [school district] policy, a volunteer cannot be the teacher of record for a class. I could have a volunteer teach a class before or after school, but it would not be not for credit. So they truly cannot make up for a budgetary shortfall in terms of lack of teachers.

The main thing parents who have volunteered have been doing is working at the front door screening individuals as they come in. It’s been very helpful. This year we put together a “Wilson Consortium”--individuals who work in the community, parents, volunteers--a hub of resources [to help meet] the medical and social service needs of our students and their families.

We’ve found our volunteers to be very reliable, [but] there are certain limitations that you have with volunteers that you don’t have when the person is employed by you. Quite obviously, if a person can’t come that day, they just don’t show--because they’re volunteering their time. That’s a problem in all volunteer programs, not just at Wilson.

JENA ANITA DAVIS: Principal, Baldwin Hills Elementary School, Los Angeles

Our main goal here is to increase student achievement and in doing that we try to bring in the whole community. See’s Candy, [for example], is a big supporter of ours. We’re right around the corner from them. They donate to our school monetarily, but they also come over, visit with us and participate in our career days.

This year our parents’ center started a tutorial reading program. I can’t tell you the growth that those children show just by going for 30 minutes a day--just by reading with a grandparent, an uncle, an aunt.

Additional funding is always necessary. I need an elementary school counselor badly because I have lots of group home children and [children in] foster care. It’s $65,000 to hire a person and I don’t have that kind of funding. I just don’t have that support to offer them.

DORIS M. WEBB: Volunteer, Crenshaw High School

I had three children finish school here, in 1972, ’73 and ’74. I’m a long- time Cougar. Now that I’m retired I can be more active, so since my grandson started here I’ve come every morning.

I monitor the halls and the lunch area at nutrition time, make phone calls and talk to the young people. I stand at the door and greet them each morning because some of the young people don’t even have anybody to say good morning to them.

We have about 12 volunteers. And we also have a lot of grandmothers who are raising grandchildren, you know, and its so important that we’re here, that the children see us.

CARL McNAMARA: Management consultant, volunteer with Hollywood High School Career Academy

The career academy takes some very special at-risk kids and puts them in a new environment where they are being prepared and have a fighting chance not only to survive but to prosper in tomorrow’s society. I just believed in the cause.

My company provided some strategic and organizational concepts to help the overall program. That was about a year and a half’s worth of work. The last six months were probably the most gratifying and fulfilling in the sense that we actually walked into the classroom and worked with the kids, taught them about how teams work.