District to Consider Funding Broadcast Course

A popular visual arts course at Buena High School that has put Ventura students on national television could receive a boost from school board members, who will consider funding the broadcasting program in their spring budget deliberations.

Without school district support, the course could be canceled next fall for lack of money.

For 11 years, history teacher Gregg Norberg has dug deep into his pockets, sometimes spending several thousand dollars a year to keep his broadcast journalism program alive. Unable to keep funneling his own money into the course, Norberg turned to the school district for help funding next year’s program.

Ventura Unified Supt. Joseph Spirito, who met with Buena High Principal Jaime Castellanos on Thursday, said the district could not make a commitment at this point. But Spirito said he would ask the district trustees to consider the course a high priority as they go through their budget hearings, which end in mid-May.

“It would be my guess--now I don’t know how the board will be on this--that it will be given a high priority,” Spirito said.

The program could need $5,000 to $7,000 in the coming year.

For more than a decade, the course has taught students all facets of broadcast journalism, from how to anchor a television show to how to operate a TelePrompTer.

Occasional business and state grants, as well as donations from parents and businesses, have helped finance the program, but Norberg has footed the difference, paying for everything from stage lightbulbs to equipment repairs.

“Financially I’m trying not to miss out on house payments,” he said. “It’s getting a little tight. I can’t afford to shell out the same money as I did in the past.

“I want to teach it for the rest of my life, but give me some help. If they do fund it, fantastic.”

For the last six years, students in his class have produced local cable news shows out of the school’s television studio in Room 133 and began producing national shows in December. The Connecticut-based Education Showcase began broadcasting Buena students’ segments on the company’s half-hour television show, carried by more than 30 cable stations across the country.

The work Norberg has put into developing the course hasn’t gone unnoticed by the students. “He cares about the class,” said junior Kevin Kipp, who took the course this year. “He enjoys doing it. He spends 20 hours after school, Saturdays and Sundays helping to put out the TV show. He puts everything into it.”

With registration for next year’s classes going on this week, school officials will have to resolve whether they will allow students to sign up for the broadcasting class, even though it’s not yet certain whether the course will be available next fall.