High Schools Brace for Cuts

The reduction in public-school funding is expected to be about $1.5 billion when the state budget is set, and the trickle-down effect already has high school sports teams reeling.

At Carson High, for example, a football program that has won more City Section championships than any other in the last 20 years is facing tough decisions about even the most rudimentary necessities, such as which shoulder pads and helmets will be reconditioned or upgraded.

“We just don’t have the money,” said Richard Masson, Carson’s athletic director. “You have to decide which [pieces of equipment] are going to be done. We’re going to have to fund-raise.... The budget’s not going to cover it.”

The stories are similar at hundreds of campuses across the state as school officials brace for the fallout when legislators decide how to narrow a spending gap of $38 billion.

Exactly how steep the cuts will be, and when they will be settled, is unknown. But extracurricular activities such as high school athletic programs probably will be among the first on the chopping block, a prospect that has sports administrators working and worrying overtime this summer.

City Section schools are reworking the schedules of several sports, hoping to save on transportation costs by having teams from the same school double up on trips. Other schools have already canceled bus service for some varsity teams, encouraging athletes to provide their own transportation -- at the risk of liability if there is an accident.

None of the options -- transportation changes, decreasing coaches’ pay, condensing game schedules, cutting practice time, increasing fund-raising drives or even eliminating teams entirely -- are attractive.

“You can cut the tree back just so far before it dies,” said Tom Danley, a former basketball coach who is now athletic director for the Anaheim Union High School District.

Lawmakers adjourned Monday without determining a new budget plan, leaving school officials and others in the lurch.

Cuts will hit harder than ever, experts say, because a sagging economy has led to diminished private and corporate donations that are important financiers of after-school programs. And City Section schools were already stung by a recently enacted ban on soda sales on Los Angeles Unified School District campuses. In some instances, the ban has resulted in a $30,000 hit to athletic programs that benefited from vending agreements.

At Carson, Masson said coaches will be required to raise more money themselves, even if it’s by holding car washes or selling candy door to door. But he knows that’s risky, adding more aggravation to an already underpaid profession.

“It’s just a matter of time before more of the good coaches get out,” said Masson, who also is Carson’s boys’ basketball coach. “The amount of time I’m putting in and the amount of [out-of-pocket] money I spend is just not worth the rewards I get out of it anymore.”

Some changes will be obvious even to casual fans, officials say. There will be cutbacks in maintenance, leaving football fields less green in the fall and hardwood gymnasium floors less shiny during basketball season. Team uniforms may not look as sharp, and teams probably won’t be traveling as far.

Eisenhower Athletic Director Tom Hoak said the Rialto Unified School District asked the school to pare its spending for athletic transportation by $20,000 -- a third of its travel budget last school year -- which will result in fewer games in some sports and stop nearly all long road trips.

“I can’t justify going 100 miles if there’s a school three miles from us,” Hoak said.

At Moorpark High, Athletic Director Rob Dearborn met individually with coaches to inform them their budgets had been halved.

He then delivered the news that stipends for coaches of Moorpark’s freshman teams will be eliminated. Dearborn hopes to raise enough money through booster club efforts to pay the already meager stipends that range from $1,750 to $1,950 a season for varsity coaches.

“I wish there was some allowable fee that the state would allow you to charge, like $50 per athlete,” Dearborn said. “There are almost 900 athletes here, which would give us an extra $45,000 and would cut out a bulk of the fund-raising. I’d rather players [pay $50] than have to sell two boxes of candy bars.”

Requiring students to pay to play at public schools is illegal in California per the 1984 state Supreme Court decision, Hartzell vs. Connell. The ruling deemed interscholastic activities to be part of a district’s education program funded by taxpayer money. Therefore, the court ruled, participation must be free. Schools are allowed to seek only optional donations from players and may ask them to fund-raise as long as their playing status is not jeopardized if they decline.

In anticipation of budget cuts, some schools have asked athletes to donate money to help defray costs such as transportation to games, stopping just short of the pay-to-play line that has entangled several Southland school districts in costly lawsuits.

The United States Justice Federation, a nonprofit legal-action group in Escondido, reached a $227,000 settlement with the Pasadena Unified School District in January 2002 and a $400,000 settlement with the Escondido Union High School District last October after alleging both districts had illegally charged for physical education clothing and other items.

In a recent newsletter distributed to schools throughout the state, the executive director of California’s high school athletic association warned athletic departments against taking a pay-to-play approach.

“An alternative to the reduction and/or elimination of programs we’ve been hearing and have been asked about is the ‘pay-for-play’ concept,” wrote Marie M. Ishida of the California Interscholastic Federation. “If this is something you are considering, the CIF would caution your school and district.”

Even schools in affluent regions are feeling the budget crunch. Beverly Hills High faces the possibility of losing 11 part-time coaching positions and is trying to avoid eliminating teams. Two of the positions in jeopardy are the head coaches for tennis and golf at the junior varsity level. The money saved by cutting all 11 coaching positions would be about $28,000. The decision is on hold, pending the depth and breadth of the state cuts.

“I’m just sitting here knocking on wood and hoping everyone’s hearing our end of the discussion that you can’t do it without cutting teams,” Beverly Hills Athletic Director Carter Paysinger said.

At Manhattan Beach Mira Costa High, athletes will be asked to make a $150 “transportation donation” -- nearly double what was asked last school year. The money will go toward retaining a full-time trainer and an athletic secretary.

“We’re facing a crisis even in Manhattan Beach,” said Mira Costa Athletic Director Bob Fish. “We’re not panicking, but we know we have to come up with some creative sources [of producing revenue].”

Some schools are canceling the traditional big yellow buses in favor of smaller vans. However, that choice might mean a reduction in the students allowed to participate.

“It’s kind of sad, but it could affect roster sizes,” said Tom Hegre, athletic director and boys’ basketball coach at newly constructed Palmdale Knight High. “If you take two vans to a road game, those hold seven or eight passengers. If you have managers and someone who videotapes and someone who does scorebook and two coaches, that means you better not have more than 12 players. It’s hard because you’d like to get as many kids involved in the athletic experience as possible, but sometimes you’re forced to limit things.”

Some schools are also considering pulling coaches into the classroom to teach an extra period at the end of the day, instead of allowing them to start practice before school ends. In some cases, that might slice almost an hour from daily practice time.

“It’d be 3:45 by the time practice starts,” said Los Angeles High Athletic Director Jose Mendez. “Some practices would be less than two hours long. We would lose a lot of coaches if that were to happen.”

In the end, some coaches worry that money is being saved at the steepest of all prices.

“With all the problems we have in society for the last umpteen years, it has become important to have outstanding after-school programs for kids,” said the Anaheim district’s Danley. “The things we can teach in those areas you can’t teach in the classroom. You can’t take away the support base of after-school programs and expect everything to stay the same.”