Parents in O.C. Raise $1 Million, Save School Jobs

Using auctions, EBay and Jimmy Buffett tickets, elementary school parents in the Capistrano Unified School District have raised more than $1 million to save the jobs of 72 teachers and preserve small class sizes for third-graders next fall.

The effort marks the second consecutive year parents in the district have saved the class size reduction program, a key component in the state’s effort to improve elementary school education by limiting primary classes to 20 students.

The efforts in Capistrano contrast with those in the Santa Ana Unified School District, which is threatening to jettison the program and lay off as many as 500 teachers next year because of a potential $29-million deficit.

Some Santa Ana parents are angry that the district neither asked for their help nor distributed information explaining that the program may die.

“Give me the documents I need now to ask the companies in Santa Ana for financial support,” said Paula Romero, whose daughter is in the first grade. “They haven’t done that. We don’t understand why.”

In contrast to relatively well-to-do San Juan Capistrano, Santa Ana is poorer. “We can’t raise money like some school districts that have looked to parents to raise the money because of the economics of the families in Santa Ana,” said district spokeswoman Lucy Araujo Cook.

The fate of Santa Ana’s class size reduction program will depend on the outcome of ongoing negotiations between the district and the union representing its 3,000 teachers.

“Everything is being done to save the 20/1 program, and I’m hopeful we’ll be successful,” said Gladys Hall-Kessler, executive director of the Santa Ana Educators Assn.

The Legislature passed the class-size reduction program in 1996, offering funds to keep kindergarten through third-grade classes at a maximum of 20 students. David Smollar, a spokesman for the Capistrano district, said the state pays 75% to 80% of the program’s expenses. Still, district trustees had voted to cut the third-grade portion in order to save $1 million.

A year ago, parents at each of the district’s 36 elementary schools raised money to save the third-grade portion of the program, adding to district funds.

But this year, worried that schools in less affluent neighborhoods in the district could be shut out, the school board decided that instead of parents raising money for individual schools, the money would be pooled districtwide.

Parents at each school sought to raise $263 per student, knowing some schools would surpass the target and others would fall short.

By Wednesday, parents had raised $965,000, which assured them they had met their goal of $1,000,784, when matching gifts from employers and other funds are included.

“$1 million is a lot of money,” said Martha McNicholas, parent of fourth- and eighth-graders in Laguna Niguel, who headed the effort. “Most of us had some small-scale fundraising background, but not $1 million. That made us feel really good, the size of it and everyone pulling together.”

The parents sponsored the usual fundraising activities, such as selling candy and restaurant coupon books. A silent auction and bingo night in January made almost $22,000. Four tickets to a Buffett concert, along with backstage passes, a limousine ride and CDs, went for $3,600. An orthodontist donated $1,000 of his work.

The 47 teachers and five administrators and office staff at Wagon Wheel Elementary School in Trabuco Canyon raised $14,000 on EBay by offering hip-hop dance lessons, taking children bowling and selling their parking spaces.