With sports cutbacks in 2010-11 avoided, LAUSD searches for future sources of funding

One by one, athletes from the Los Angeles Unified School District stepped to the microphone Thursday and offered thanks to the community organizations and corporate sponsors that pledged $1.4 million to help the City Section sports program avoid cutbacks that would have folded teams and forced out coaches next school year.

“What we found out is L.A. cares,” said Barbara Fiege, the district’s director of athletics.

Watching and listening from the back of the gym at the Miguel Contreras Learning Center was the person who will have a profound effect on whether there will be enough funding in future years.

Melissa Infusino, director of partnerships for L.A. Unified, has been given the responsibility of designing a plan to seek corporate sponsorships that will fuel the district’s sports program in the future.

Infusino said district Superintendent Ramon C. Cortines has given her until July 1 to present a proposal.

“He has given me direction to put a plan together how we can do this strategically,” she said. “We’ve never pushed the green button to go. He said to put together a plan to invite corporate sponsorship opportunities in the district to support programs.”

That means corporations could sponsor events, games and programs. Naming rights for fields and auditoriums could be in the equation. At least that’s what Infusino said she is considering as she puts together the plan for Cortines, who has faced repeated budget problems in many areas since he took over as superintendent last year.

On Thursday, Cortines was beaming with delight after he received a Chivas USA soccer jersey from team President Shawn Hunter, whose organization is helping to fund the City Section’s boys’ and girls’ soccer programs next season.

Cortines made it clear that he views high school sports as an important part of the educational experience.

“Athletics is not a supplement,” he said. “It is not an add-on. It supports reading, writing and arithmetic. It supports higher-order thinking skills. It supports the languages of this diverse community, and today, in this partnership, it is equal among all of the content areas.”

But for a district that is facing a $640-million deficit for the 2010-11 school year, no program is sacred, which is forcing supporters of the sports programs to come up with new ideas.

“We’re in the exploring stage to see what the assets are to be able to gain some corporate sponsors and partnerships, but still don’t have branding all over the place because there is a line that a school is a school,” Fiege said. “Given the situation we are in and given we want to provide a full athletic program to our students, this is a road we need to go on.”

The recent emergency funding will enable football teams to pay for six coaches instead of four this fall and keep the freshman-sophomore basketball programs from being eliminated.

eric.sondheimer@latimes.com