EDUCATIONALLY SPEAKING

Gay Geiser-Sandoval

Last week’s school board meeting was over by 9 p.m. The highlights

are:

- Groundbreaking occurred for Newport Coast School last Wednesday, which

is the first start-from-scratch school in our district in 25 years.

- New Teacher Induction Week, held in August, was a big success, and the

teachers were fed well. When they toured the district, it was not in a

school bus. Thanks to all of the veteran teachers who imparted their

wisdom.

- The district spent more than $100,000 for the electrical connections at

three school sites.

- A board member proposed that we consider putting a skateboard park on

school property for students to use. A parent suggested to me that the

skateboard park be used as a scholastic incentive. In other words,

admission into the park for students could be a weekly progress sheet

from teachers that all homework was completed and turned in on time, and

that students attended class on time. Or, it could depend on a certain

grade point average. Continuation school kids could not participate, nor

could kids with outstanding detentions. That would probably have a bigger

effect on raising our Stanford 9 scores at the middle and high school

levels than many more costly, “education-based” programs.

- Order your tickets now for the Corona del Mar High School Home Tour,

which sold out last year.

. . . .

Obviously, the 1999-00 budget holds the purse strings to our educational

dollars. So, whatever the pronouncements might be, if the dollars aren’t

there, programs are not going to happen. The strategic plan that was

adopted this summer is meant to channel all our resources -- people,

money, facilities, time, and energy -- to support our beliefs and shared

vision. One of the plan’s critical issues under curriculum is art, music

and drama. At the budget meeting, I asked what money has been dedicated

in the budget to these areas.

There is an instrumental music program at the elementary school level,

which culminates in either fifth or sixth graders learning how to play

four different instruments over a nine-week period per instrument. Some

elementary schools also have choirs.

At the secondary school level, schools can dedicate teachers to teach

music, drama and art, and their salaries are paid by the school district.

However, any other level of support for the arts at the secondary level

is decided at the actual school site.

I also asked, “What money has been dedicated in the budget for academic

teams?” While I didn’t define the term at the budget meeting, to me,

academic teams include speech teams, debate teams, academic pentathlon

teams, academic decathlon teams, computer programming teams, math teams,

science Olympiad teams, science contest teams, model United Nations

programs, mock trial teams, Odyssey of the Mind, science fairs and

others. Once again, any level of support for academic teams is decided at

the actual school site.

Academic teams, athletic teams, and art, music and drama can all be

funded at the school site by roll and recompense funds. The amount of

roll and recompense funds at each high school varies by the amount of

enrollment but has been constant for the last three or four years. As I

understand it, no academic team at any of the secondary schools is being

funded by roll and recompense funds. So, that means if the school

principals put a moratorium on funding sports teams, there will be money

for academic teams and art, music and drama. Yeah, right!

Being the captain of the school debate team is a better ticket to get

into the college of your choice than participation in any other

extracurricular activity. Right now, none of our schools have a debate

team. Will we get debate teams? Sure, if we can talk a teacher into

coaching the team for free, then spending his or her Saturdays taking the

kids to contests without compensation. The team members would have to

raise funds for research materials and entry fees. Unlike most athletic

sports, which have a transportation budget, the kids would have to hoof

it to countywide contests.

So, when the district says schools can support academic teams and art,

drama and music through roll and recompense funds, it is the same as

saying that these receive no support at all. At this time, the money

received from the California State Lottery for the budget year is

projected to be $2.5 million. That money now gets mixed into the general

fund. If that money was dedicated to support academic teams and art,

drama and music at all schools throughout the district, then we would see

a dramatic flourishing of such programs at each school.

But such an allocation requires your support. Won’t you let your local

board member know you support such a dedicated allocation, to ensure that

this change happens?

Whether or not I agree with how our educational dollar is divvied up by

the school board and the state and federal lawmakers, hats off to Mike

Fine and his team for putting all of the information together in an

understandable form in the 1999-00 All Funds Final Budget Book. I do need

to clarify that the numbers I used last week to calculate personnel at

each school were based solely on money coming out of the general fund.

Some schools qualify for dollars from special education, Title I,

federal, local foundations, etc. I thought it would be more fair just to

include the general fund dollars.

. . . .

If you are looking for some action this Saturday night, come to the

entertainment level of Triangle Square, where Costa Mesa High’s teacher

band, Stage Fright, will be playing for free. The schools in that zone

will be disseminating information about their clubs and activities, as

well as selling stuff. The band kicks off at 7 p.m. Let me know about

your school. E-mail me at [email protected].

GAY GEISER-SANDOVAL is a Costa Mesa resident. Her column runs Mondays.