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 GGSesq@aol.com.
GAY GEISER-SANDOVAL is a Costa Mesa resident. Her column runs Mondays.
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