Schools or Pencils: A Fund Disconnect

For students at a few new public schools in Southern California, it’s hard to believe there’s a state budget crisis.

Freshly built campuses boast multimillion-dollar amenities, such as college-style gymnasiums, wireless computers, art galleries, and theaters with stadium seating, high-tech special effects and indoor-outdoor stages.

Even as administrators scramble to find money for supplies, textbooks and other necessities, they say these big-ticket perks confer community bragging rights, help recruit and retain the best teachers and encourage students to excel in academics, sports and social activities, giving them an edge in college and scholarship applications.

“We have the best new stuff,” said Lauren Fougere, 16, a sophomore at Chino Hills High School, which opened in 2001.

The 1,800-student campus takes pride in a state-of-the-art theater that would be envy of many communities, as well as professional-level equipment for classes in ceramics, culinary arts, computer sciences and multimedia.

“We have plush seats,” Fougere said of some classrooms, and students can watch demonstrations on a kitchen island resembling those seen on TV cooking shows.

“It doesn’t seem like there are budget problems here,” Fougere said as she and her friends ate onion-scented dishes of pasta carbonara they had cooked in a classroom stocked with a convection oven, six stoves and restaurant-quality grills.

Fougere took another bite, then reconsidered.

“I guess we do feel the budget a little,” she said. “We used to have more cooking labs, but the budget is more restricted.”

Chino Hills Principal James Moore said he has mixed feelings about these first-class amenities because he has to scrounge for the money to buy the supplies needed to keep them running, whether it’s flour, ceramic clay or theatrical props.

The dichotomy exists because schools such as Chino Hills get their money from two distinct sources: one for books, pencils and other day-to-day expenses, which is subject to the whims of the state economy and California Legislature; and a second for school construction, which comes mostly from special state and local bond measures approved by voters.

The two pots of money are not allowed to mix, so even if the construction of a new school is completed under budget, the leftover money cannot be used to buy textbooks or other daily necessities.

Chino Hills High, which opened in 2001, cost more than $71 million to build. The school was frugal with the basics, Moore said, leaving money left over for top-of-the-line features such as the theater and student kitchen. “You only get a certain amount to start a school, and once the money is gone, it’s gone forever,” Moore said. “You wouldn’t want me to buy a 1990-style school. Twenty years from now, this school will look old, and another neighborhood will have a new school.”

But Moore said frustration arises at the prospect of having to cut about $16 million from the Chino Valley Unified School District’s annual budget because of the state’s budget mess. That could require skimping on classroom supplies, leaving positions unfilled and, possibly, laying off teachers.

“With budgets so tight, I do wonder about maintaining” and buying materials for the theater and other perks, Moore said. “It might be difficult to support.”

Many argue that school districts statewide should have more flexibility in how they spend their money. If needed, construction funds should be allowed to cover basics, such as replacing antiquated books, said K. Lloyd Billingsley, an education expert for the Pacific Research Institute, a public policy nonprofit organization in San Francisco.

“An extravagant gymnasium is nice, but how many students are going to make a career out of athletics?” he said. “It’s not the building that teaches kids.”

Billingsley noted the example of the Belmont Learning Complex near downtown Los Angeles, one of the city’s densest areas. Work on Belmont began in 1997 but was halted three years later because of potential environmental hazards.

“Plans for the school included all the bells and whistles,” including 80,000 square feet of retail space, Billingsley said of the unfinished $286-million campus. “Not one child has been educated there.”

In May, the Los Angeles Board of Education voted to complete the project, the most expensive school construction project in state history. The decision was applauded by many education experts and parents who say overcrowding and dilapidated surroundings hurt academics.

“We have students who have to wake up at 5 a.m., stand in front of their neighborhood school and wait for a bus that takes them away to another school,” said Jim McConnell, chief facilities executive for the 740,000-student Los Angeles Unified School District. “It’s better for them to attend their neighborhood schools.”

The district, the state’s largest, buses an estimated 16,000 students because there’s no room for them at campuses near their homes. Los Angeles Unified needs to build 200 new schools to reduce crowding, McConnell said.

On the March ballot, the district will ask voters within Los Angeles Unified’s boundaries to help pay for new campuses with a $3.8-billion school construction and repair bond.

On the same ballot, voters statewide will decide on a $12.3-billion state bond to build or improve school and college campuses. That proposal is separate from a $15-billion bond measure on the same ballot aimed at keeping the overall state budget afloat.

“You have to look at a school as a long-lived asset, an investment in the future,” said Ron Bennett, president of School Services of California, a consulting firm that works with most of the state’s more than 1,000 school districts. “The facilities enhance the learning.”

At some new schools, parents have complained because districts skipped the perks and provided the absolute minimum.

“They felt like money was wasted,” Bennett said. “They felt like what their children got was inadequate.”

State-of-the-art school facilities also help keep students competitive with those from other states.

“I don’t think California has anything to apologize for in terms of spending too much on any part of education,” Bennett said.

At Colony High School in Ontario, the large Thunderdome gymnasium was a factor in persuading the Inland Empire’s best teachers and coaches to work at the campus, which opened last year. “It brings enthusiasm,” Principal Jim Brodie said.

The Thunderdome helped lure Jerry De Fabiis, a prized Inland Empire coach, to head the boys basketball team.

“It looks like a big college gym,” he said. “It’s a great opportunity to work here.”

The gym includes parquet floors, an all-glass entryway, a trophy room, a mezzanine and two regulation basketball courts. The campus also has a large, 13-foot-deep pool that it shares with the community.

Athletics and other activities benefit students socially, personally and academically -- especially students who must meet a certain grade point average to participate and who don’t want to lose those amenities, Brodie said.

“Students come for the football and stay for the reading,” Brodie said.

He paused. “It would be nice if it weren’t a challenge to buy supplies.”