Friday, Oct. 02, 2009

Empire race rolled up in deficit of cash, kids

But candidates have wish lists, too, including reopening Teal as charter

EMPIRE — Schools in this tight-knit community that sits where Santa Fe Avenue dead-ends into Yosemite Boulevard have money problems.

Declining enrollments have been a fact of Empire Union School District life for six years. As children trickled away, funding dribbled out after them.

"I'm always having to be on defense, never on offense. I'm always the linebacker on the 5-yard line getting beat up. I've never once been a quarterback, able to throw the touchdown pass and add money to the music programs, sport programs or academic programs," said incumbent Nick Bavaro, who joined the board in 2000.

"The hardest thing is the budget. The cuts. The constant cuts, year after year," sighed incumbent Patty Shafer, a board member for 28 years.

Red ink is only part of the budget impact, challenger Doug Bentley said. "I'd like to see more mutual respect ... on all sides, even in spite of all the things going on (with the budget), so that everyone feels they're being listened to."

Hardest decisions are cuts

The budget is the top issue in the Empire Union School District board race. One challenger and three incumbents are competing for three seats in the upcoming election. All cited further spending reductions as the most difficult challenge ahead for the board, and that challenge as part of what moved them to run.

"I would like to bring some of the programs back that have been cut," said Bentley, citing wood shop, home economics, foreign languages and especially the Advancement via Individual Determination program he helped start in his 12-year tenure at now-closed Teal Middle School. Bentley is a substitute teacher in Sylvan Union School District and sees the programs still available there.

He said hands-on programs, along with such activities as sports and band, help motivate students. Excellent programs that gain recognition would help bring new students in, he added, or at least keep the approximately 3,200 students Empire has.

Empire will have one more student next year, as Bentley's son joins the ranks of kindergartners.

Stacie Morales, running for re-election after serving for four years, would like to strengthen physical education and sports programs and offer more support to the small district's highly proficient and advanced students.

Bavaro, who runs a benefit consulting company, would love to raise wages. "I'd like to make it right with the people in our district," he said.

"I have such a long (wish) list," Shafer said. "We're just thankful to be able to keep the teachers we have."

In a year of many meetings and tough decisions, closing Teal last spring was cited as the hardest by Morales and Bavaro, who is running for re-election.

"It was like breaking up a family — the teachers and the kids," Bavaro said.

Morales called the closure vote "the most heartbreaking moment, adding, "But that's what you do as a board member. You have to make the tough decisions."

Empire swallowed its bitter medicine, Morales said. Other school boards "will be getting a good reality check" this next year.

Bavaro and Morales are looking into ways the district might be able to reopen Teal as a special niche charter school to attract students. For now, the property is leased to a private college prep academy, which "saved a ton of jobs," Morales said.

"Every job we cut, that's a house," she said, explaining that she labored over the leasing decision. "That's how I am. I will not vote unless I've researched it to death and talked to people."