Burnout may be hampering parents’ efforts to rescue endangered classes
By Don Kirkland
Economic conditions that have forced the Kyrene and other Arizona school districts to cut programs and staffing may have taken yet another toll: burnout among parent groups working to generate alternative funding.
Latest casualty is the parent-teacher organization at C.I. Waggoner Elementary School, where planners had hoped to hold a wine tasting fundraiser April 26.
Whether due to a limping economy or general public malaise, an insufficient volume of advance ticket sales resulted in the group’s failure to provide a necessary attendance guarantee, and the event was cancelled.
“This entire situation is really demoralizing,” said Waggoner parent Mark Moorehead. “We had hoped this would give us the final boost we needed.”
Waggoner PTO President Liz White and parent Vicky Pickard-Brown had been planning the wine-taster as the last of several fund-raising events to offset a $35,000 shortfall in next year’s school budget.
The money is needed, they say, to fund salaries for two staff positions—the school’s computer teacher and an assistant librarian.
Although the group has raised $20,000 so far, another $15,000 is needed by May 25 in order to salvage the threatened positions in time for next year’s budget.
The teaching position is seen as especially critical, parents say, because it provides computer training for five grade levels rather than just one.
Sadly, parents say, the program was launched only last year, and now is due for at least temporary extinction.
Reductions in state Education Department funding have been plaguing Kyrene schools, resulting in staff and program cuts over the past year.
The district also has lost operating dollars as the result of students transferring to charter schools, which district officials say market heavily and often are perceived as private schools, even though they dip into the same public-school coffers as their traditional counterparts.
“We have very discerning, highly educated parents in our district,” said one district official, suggesting that parents like the concept of choice that comes with charters.
“There are some really good (charter schools) and some not-so-good ones; unfortunately, it isn’t always easy to tell the difference going in.”
And while some charter schools like to boast a lower teacher-to-student ratio than traditional schools, Kyrene officials suggest the numbers may be deceiving.
“They may be counting people other than certified teachers in the classroom, which is not an accurate measurement of the ratio,” said one official. “But parents can be influenced by it, and we end up losing the child.”
As to Waggoner’s fund-raising efforts, parent Moorehead said it isn’t the only school that has used creative approaches to tackle the funding challenge.
Some have held book fairs and scheduled various types of community events to prevent the demise of favored programs.
While the Kyrene district’s demographics are higher than many others, it appears to be no guarantee that the job of fundraising will be an easy one.
“We’ve done everything you could think of,” he said. “$35,000 is a lot of money.”
In addition to cuts in computer instruction, Waggoner faces additional belt-tightening with the latest round of budget cuts, officials say.
The previous 50 minutes a week of art instruction has now been reduced to 30 minutes, and schools are confronted with increasing class size.
Another big loss coming to Waggoner next year will be the departure of Julie Weimer, who will retire this year after 14 years as principal and 27 years with the Kyrene district.
Her first teaching job was at Waggoner, and she returned in 1987 to serve in the position she now holds.
About the potential for future fundraising events at Waggoner, PTO members aren’t sure how they’ll come up with the remainder of their goal.
“This (the wine-taster) was going to be our last gasp,” said Moorehead. “We’re at our wits’ end. If this doesn’t work, we could be in real trouble.”
One final possibility has emerged, however. A parent reportedly has offered to lend the PTO the money if all else fails.
“It’s that serious,” said Moorehead.
Though district officials say they understand parents’ frustration over funding issues, they themselves are have become competitors for donor dollars.
State funding for middle-school athletics was pulled entirely two years ago, forcing the district’s athletic director, Scott Sofsian, to add fundraising to his already abundant list of responsibilities.
The results were positive, and Sofsian says middle-school sports should be funded for the next few years.
“So far we’ve had good support from parents in the community, but as the state keeps cutting and cutting, it falls on the individual school principals to raise their own money,” Sofsian said.
“I think we can get away with that at a lot of our schools because we have good parents, but the pie is only so big and you can only cut it so many ways.”
While he sympathizes with parents who are trying to raise money for such classes as orchestra, band, art and other quality-of-life programs, he recognizes that fundraising for athletics may be somewhat easier.
“We have the benefit of a program that the parents have shown loud and clear they want, and we can support it through the tax credit,” Sofsian said.
Thereby hangs yet another worry.
“I am comfortable with the athletic program, as long as that tax credit program stays around,” said Sofsian, adding that there has been some informal discussion, though no decision, regarding the elimination of that funding source.
“But I also think it is going to get tougher and tougher the more the state squeezes school districts, and the harder it will be to sustain programs.”
Schools aren’t the only potential losers, he says.
The problem of more interests competing for fewer dollars also tends to wear down the resolve of both seekers and contributors, Sofsian suggests.
“There are fundraisers every week—every YMCA, church, sports league, school or charity doing bake sales, silent auctions and car washes. A lot of the parents get burnt out. After a while, they do have their own lives to deal with.”