June 24, 2004

High School budget passes eliminating seventh period
Parents working hard to raise $200,000 to offset cut

By Carol Rosen and
Julie Davis Berry

It was standing room only when the board of directors of the Campbell Union High School District met June 17 to consider and vote on the budget for the 2004-05 school year. Most people expected the board would vote to approve the budget, and they were right, but that didn’t alleviate any of the parents and students feelings that they were getting cheated out of a seventh period.

All of the attendees appeared upset by the action, and many parents were stunned that the board hadn’t considered telling them about the situation months ago. If they had, the parents insisted, they could have put all their heads together and come up with more creative solutions than eliminating a period.
Collecting money

At the same time, Jorey Beamesderfer, who is helping run a committee of parents who’ve pledged to raise the $200,000 necessary to reinstate the seventh period, noted that in one week the group had collected $20,000. By June 22, less than a week later, the total had risen to $25,000.

At the board meeting the board also put forth a resolution to reinstate the seventh period if the money is collected. That resolution could not be voted on because it was not on the June agenda. It will be voted on and likely passed at the July meeting. But the caveat remains, without the money there will be no seventh period. If the group collects only $175,000 all the money must be returned, said Beamesderfer.

“This situation is painful,” said Superintendent Dr. Rhonda Farber. “We’ve cut close to $2 million. We didn’t see the boardroom packed when we had to cut administration and service jobs. We’ve lost lots of positions. We’ve gotten to the point where there’s nothing left to cut. We don’t want to put the district in jeopardy. We don’t want to be irresponsible. We don’t want the district to be taken over by the state, like some other districts, we’re not putting our schools into financial jeopardy.”

Beamesderfer’s group has until July 31 to raise the money. If it can, that would be enough to service the nearly 800 students in the district that take seventh period classes. The district serves about 7,600 students at five high schools: Branham, Delmar, Leigh, Prospect and Westmont.

All five schools will share the $200,000, said Superintendent Farber. She said the amount of money would cover the limited number of students taking seventh period classes.
Students and parents upset

Students claim that cutting the period will hamper their chances to get into a good college. “The cut period will affect music, leadership, ROTC, art and sports,” said Adara Beamesderfer, a Leigh High student. “Leigh has an award winning marching band, we had a science research class. Everything that means a lot to people is gone,” without seventh period, she added.

Sharon Pagendarm, a parent representative for the band at Del Mar and a first grade teacher at Castlemont Elementary, has a daughter who will be a senior at Del Mar in the fall. Her daughter is signed up for marching band, symphonic band, advanced placement (AP) music theory and AP calculus. She will have to drop the calculus if the seventh period elimination continues. While her daughter has three years of math, Pagendarm is concerned that it could hamper her chances to get into a University of California school.

Pagendarm and Campbell City Councilmember Matthew Dean were in agreement with most parents that the district should have alerted them to the budget situation six months ago, instead of springing the news in the last month or so when it’s hard to come up with creative solutions.

Hamper college admissions?
“The seventh period offers students more opportunities and a leg up to get into a good college,” said Pagendarm.

“If they want to go to an impacted college, it [seventh period] gives a student a broader range. These colleges are going to have to look at more than test scores and grades, they are looking for a well-rounded student.”

Another parent, who asked to remain nameless, added that the school board is calling foreign language an elective. “Since when is foreign language an elective, don’t the UC’s ask for three or four years of a foreign language?”

“The district couldn’t or wouldn’t answer how much money will be saved by cutting the seventh period,” added Councilmember Dean. “They did a poor job of communicating. We are not dumb people, the UC and CS systems are looking for more than SAT scores, grade points and core classes. The public didn’t buy into what the board said at the [May Leigh High School] meeting, especially since one of the board members was unreceptive to anything the parents said.”

Dean, who plans to run in the next election for the CUHSD board, has a sophomore at Del Mar and three younger children entering high school in the next few years. He feels the board did not reach out to parents before the situation got too grim. In addition, he feels that one board member was antagonistic toward the parents at the Leigh High meeting.

“There’s a lot of energy in the people (parents) and programs. The public wants to help. I don’t recall the board coming out and communicating the problems to us and that’s bad form,” he said.

Sharon Rosen, whose daughter will be a sophomore at Westmont is upset about three things. If freshmen and sophomores don’t have the option to take fine arts courses, they will be less likely to take such courses as a junior or senior, she said. The same goes for leadership, AP and ROTC classes.

In addition, while the money collected will be shared throughout the district, there are some inconsistencies between the schools. For example, Westmont doesn’t count marching band as a substitute for physical education, but Leigh students get credit for PE when they take marching band, Rosen added.

She’s also worried about what music or sports students will do when they have an off period. “Band is considered a class, even though it’s done after the school day ends,” she said. “So band students only get five classes and will have an off period. Westmont is on a block schedule so what will the students do for the 90 minutes they have off? Most parents work, they don’t want to pick up their kids at 11:30 (for example) and then take them back to school at 2:30 for band practice.”

Dean is concerned that the schools will have to be more rigorous in ensuring the students with off periods are not getting into any trouble. That means, he said, teachers or proctors of some sort will have to monitor the students with an off period.

A few days later, on June 22, approximately 100 parents and students crowded into the Montevideo Clubhouse to find out how they could help with the fund-raising. The Committee to Save 7th Period coordinators Roberta Zarea and Jorey Beamesderfer were cautiously optimistic as they announced to those assembled that $25,000 had already been raised. “It’s coming in dribs and drabs,” said Beamesderfer.

The committee must raise $175,000 by July 31st if it will be successful. A few local companies have stepped up to help with the fund-raising. United Shredding has offered to donate 50 percent of work brought in when someone mentions the Save 7th Period efforts. United President Cliff Bradsky told the audience, “I grew up in Campbell and I played baseball in Campbell and I want to see this work out for the students.”

Another company, US Bank, located at 750 W. Hamilton Avenue in Campbell will donate $10 each time a customer comes in to open up a new account if they mention the Save 7th Period efforts.

These are all great ideas,” said Zarea. “We need to come up with whatever fund-raising ideas we can and we need a lot of help with the fund-raisers.”

Some ideas bandied about were carwashes at various locations, bake sales, even a “Day on the Green” type concert at a local park. “I’ll organize it!” announced one brave woman.

Another woman, Cambrian artist Kathy Self, offered to donate 25% of proceeds from sales of her artwork until July 31st. For information visit www.colorbrush.com

Zarea said that there will be a fund-raiser July 17 at a yet-to-be disclosed location to offer shredding, car washing and whatever else the committee can come up with to raise the desperately needed funds.

Dr. Timothy Hegstrom, the CUHSD school board president, also attended the meeting. He was impressed by the group’s efforts. “There seems to be a lot of people who are very committed to this cause. It’s important that people rally on this point. It’s clear that by restricting students to six classes, some sections will be eliminated.”

Hedstrom is also encouraged by an announcement at the school board meeting by a political media company that a district parcel tax (see box) has a 70 percent chance of passing if put on the ballot in the coming months.

Obviously getting word out about the cuts can only help garner support for the parcel tax. The school board will vote on whether to go ahead with a parcel tax to the voters at their July 15 meeting.

Westmont parent Susan Berney-Key summed up the Save 7th Period Committee best. “It’s a real grass roots effort. And, it’s scary because of the amount of time that we have to raise the money. But there is no question it is critical that we do this because it will have a major impact on the students.”

Parents and friends who would like to help reinstate seventh period at CUHSD can get more information at the group’s Web site at www.save7thperiodcuhsd.energetic.com or by e-mailing savecuhsd@yahoo.com. If you’d like to send a check, make it payable to SUHSD with Save 7th Period in the memo line and mail it to P.O. Box 7108, San Jose, CA 95150.