Schools Scooping Up Outside Money to Keep Moving in Tough Times
Point Loma High School's football team currently works out in old batting cages with rusting equipment. But the school is using grant money to build a new facility.
Posted: Monday, May 10, 2010 4:14 pm | Updated: 4:24 pm, Fri May 14, 2010.
Rusting weight machines sit in batting cages next to the football field at Point Loma High School, exiled from a classroom trailer that was condemned and then removed.
Parents are relieved that's finally going to change. Point Loma High is getting a new weight room -- but not because budget cuts have let up in San Diego Unified schools. The school snagged a $90,000 grant from a NASCAR racing champion and Lowe's Home Improvement after teens made their case in a pleading video and parents wrote an application.
It isn't the only bright spot on campus in the midst of budget cuts: New buildings for filmmaking, music and athletics are cropping up thanks to state grants for career education. Another grant pays for science tutoring, dance troupes, field trips and other activities after school. Grants were rare at Point Loma High before, Principal Bobbie Samilson said, but in this economy it's the way to go.Grants to help schools are nothing new. There are government grants from California and the feds. There are private grants from big corporations and little nonprofits. Grants have long fed money to schools to launch or temporarily try out programs that go beyond the basics, such as surveying teens about their drug and alcohol use or buy supplies that will outlast the temporary money.
But grants are playing an increasingly important role for schools as traditional funding sources continue to dry up and principals brace for future cuts.
School leaders say that year by year, as state funding has been cut, the quest for other funds has grown more pressing. Some parents and principals have taken to hunting for funding like entrepreneurs, devoting hours to shining up their applications and seeking other funds. Schools have even turned to grants to cover the costs of books or other basics that their ordinary funding would once have covered.
"It's just a reality of the job," said Scott Giusti, principal of Mira Mesa High School. When he interviewed for his job, parents and community members grilled him about how he would get funding. "I thought it'd be all about instruction and the safety of the kids. Now it's like being a CEO. Go out and get money."
