When I first heard that the historical method of partially funding Fillmore High School Sports was in serious jeopardy, and in fact by law, has been eliminated, I thought of how important sports was for our son Phillip. Both Carolyn and I agreed that if it were not for Fillmore High School sports and the regimental training and academic requirements to participate in sports, our son, who otherwise lacked the motivation to maintain his attendance and grades, would have struggled to get through high school. I really need to stress “motivation” here because my son had the ability and support at home to academically perform well, but it took the academic requirements placed upon Fillmore High School's student athletes and his love of sports to encourage him to do well. It went beyond academics and motivation though; he learned about “inspiration” from other athletes who lacked the natural athletic ability to play a standout game, but still tried their hardest to help the team. He learned about team work and how to understand coaches who pushed him to get his head in the game! But, I am sure many of you have your own stories of how Fillmore High School Sports positively affected maybe you, one of your children, or relatives, or one of your neighbors, which is why I think it is so important to ensure that Fillmore High maintains their ability for reaching out for partial funding for Fillmore High School Sports programs. What created this situation is, by law, the elimination of the mandatory Athletic Participation Fee all of us, until the current school-year began in August of 2011, gladly provided so our sons and daughters could play Fillmore High School sports.

Since 1879, Article IX, Section 5 of the California Constitution has required that the State of California provide a system of free public schools. In 1984, the California Supreme Court clarified the intent of the Constitution and ruled unequivocally in Hartzell v. Connell that public schools cannot charge students or families any fees as a condition for participating in “educational programs,” including extracurricular activities.”

So why did the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) find it necessary to approach this already codified law of free education to all in public schools by filing a lawsuit in September 2010? The answer appears that a “Pay to Learn” loophole was being practiced by many school districts throughout California as well as the lack of an enforcement mechanism to ensure Districts and schools were following the law. In many cases the fees were so high that some student athlete hopefuls were denied the opportunity to participate as a student athlete because of their inability to pay that fee. This was the reason for the ACLU involving themselves in this issue and filing the lawsuit.

In an August 10, 2010 investigative report by the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California titled; PAY-TO-LEARN: An Investigation of Mandatory Fees for Educational Activities in California’s Public Schools, kicked off what has become a reaffirmation of existing California law. In the introduction of this report it emphasizes: “Our nation’s public schools represent the highest and most revolutionary ideal of American democracy — that through education open on an equal basis to all, every child can achieve his or her full potential as consequence of merit and hard work. The California Constitution, like the constitutions of every state in the Union, accordingly entitles the children of this State to a free and equal education.”

What began as a property tax revolt in 1978 (Proposition 13) and continues today with the recession has caused governmental agencies to change the way they do business in order to provide services and programs. The answer for almost all has been to pass the cost of certain services and programs to the consumers, or to cut those programs altogether. However, in the case of education, California’s public schools can’t legally require students to pay for curricular, or extra curricular activities. For public schools what is left is to cut those programs because of their dwindling budgets, or to find creative ways to not violate the law.

Many Districts throughout the State of California require, or were requiring some sort of fee for “extracurricular activities” such as; band fees, ASB fees, athletic fees, cheer fees, AP exam fees, class dues and extracurricular activities fees as a way to fund those programs that are not, or are underfunded within the District's budget. The result of the ACLU's investigation led to a lawsuit filed on the behalf of students in September 2010 “alleging the fees violated the California Constitutions free public education guarantee and discriminated against lower-income students by creating a “pay to learn” system that threatened the integrity of our state's public education system.”

The lawsuit was quickly settled and the results of the settlement was that schools were to fully reimburse families for the pay-to-play fees and granted parents the right to challenge any illegal fees through the state-based complaint process. As the result of this settlement Assembly Bill 165 was authored by Assembly Member Ricardo Lara and co-authored by Assembly Member John A. Perez, as a way to codify that settlement. AB 165 was passed by the California Assembly and Senate in September of 2011, but was vetoed by Governor Brown on October 8, 2011.
The Fillmore Unified School District was one of those Districts that has, in the past, required certain fees be paid by students for some extracurricular activities. In a recent interview with Fillmore High School Principal John Wilber I was interested to learn how the Fillmore Unified School District and in particular Fillmore High School planned to address this issue. Wilber told me that the District, Wilber and his staff have been struggling with this since before the school-year began in August. Wilber said that the traditional method of partially funding the sports programs at Fillmore High School has been discontinued in order to follow the directions set forth in the lawsuit settlement. Wilber stressed that as of this year no sports programs are threatened, nor are there plans to cut any sports programs.

Wilber acknowledges that Fillmore High School has, in the past, required participants in extracurricular activities to help in the funding of transportation costs and purchase of specialized and legally required sports safety equipment. He said those costs were held to an $85 per participant limit plus a $25 ASB sticker for a total of $110 per student athlete. Wilber also stressed that as long as he can remember all efforts have been made to allow any participant who could not afford the fees to participate. In some cases the coaches would contribute money to help fund that participant. Some coaches have even been known to have the student athlete help out with other activities as another way for them to earn the funding to participate. Now that the law has been made clearer through the settlement of the ACLU lawsuit, Fillmore High School sports has to become more creative in order to fund all their existing sports programs which include 31 teams and an average of 555 student athletes.

As of this school-year the Fillmore Unified School District has continued their budgeted $35 per Fillmore High School student commitment, approximately $35,000, which has been the foundation to the funding of sports programs. Since this $35 amount was “ not restricted” monies it had been previously divided; $24 for transportation costs and $11 for the coaches to purchase supplies. The coaches and Wilber have now moved the entire $35 amount towards transportation for those events necessarily requiring transportation of the teams. Wilber and his staff have conducted budget sessions on this topic and they have taken a three-year average of previous budgets to arrive at a projected budget of $95,856. Of the projected nearly $96,000 budget, $80,584 is offset by revenue; $45,584 in gate receipts and $35,000 from the District budget contribution leaving the projected budget with a $15,272 shortfall.

The budget sessions have recommended: cutting the $85 per participant donation to a $75 donation per participant and eliminating the $25 ASB sticker. Mr. Wilber said program costs go beyond uniforms and transportation and the other costs such as those for officials of $24,928, game help $4,967, CIF League Fees of $3,442 and team equipment cost of $11,000 all make up the necessary expenditures.

One difficult revenue generating problem is that soccer is prohibited by the CIF rules to generate revenue by having a gate fee to watch soccer games. This places revenue generation through gate fees on volleyball, basketball, wrestling and football. Another problem is that revenue generated by “gate fees” can be difficult to generate in other sports, as in the case of baseball, because there is no way to control the spectator visual access to the game due to the physical location of the baseball field at Fillmore High School.

Wilber tells me that the law has limited them to a process of donations and fundraising in order to fill the gap of the previously required Athletic Participation Fee for each player. The previous combined $110 Athletic Participation and ASB Sticker Fee has been reduced to a $75 donation. If all 555 student athletes were to donate the needed $75 requested donation a total of $41,625 would be generated. This would provide enough funding to balance the budget and to replace uniforms and other needed equipment. Unfortunately, so far donations have fallen behind expectations and to date they have received only $3,000 in donations for this year!

To get the word out and to educate the community and those affected by this budget shortfall, Wilber has held a Parent Meeting, met with the Athletic Booster Club and Alumni Association on this issue. Wilber has asked each of them for their support with donations and fundraising to close a projected $15,272 shortfall. This projected budget is only a minimal budget and does not provide for uniform replacements or unexpected costs to run the athletic program. The Fillmore High School Athletic Department will work with the Athletic Booster Club to hold three fundraising events each school-year (one per season) to raise monies for the athletic programs. The Alumni Association will run a story in their newsletter asking for sponsorship support by their Alumni members. Additionally, specific sports will plan fundraisers, such as the Cross-Country Team car wash, and contribute the profits to the general athletics budget.

Nearly 50%, $47,275, of the projected budget is for transportation costs of student athletes. To help lower this cost, Wilber has also asked that any parents who wish to help out with the transportation of team members to reduce transportation costs by volunteering to drive student athletes to events. He said after the required waivers were completed the parent volunteers would be permitted to transport team members. Each parent assisting in the transportation of team members would be given a free gate entry ticket to the event for donating this service. Another avenue to raise funds is the Stadium Banner Sponsorship Program. This Program is available for team members and parents to encourage businesses to purchase a $300 banner sponsorship to be located in the stadium along the fence. Student athletes who secure a sponsorship would receive a free sponsorship for all sports. So far this year this program has generated $1,800.

If you consider what potential good participating in Fillmore High School Athletics does for student athletes consider further what I said about the life-long benefits a student athlete takes with him or her after graduation. Consider for a moment the three Edwards boys, Buddy, Michael and Anthony, all now serving in the United States Army. Each took with them lessons in team work and how to get along with authoritative figures and a great sense of community and country into their adult lives. And who can forget Nick Casas playing his heart out for the Fillmore Flashes and now serving in the United States Army serving his Community and Country with the same zest he did in football. Then there are the Arundell girls, Jaimie, who earned an appointment to prestigious West Point, and Julie who served as a nurse in the United States Army in the Middle East. And finally I think of Jonas Gomez who learned how to survive as a successful business owner of a restaurant, through Fillmore High School sports. Jonas knows that hard work and perseverance does pay off whether it is on the basketball court, or the baseball diamond, or in the highly competitive business of owning a restaurant! I could go on and on with the achievements Fillmore High School student athletes have accomplished, in part, to what they learned while participating in Fillmore High School sports.

I am hoping that when you are asked to step forward you will take a moment to think of someone you know that has benefited from Fillmore High School sports and consider helping to close that $15,000 shortfall with a donation of any amount.