Outcry prompts BOE to save teen programs

Funding will remain the same for peer programs that help parents and children

Students, teachers and parents persuaded the Board of Education last night to drop a plan to shift almost $1 million from teen support programs available at some campuses into a formula that distributes money to public schools based on enrollment and childrens' needs.

The state Department of Education had suggested lumping those funds, along with an additional $5.2 million, into the so-called Weighted Student Formula so that the money would be shared among more schools. The $5.2 million allocation, which the school board approved, includes almost $3 million for athletic directors' salaries, $1.4 million for a pregnant-teen parenting program and other funds for a Farrington Health Academy, an in-school suspension program and a youth leadership project.

Mark Shimabukuro, peer education coordinator at Aiea High, said the program helps students discuss peer pressure, domestic violence, drugs, drunken driving and problems associated with teen pregnancy. He feared that similar peer programs at 21 schools would have been jeopardized if its nearly $1 million budget was grouped into the weighted formula.

"We just want the funding to remain the same so we can keep the same program," he said.

One student group even brought two human lungs - one healthy and another blackened by cigarette smoke - in its plea to the school board.

Education officials had said schools would still be able to offer the alternative programs with money they will get through the formula. They noted the proposal, if it had been fully adopted, would have raised the formula's per-pupil spending at most high schools by about $130 to $4,243. That amount will drop slightly with the exclusion of peer education funds.

"If it is a good thing, the likelihood of it continuing is great," said school board member Eileen Clarke.

But critics worried not all programs may survive as schools would likely divert funds to other areas.

The weighted formula took effect in the 2006-07 school year with the goal of giving schools flexibility over spending and providing more money to needy students. Schools with more students considered more costly to teach - such as poor or special-education students and non-native English speakers - receive more money at the expense of schools that have fewer of those students.

But officials have been tweaking the formula, which channels more than $900 million to schools, to achieve greater equity and prevent smaller and rural campuses from suffering drastic losses.

Also last night, the school board approved slashing $9.2 million from the Education Department's budget - including money for night patrols at 76 schools, $2.1 million from public libraries, and almost $130,000 that will end schools participation in Special Olympics - to comply with a 4 percent state spending restriction triggered by the slowing economy. Education officials had originally suggested pulling $1 million from athletics toward meeting the shortfall, but the school board rejected that proposal after learning it would had essentially eliminated junior varsity programs.

School board member Kim Coco Iwamoto criticized the decision to spare junior varsity but wipe out Special Olympics.

"We basically threw out disabled athletes for the able-body athletes," she complained.

Honolulu Police Chief Boisse Correa also warned the school board that canceling night patrols might encourage vandalism, thefts and burglaries. Education officials, however, said they have been unable to determine the value of the patrols, and that schools that like the service would have to pay for it.