State budget crisis threatens to tackle high school sports

Ed Buller roamed the sideline for 23 seasons at San Jose's Oak Grove High, the portrait of a high-energy football coach. He called plays and exhorted his players while guiding the Eagles to 214 wins, 18 league titles and five Central Coast Section championships.

Four months after his retirement from coaching, Buller spent last Sunday morning raising tents, setting up concession stands and scrawling starting numbers for a 5K Fun Run/Walk at nearby Mount Pleasant High. This type of volunteer effort is common for Buller now, as he pours endless hours into his new role: trying to save sports in the East Side Union High School District.

"I told him, 'This is your second calling,' " said Rick Huck, a lineman for Buller in the 1980s and an Oak Grove assistant coach the past 15 years. "He's gone after it as he did coaching - full speed ahead."

Buller's quest offers a snapshot of the challenge confronting high school athletics throughout California. The state budget crisis has prompted school districts to contemplate painful cuts to sports programs - including the possibility of eliminating athletics entirely - and forced them into frenzied fund-raising.
Budget crunch

State lawmakers, in trying to close a $41.6 billion budget deficit in February, proposed $8.4 billion in cuts to public education. That number would rise significantly if voters reject education-related propositions in the May 19 special election, school officials say. Those measures all trail in the polls.

Bay Area high schools are responding to the funding crunch in different ways. Pleasanton, for example, eliminated coaching stipends at Foothill and Amador Valley High, so the district will seek a $300-$400 donation from students participating in sports. Novato officials are asking voters to approve an additional $96 parcel tax on June 2, to help fund athletics at Novato High and San Marin High.

San Francisco's 12 high schools will absorb cuts but expect to maintain their 20 sports thanks to Proposition H, the Public Education Enrichment Fund passed by city voters in 2004. Oakland's six high schools and 15 sports will continue to operate on a "tremendously small budget," in the words of Oakland Athletic League Commissioner Michael Moore.

"We were already cut to the bone," Moore said. "We're just getting all the quarters out of the couch."
Eliminate athletics?

Buller, 53, didn't plan to relax on his couch after leaving coaching. He had pulled double duty at Oak Grove since 1994, also serving as athletic director, and he hoped to devote himself to teaching and administrative duties while carving out time for his family, including watching his nephews play high-school football.

Then, in December, East Side superintendent Bob Nuñez announced his proposal to eliminate athletics. The district's board of trustees approved the initial budget, causing a public outcry. The board backtracked in February, saying athletics would stay if they were self-funded.

Many parents heard the first part of the revised message (athletics were back) and didn't digest the second part (find $2 million to pay for it). Buller made it his mission to spread the word and raise money, filling his schedule with meetings three or four nights per week.

"I actually decided to retire before this happened," he said. "But when it did happen, I thought, 'Here's a perfect opportunity to fill the void.' ... These kids need the opportunity more than we need other things."
Buller's challenge

Buller easily could have returned to coaching. San Jose State fans, in an online chat room, implored their school to hire him as offensive coordinator (Buller spent three years as wide-receivers coach at SJS in the early 1990s). One fan even described him as "the Bill Walsh of high-school football."

Buller originally suspected Nuñez merely was trying to bring attention to the East Side district and spark fund-raising - a logical conclusion, given how early he publicly threatened athletics. But it soon became clear the threat was serious, given the district's projected shortfall of more than $20 million.

Now, as Buller and other East Side athletic directors and parents scramble to raise money, the window is closing. Alan Garofalo, the associate superintendent who oversees athletics, said the district - the largest high school district in Northern California (and 12th-largest in the nation) with 11 schools and 26,000 students - might have to cut another $5 million from its overall budget if voters don't approve those state propositions. (East Side's sheer size might help explain the extent of its financial problems.)

District officials expect to raise about $600,000 by asking each student who plays sports to contribute $200. The Fun Run brought in another $120,000, still leaving the campaign well short of its target.

"Am I optimistic the fund-raising will bring in the needed $2 million-plus to fund athletics next year? Not terribly, no," Garofalo said. "But I am optimistic we will collectively come up with an alternative plan to help the district find ways to fund the sports program."
Garcia's plan

Eddie Garcia, a former baseball and basketball player at James Lick High (another East Side school), is trying to find one way. Garcia, who was appointed to the board of trustees in January, will introduce his plan at the next board meeting on May 21. Garcia wants to preserve sports for 2009-10 by dipping into a reserve fund and then ask voters to pass a parcel tax next year to help fund athletics in future years.

He, like Buller, sees value in prep sports - such as studies showing kids involved in athletics miss about six fewer days of class each year than kids not involved in athletics. Schools receive state funding based partly on attendance, so eliminating athletics could cost even more money than it saves, according to the California Interscholastic Federation.

Buller told the story of one Oak Grove student who was injured and couldn't play his senior season. He soon started getting in fights and was thrown out of school.

"If he was involved in athletics, I guarantee that doesn't happen," Buller said.

Buller and Garcia were candid in saying fund-raising hasn't gone well, given early confusion and the slumping economy. But Buller's cachet in San Jose - 214 wins and 18 league championships tend to earn respect - has helped the effort.

One example: Garcia wanted to hold a town hall meeting to unveil his plan. He asked Buller to help organize the meeting; five days later, 400 people packed the auditorium at Oak Grove.

"When Ed Buller steps up and says, 'This is real, we need to pull together,' people listen," said Garofalo, the associate superintendent.

The Positive Coaching Alliance honored Buller as a National Double-Goal Coach Award winner last month, recognizing his on-field success and off-field efforts. Buller insisted he sees nothing extraordinary in morphing from football coach to community organizer.

"Hey, when I was growing up in high school, there was always someone doing it for us," he said. "So it's my turn."