Board endorses idea of corporate sponsors in Santa Rosa schools

<p>Saddled with more than $8 million in cuts and expecting approximately $5.6 million more next year, the Santa Rosa School Board on Wednesday night gave early backing to a plan that would open school buildings, fields and programs to corporate and community sponsorship and naming rights.</p><p>While expressing enthusiasm for the idea, board members made clear that they want the flexibility to weigh individual naming offers and the authority to reject inappropriate plans.</p><p>“I think it’s key that we do this with community involvement or otherwise I think it comes back to haunt us,” said board member Larry Haenel.</p><p>Haenel also warned against creating a program simply to attach a big name to it.</p><p>“We never want to compromise the learning environment,” he said.</p><p>The board Wednesday directed its staff to create a draft policy for members to debate when they meet again Aug. 26.</p><p>It is unknown how much money the district could pull in through sponsorships and naming, but the policy could help fund grants that require matching local funds, according to Nancy Miller, director of Career Pathways and community outreach for the district.</p><p>“As we go through budget constriction, we do have a lot of facility needs, particularly in the area of career technical education,” Miller said. </p><p>In the current budget crisis in which California faced a $26.3 billion deficit, the district slashed $8.5 million from its two-year budget and froze an additional $5.6 million, while warning still more cuts could be coming.</p><p>Associate Superintendent Doug Bower told board members Wednesday night that cutting the school year by as many as five days is still on the table, referring to the financial outlook as “grim.”</p><p>In light of the numbers, Miller endorsed the idea of naming buildings and programs after benefactors that she said should fall in line with district educational philosophies.</p><p>The board would have the authority to reject a “Benson & Hedges Ballfield” sponsored by the cigarette maker, she said.</p><p>Other board members said connections with alcohol, cigarettes, religion, politics and other sponsors deemed “inappropriate” would not be considered.</p><p>“I’m certain that some people absolutely don’t want advertising on campus because you have a captive audience there,” Miller said prior to Wednesday’s meeting.</p><p>“However we aren’t in a time where we can ask to raise taxes,” she said. “If that is a way that schools can keep programs or help them keep students, then I think that is a positive thing.”</p><p>Trustee Frank Pugh expressed some concern that the board would get stuck in the middle of a debate over whether to choose a sponsorship between AT&T and Verizon or Home Depot and Friedman Brothers.</p><p>“I would just really hate to get into the center of those kinds of debates,” he said.</p><p>Still, he said he wanted the board to retain control and “not be forced to accept everything that comes our way.”</p><p>Some schools, with advertisements on scoreboards and the like, already have a degree of corporate, or at least community, sponsorship, said board member Bill Carle.</p><p>“This isn’t just a one line policy that says ‘Hey, corporate America, come here, we want your money,’” he said. “The message to the public is we are not for sale and we have very strict and important standards.”</p><p>“What this doesn’t mean is that we are putting a pricelist out for buildings on all of our schools or the fields or anything else, or frankly the name of a school,” Carle said.</p><p>Staff Writer Kerry Benefield writes an education blog at extracredit.blogs.pressdemocrat.com. She can be reached at kerry.benefield@pressdemocrat.com or 526-8671.</p>