Frazier Park (Thursday, May 26, 2011 9 a.m.)–Student athlete Antonio Saenz held a planning meeting last night to begin a campaign to save the sports program at Frazier Mountain High School by working with other students and parents to raise funds. A giant three-location car wash is being planned for Saturday, June 4. There will be locations in Pine Mountain, Frazier Park and Lebec, Saenz said. He is working with the FMHS Booster Club. Tickets will be pre-sold at many locations throughout the Mountain Communities.

The FMHS Booster Club is issuing a call to parents, students, businesses and the entire community to come to a meeting on Tuesday, May 31 at 6:30 p.m. at Caveman Cavey’s Pizza Restaurant in Frazier Park to select a new Booster Club board and to put in motion a plan that will make it possible for high school students to continue to participate in interscholastic league sports. We will post more details on these activities as they develop.

A $1.73 million gap in the school district’s budget due to unpaid IOU’s by the state to school districts, and the drop in enrollment in the district’s schools have caused the crisis. Last Thursday, May 19 the ETUSD board voted to lay off 19 classified workers, support staff such as all the classroom eduational aides, groundskeepers, a library clerk and the superintendent’s administrative assistant. A community movement gained momentum protesting the hiring of a full time principal at FMHS, calling for th e$129,000 to be applied to bringing back teacher’s aides and partially funding the sports programs.

See the new issue of The Mountain Enterprise, on stands today, for more information.

This is part of the May 20, 2011 online edition of The Mountain Enterprise.

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