Small Schools, Big Problems : Education: The statewide school-funding crisis is hurting small, rural school districts in San Diego County even more than their larger counterparts.

School Supt. J. Gordon Christensen says that, because of the state’s budget crisis, he is braced to lose 10% of his faculty.

Her name is Marge Hibbs.

Even in Christensen’s rural, 230-student San Pasqual Union School District east of Escondido, severe rationing of state education funds is taking its toll in dramatic proportion.

Losing a single teacher might not seem as dramatic as, say, eliminating entire departments at San Diego State University, but is equally, if not more, devastating.

The San Pasqual district has just one elementary school, with one teacher per grade from kindergarten through 8th grade, along with a reading specialist. But because he has to brace himself for the same proportional cuts that other districts are sustaining, Christensen already has given the pink slip to teacher Hibbs, who is finishing her second year at San Pasqual.

He will replace her with the school’s reading specialist, who has been in the district longer than Hibbs, but that will mean closing down the school’s reading program for struggling students.

If the budget crisis grows even worse, Christensen says he also may have to lay off 2nd-grade teacher Teri Houghtelin, and charge parents whose students rely on the school buses--or drop district transportation altogether. About 90% of the students use the bus to get to school.

Similar worst-case scenarios are being drawn up by smaller school districts all around San Diego County:

* In Del Mar, where a fourth elementary school will open in the fall for the district’s 1,000 students, no new teachers will be hired and, instead, existing teachers will be shifted around and some will be left teaching combined-grade-level classes.

* In the 1,900-student-and-growing Alpine elementary school district in East County, which can’t afford to hire any new teachers, the counselor and vice principal may be sent back into the classroom to fill the ranks because of the need for more teachers.

* In the 209-student Vallecitos School District in Rainbow, east of Fallbrook, the sole administrator wonders if he’ll be able to replace a retiring teacher, and whether he will have to combine the 4th and 5th grades under one teacher. Upper-level grades already are combined.

* In the 30-student Spencer Valley School District between Santa Ysabel and Julian--the county’s tiniest--the part-time bilingual aide will probably be laid off, the once-a-week art program with a professional artist may be cut back to once every two weeks, and the school secretary may work just Monday through Thursday.

Spencer Valley can’t very well cut back on its teachers; there are only two, along with the superintendent who works on special classroom programs. And to make up for the loss of the bilingual aide, one of the two classroom teachers--who is bilingual in English and French--will now have to be schooled in Spanish so the school’s four Spanish-speaking students won’t be abandoned.

Superintendents in these small school districts say that while they sympathize fully with their counterparts in the larger districts, they find themselves in situations that are, in some respects, even harder to swallow.

The small districts, they say, have fewer discretionary programs and fewer frills in the first place, making them less flexible as to what they can cut from the budget.

“We don’t have music classes, or instrumental band, or athletics, or directors or assistant superintendents or program specialists. We don’t even have transportation,” said Paul Cartas, superintendent of the Vallecitos School District. “And I’m the only administrator. So what does that leave for me to cut?”

Budget crises aren’t new to these people; many have been shaving back on costs for the past few years, and say they’re now down to bare bones.

Last year, for instance, San Pasqual’s Christensen laid off a grounds man and one of the school’s five bilingual aides. Another one died last year, leaving three aides--two less than a year ago--and the budget pinch won’t allow him to hire replacements.

The district’s budget this year is $837,000--and he figures he’ll have to cut at least $30,000 next year, if not more, to break even. That money has Hibbs’ name written all over it.

“Both Teri and I were given pink notices last year as well, but it turned out neither one of us had to be laid off,” Hibbs said. “But it’s a lot more serious this year. There aren’t any frills left to cut.

“I know, when I look at the whole picture, that it’s a statewide problem, but it’s still not easy to accept, not having a job,” she said.

Hibbs taught 20 years ago, then quit to raise her family. She returned to the classroom as a substitute teacher nine years ago in Escondido, and two years ago was hired full-time by San Pasqual School.

Hibbs needs the money to help put her two younger children through college, she says. A daughter will enter UC Santa Barbara next fall, with her son four years behind.

The threat of a layoff is even more ominous for Houghtelin--who is less likely to get the ax, but who is her family’s major breadwinner. Her husband is a tree broker on behalf of nurseries selling stock to new housing developments--but with the slowdown in new construction, there hasn’t been much business for wholesale nurseries.

“Emotionally, I’m bouncing back and forth,” said Houghtelin. “I have a big investment in this school, not just because I work here but because our three children are students here.

“Losing a job is scary. Real scary.”

Christensen says he just doesn’t know where else to cut back his budget. There’s just him and his business manager, a secretary, two grounds men who double as bus drivers, a nurse who spends a half-day a week on the campus, a speech therapist who comes to the school twice a week, and the three bilingual aides.

If he has to lose both Hibbs and Houghtelin and the school buses and is still short, then the bilingual aides will be next in line, he said, “and that would be agonizing.”

There’s no lunch program to trim; the kids all brown-bag it, and look to Tuesday when the fellow with the hot dog cart shows up, and to Thursday when a local pizza joint sends pizzas out to the school.

“In large districts, you can count every year on some teachers--the long-timers who make the most money--retiring, and you can save money because you hire younger teachers who cost less,” Christensen noted. “But in the small districts, you don’t have that kind of turnover.”

In the meantime, Christensen is looking for community support to help make ends meet. Last year, General Dynamics contributed 43 boxes of paper “and don’t think we haven’t used it,” he says.

Christensen’s letter is going to residents of the district, which includes the upper-income residents of Highland Valley and the less affluent residents of the San Pasqual Valley, home of the San Diego Wild Animal Park.

“We would sincerely appreciate any assistance that will enable us to maintain our exceptional programs,” he wrote. “Our unique district is an ‘endangered species.’ Please help us to endure and survive these difficult times.”