Arts students require extensive funding for ongoing projects and materials, while the athletes receive a considerable budget even season. Illustration by Khang DoBy Suzane Jlelati, Staff Writer
Fountain Valley High School (FVHS) is a large school filled with multiple departments, with thousands of students enrolled in each of them, which gives the need for a high supply and demand, such as the arts and sports department.
With a large student body and multiple departments, Fountain Valley High School’s art departments appear to be underfunded in comparison to the athletics programs. How are fundings divided?
At FVHS, there are 66 athletic teams and roughly 45 art sections. The athletics receives a budget of $5,000 from the general fund and arts receives $12,240. From the general fund, athletics receive a flat amount, while classrooms fall under the section allocation budget.
“School site budgets are generally determined by the number of students enrolled. Though FVHS has the highest enrollment numbers in the district, it does not receive the same categorical funding that other schools might,” said Dennis Piramo, Athletics Director and Assistant Wrestling Coach.
Section allocation dollars make up 38% percent of Fountain Valley’s budget, a higher percentage than other schools in the district. The district currently funds schools at $60 per student for discretionary budgets, so the rest is covered through donations and fundraisers. According to Piramo, if the district was able to increase the per-student allocation from the current $60, all departments and programs would benefit.
The numbers may show that the art department gets more money, but multiple students and teachers have complained about not having enough supplies to produce students’ projects, such as canvases. Art classes have a lot of consumables, which comes with the need to replace those items every year. The donation
requests fill up the demand for art classes that use up more than what they are given.
Similarly for the athletics department, coaches ask for donations, which cover things such as equipments, uniforms, travel, referees, coaching stipends and awards.
“To run the programs the way we run them, we try to create situations as college like as possible and we want to use the best possible equipment we can for the money that we have. But we are not funded enough, science is not funded enough. Almost every single aspect of education is not funded enough,” said art teacher Mike Eich.
According to Eich, every department is important in the school system and all deserve to be funded as much as possible. No matter how the district, Associated Student Body, or administration decides to fund each department, every part of them will be underfunded in some way.
