Back To School : PLACENTIA : Bingo Wins an OK at Esperanza High

Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified School District trustees have approved a fund-raising group’s plan to run bingo games Sunday afternoons at Esperanza High School.

The school board voted 4 to 1 last week to allow the games despite concerns from some opponents that it would send the wrong message to students and interfere with a community basketball league’s games this winter. Trustee Barbara Williams voted against the bingo games.

Supporters, including Esperanza High School sports booster clubs, say that bingo will relieve booster groups from collecting money for extracurricular activities solely from candy sales and carwashes.

“I have seen more and more parents go through the humiliation of saying: ‘I can’t afford this program any more,’ ” said Frank Reed, a member of the high school soccer booster club. Bingo organizers hope to raise between $8,000 and $10,000 each week.

Even so, some parents objected to the games, saying they would, in effect, be condoning gambling.

“We are better than this,” said Quentin Goodman, a former school board member. “We don’t need to go out and use bingo to raise money.”

But school board President Judy Miner said the trustees approved bingo because “I don’t think we can legislate morality to our families.”

Another former board member, Isabelle Hlavac, argued against a plan to allow smoking in the gymnasium during the bingo games while schools have anti-smoking education programs.

“You’re setting a double standard,” she said. “Kids don’t listen to what you say. They watch what you do.”

Bingo organizers said they need to allow smoking to attract participants. Devices to remove the smoke from the air will be placed in the gymnasium to keep the smell from lingering in the facility the next day.

The bingo games will be played year-round in the gymnasium at Esperanza High School on Sunday afternoons. That will conflict with plans to hold National Junior Basketball games at the high school at the same time.

Directors of the league, which attracted about 400 elementary and junior high school age children last year, said they could lose about 180 players next year without the space. They expect as many as 300 additional players when their league starts play in December.

School officials said they will try to work out a compromise.