Irvine Unified School District

The Irvine Co. said Monday it would provide $20 million over the next 10 years to fund fine arts, music and science programs for fourth- through sixth-graders in the Irvine Unified School District. The money will be in addition to the $25 million pledged by the Newport Beach developer to Irvine schools in 2000, officials said.

A Los Angeles man won a home valued at $600,000 for the price of a $200 raffle ticket Saturday. Roy Decauwer's ticket was chosen from about 10,000 sold in a fund-raising drive by the Irvine Public Schools Foundation for the Irvine Unified School District. The raffle raised $1.4 million for the district. Developer John Laing Homes sold the three-story, 1,592-square-foot condominium in Irvine to the foundation for $489,000, said a spokesman for the developer.

The Los Angeles Board of Education is expected to reopen a debate today over students using cellphones on school grounds, possibly relaxing its own widely ignored policy that bans the devices on campus for being disruptive. The school board is scheduled to take the ringing issue up in the wake of a change in state law last year that rescinded a 15-year-old prohibition on "electronic signaling devices" at California schools.

Irvine property owners voted to charge themselves an estimated $3.2 million a year to help the cash-strapped Irvine Unified School District, but administrators aren't celebrating their first victory in five tries at the ballot box just yet.

As part of a matching gift to preserve art, music and science education in Irvine public schools, the Donald Bren Foundation gave the school district a $700,000 check Tuesday. The money was presented to trustees even as Irvine Unified School District officials counted ballots Tuesday night from an election on a proposed parcel tax for recreational facilities to aid the financially strapped district. Officials for the Bren-owned Irvine Co.

Irvine property owners have until 7 tonight to cast their ballots on a recreation fee that would raise $3.2 million annually for the cash-strapped school district. District officials hope to announce election results Wednesday. If approved, the fee -- about $48 a year for most homeowners -- would mark the first time Irvine voters have agreed to charge themselves to fund local schools. Four times in the last two decades, Irvine voters have refused to raise their taxes through school bonds.

Re "Is School Funding a Struggle or a Scam?" (Letters, March 16): The author presented as fact that the Irvine Unified School District has more than $50 million in County Fund 694 and therefore should not be asking for additional revenue. The truth is, that particular fund was established in 1995 by the county treasurer for cities and school districts to deal with the Orange County bankruptcy. Further, this fund was empty and was closed Nov. 1, 2001. What is true is that most school districts, including Irvine's, have significant money in various county treasury accounts.

Parents in affluent communities throughout California are mobilizing to raise millions of dollars through mail and telephone campaigns, auctions and bake sales to help their public schools save jobs, keep classes small and maintain music, sports and other programs, which are at risk because of the state budget crisis. For years, many of these same communities have donated generously for computers, uniforms, field trips and arts classes.

Re "Irvine Schools Deserve a Yes," editorial, March 9: The facts show that your editorial is a clueless call to heap more taxes on a community that, like others, is being scammed by their school board. Irvine Unified's current budget report shows that the school board ended fiscal 2001-02 with a cash surplus of $17 million, $9 million of which is unrestricted cash. You'll also find that huge cash surplus from 2001-02 isn't reported as available revenue for this year. Where does it go?