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Jerry and Janet Chabola, honored last year by the Rotary Club.
Jerry Chabola, who retired last year as a teacher and the Athletic Director at Culver City High School, talked this week about his thoughts on seeing that his hard work on getting the track and field resurfaced finally is coming to pass.
Mr. Chabola – I am excited, and I am happy that the work we have done over the past many years is coming to fruition. Now students are now going to have a better facility to utilize. Not only our young people in the School District, everyone, throughout the community. They may not know it, but this is going to turn out to be so important for our community. It will show that the District is not only looking for excellence in the classroom and in the arts, entertainment and athletics, but in everything we do. This will show that athletics should be an intrinsic part of each student’s daily education.
The Front Page – Why now? Why wasn’t this done five or 10 years ago?
Mr. Chabola – Monies have become available through the hard work of a lot of people. Quite frankly, some previous School Board members saw it as a priority, but some did not. A lot of what we have done in the past has been piecemeal. We got a scoreboard one year, a track another year because of the efforts of people like Mike and Flora Balkman and many other community members. We have a very nice baseball field due to the efforts of Rick Prieto and Michael Cousineau getting the high school baseball program a $25,000 grant to redo the infield. For too many years, we used the band-aid approach. This was the time to step up. The reason it is happening now instead of five or 10 years ago is because there was a change in the District mindset. People made it a priority.
The Front Page – Was it a change in mindset by the community or by the administration/Board?
Mr. Chabola – The change was in the administration and the School Board.
The Front Page – This is being called Phase One. Will Phase Two happen without the passage of another General Obligation Bond?
Mr. Chabola – It will not be any different from the past. The most efficient way to get it done is by passing a bond measure. If it’s not passed, I don’t know how important it will be for the community to realize that Phase One is just a partial solution. Right now, the Robert Frost (Auditorium) is just a partial solution. Even the solar project is only a partial solution. It just covers the main campus, not the remaining five elementary schools. If the voters of Culver City want it, to have something that is significant, a gem, a bond measure is going to be important to achieve that end.
The Front Page – Something they can be proud of.
Mr. Chabola – I have said this for many years. At Culver City High School, we have put an emphasis on academics, and it shows. Academically, we have done well. We can do better. In other areas, what we have done has said we want to get better but we haven’t set ourselves to get it done.
From my perspective as a coach and then as the Athletic Director,Culver City is like Hollywood. We show the public a great front, but there is no substance behind it. Our kids always go on the field with nice looking uniforms. It is only because of the resources the coaches could bring together. No one can say that Culver City doesn’t look the part. If you look behind the scenes, it’s not quite so substantial. There is not a second set of uniforms, or second set of equipment.
(To be continued)
Mr. Laase may be contacted at GMLaase@aol.com
