The North Orange County Community College District must repay approximately $900,000 in state funding it improperly received for Bridge physical-education courses for high school athletes.

An investigation by the state community college chancellor's office concluded that courses offered by Fullerton and Cypress colleges for high school athletes, taught by high school coaches during their teams' practices, "did not meet (state) legal requirements," said Ralph Black, general counsel for the chancellor's office.

The $900,000 is in addition to $1.5 million in state funding withheld from the district as part of a statewide $25 million cut in community college funding because of irregularities in Bridge courses.

The statewide Bridge program was created so that advanced, academically superior high school students could take and receive credit for community college courses while still in high school.

Jerome Hunter, chancellor of the North Orange County District, said he could not answer detailed questions about the audit results because of two pending lawsuits.

"This review concludes that, while the district did not operate in bad faith, some revenue will be reduced next year," Hunter said.

Besides the district's probe, the state chancellor's office is investigating Bridge P.E. programs at as many as 15 community college districts statewide, Black confirmed.

The chancellor's office probes and funding cuts were prompted by a seven-month investigation by The Orange County Register in 2002.

The Register found that California community colleges received at least $56 million in state funding in 2001-2002 alone for offering classes to high school athletes who received college credit for participating in their normal team practices.

In some cases the classes did not exist at all.

In examining Bridge P.E. courses offered by the North Orange County district's schools, Cypress and Fullerton, during the 2000-01, 2001-02 and 2002-03 academic years, chancellor's office investigators concluded they did not meet state attendance and funding rules.

State law requires all courses offered by community colleges that receive state taxpayer funding be open to the general public and listed in a public course catalog.

"The enrollment practices were set up in such a way that unless you were a high school student at one of these high schools you would not have known the class even existed," Black said.

The chancellor's office also found, Black said, that the district's Bridge P.E. courses "were held at the same time the high school teams had practices."

High school coaches teaching the courses were being paid by the high school district and community college for essentially doing the same job: running high school team practices.

Orange County community colleges paid $1.5 million in 2002 to high school coaches to teach Bridge P.E. courses, according to documents obtained by the Register.

But state investigators determined that there was no fraud because the high schools were not claiming state funding for the courses, Black said. The chancellor's office did not have jurisdiction, Black said, over what he described as "local employment practices."

The chancellor's office was unable to find cases of high school athletes' being coerced or pressured into taking Bridge courses. The finding was based in part on a survey of high school parents, although Black acknowledged "we didn't get a significant response."

"As far as coercion," Black said, "we didn't find any, but that doesn't necessarily mean it didn't exist."

Former Fullerton Union High School baseball players James and Nathan Carl said they were harassed by their coach, David Posthuma, when their parents refused to sign enrollment forms for a fall 2001 Bridge course offered by Cypress College.

Other parents and students also told the Register that coaches coerced them into enrolling in the classes.

Although they did not attend a single class, the Carl brothers received A's from Cypress for the Bridge course.

The Carl family has filed a fraud and harassment suit against Fullerton Union, the North Orange County Community College District, Posthuma and Fullerton Athletic Director Julian Smilowitz. Posthuma and Smilowitz have denied any wrongdoing.

State investigators did not interview James and Nathan Carl. Black said investigators interviewed approximately a dozen Orange County high school coaches.

Black said the investigation was also based on documents provided by the community college district and interviews with district employees. Orange County high school districts declined to make their administrators available to chancellor's office investigators, citing pending litigation, Black said.

The chancellor's office could recover the $900,000 by as early as next month and no later than June, Black said.

Hunter said the reductions will not affect current programs at the colleges.

"We will take it from contingency funds," Hunter said. The district is amending some of its enrollment reports to the state, in the wake of the audit.

"We are not admitting culpability on anything," Hunter said, while adding that recently passed legislation spurred by the Register investigation "has probably clarified any procedures under which concurrent enrollment programs are to operate. I think that will be helpful to us in the future."

THE INVESTIGATION
In December 2002, The Orange County Register found that California community colleges received at least $56 million in state funding for offering classes to high school athletes who received college credit for participating in their normal team practices.
Hunter also refused to release full results of the state audit, citing the same litigation. He said district officials cooperated with investigators.