TheBakersfieldCalifornian.com

A Panama-Buena Vista Union School District mom is urging parents to keep their kids out of school Friday to protest the district's March decision to end the eighth-grade graduation ceremony.

Parent Jill Carroll hopes the financial drain will force school board members to respond to parent concerns about dropping the $25,000 event to help bridge a $3.5 million budget shortfall.

"Just keep them home from school and don't excuse the absence because if you excuse the absence the district gets the money," Carroll said.

She said she and other parents are spreading the news of the Friday walkout with a grassroots phone campaign. They are asking their children to collect phone numbers of their friends' parents, she said.

The move would cost the district $44.90 per student.

It would also cost each student an unexcused absence, one of only three each student can accrue before being declared truant, said Panama Buena-Vista Assistant Superintendent of Educational Services Gerrie Kincaid.

There are 1,870 eighth-graders in Panama-Buena Vista schools.

If only 200 students disappeared for a day it would cost the district $8,980 -- more than a third of the money needed to conduct the eighth-grade graduation.

"Doing something that reduces funding is not going to solve a problem that is a result of funding," Kincaid said.

Carroll said something needs to be done to make district leaders pay attention to parents. Hitting them in the pocket book, she argues, will make an impact.

"I attended the board of directors meeting," Carroll said. "I felt that there was no response from them and this is the only way to get them to take notice."

Kincaid said the board, and district leaders, are noticing. Right now, however, that response is behind the scenes.

Parent Deborah Corley said she hadn't heard of Carroll's plan.

"I'm not going to do it on the 3rd. But I agree with it," she said. "I told my son, it's like a sit-in. When you believe in something and you're not being given fair consideration, you do like they did in the old days."

Kincaid said the district is trying to listen to parents.

"Every call that came to my office -- I returned every call," she said. "I've talked to more than 50 parents," including Carroll.

Carroll said she doesn't feel the district has responded to the concerns she and other parents raised.

"We want this graduation. I've spoken to a lot of parents who are willing to fund-raise," she said.

The board, Kincaid said, is considering all the options being presented by parents like Carroll.

One of the options under consideration -- using the Brighthouse Amphitheatre at the Park at River Walk to host the ceremony -- was presented by Carroll, Kincaid said.

Carroll said she is willing to call off her student walkout if the district starts communicating.

"We're just trying to establish a dialogue," she said.