An influential California nonprofit group that trains student leaders and advocates students’ rights is near bankruptcy and scaling back its staff to stay afloat.
The California Association of Student Councils, which spent $615,319 in fiscal 2003, is currently $278,000 in the red, the group’s executive director, June Thompson, confirmed in an interview last week. It is also reeling from the loss of a $50,000 state grant, she said.
Based in Oakland, the largely student-run organization trains more than 3,000 students a year from all grade levels.
Help might be on the way, however. Following an article about the group’s plight that appeared Oct. 23 in the San Francisco Chronicle, the chief executive officer of a firm that specializes in turning around troubled corporations offered to help the group. A grant writer from the state department of education has also been assigned to do work in the group’s behalf.
