At a Campbell Union School District board meeting on May 20, Superintendent Johanna VanderMolen proposed an extensive new program of summer youth activities.

Her proposal, a summer enrichment program, will include art programs, music classes, sports camps, day camps and field trips.

"And these are only initial thoughts," she said. "There'll be much, much more."

VanderMolen said she began formulating the summer enrichment-program concept when the Campbell Recreation Department decided to eliminate its Summer Music Camp in 2004.

The cutting of the program left a hole for children looking for a musical outlet during their three-month vacation.

"We already have a summer session for our children, a math camp and special-education programs," she said. "These are great, but they're not all the community wants, and they're not all that the community needs."

The music camp was originally a district-run program, but the city took over its administration four years ago, said Gwynneth Heil, assistant superintendent of educational planning and development.

"We used to be able to support the camp with monies from the state," Heil said. "We wanted to continue it, but we couldn't get any more state funding."

She said the school district approached the city to ask if it would be interested in overseeing the camp. Campbell agreed, and decided that although the camp would still be held in school-district facilities, it would be run by the Campbell Recreation Department.

Under the agreement, the city paid the district to use school facilities for the program. However, budgetary constraints led the city to cancel the music camp in March 2004.

The city began looking at the feasibility of the program in summer 2003, said Claudia Cauthorn, director of recreation and community services. It found that the camp had low attendance that year. Moreover, only about 30 percent of participants were Campbell-area residents, while about 70 percent were from as far away as Milpitas.

"We looked at the numbers of children in the camp and decided that it wasn't the best use of city resources," she said. "Our mission is to service Campbell residents."

In February 2004, the recreation department approached the school district to say that it was having trouble justifying the program and that it was looking for alternative ways to make it work, Cauthorn said. The city and the school district began talking to each other about how they could best continue the summer camp, exploring various ideas, including free-of-charge use to house the program in school facilities.

But the two sides were unable to come to an agreement.

"When the city called, we tried to analyze if we could make the summer camp happen," Heil said. "But we had construction going on at every one of our sites. We found that it wasn't cost-effective, and we couldn't pull it together."

With the camp canceled, Cauthorn said many of the would-be participants are signing up for a music camp held in the Cambrian School District.

VanderMolen said, however, that the Campbell Union School District still has an opportunity with her proposed program to continue enriching the lives of the district's schoolchildren. And at this stage in planning, the program appears to be cost neutral.

The school board approved further research into the program. If the program proposal is accepted, the enrichment program will be planned for implementation in summer 2005.