ADS COULD HELP FUND SCHOOLS; CORPORATE SPONSORS WEIGHED FOR CAMPUSES.

Byline: Charles F. Bostwick Daily News Staff Writer

A Nike swoosh painted on the gym wall at Antelope Valley High School? The Microsoft media center at Lancaster High? How about the Weyerhauser logo on district stationery or taped advertisements while on hold to the principal's office?

Antelope Valley Union High School District trustees are poised to open up local high schools to corporate sponsorships.

``We're talking about millions of dollars to supplement, not supplant, the district's revenue,'' board President Bill Olenick said after trustees voted unanimously last week to explore the idea. ``We need to build schools, we need to do so much, and we just don't have the money. The taxpayers expect us to provide a top-notch education to students and do it without new tax dollars.''

Jill Harris, the district grant writer and director of its education foundation, will survey the district's schools and report back to trustees July 16 on where possibilities exist for corporate sponsorships: athletic facilities, sporting events, libraries, computer centers and food services.

Trustees will decide if they believe any of the areas should be off-limits to advertising and sponsorships, Olenick said. Every specific proposal for sponsorship will be brought to the board for a vote.

``Good taste will be the key,'' Olenick said, adding that cigarette and alcohol advertisements are out.

Actually, corporate logos are already present in local high schools, Olenick said. But he says the companies are getting most of the benefit - not the schools.

Coca-Cola has an exclusive contract to provide soft drinks, which under the contract terms must be served in the distinctive red-and-white Coke cups, Olenick said. Nike provided Antelope Valley High School's basketball team with free jackets but didn't pay for the exposure the company gets.

``They're a walking billboard,'' Olenick said of the basketball players. ``They are worth a whole lot more than just the product.''

Education Week, a publication aimed at public school officials, reported this month that corporate sponsorships are becoming increasingly common and sophisticated as public school officials search for ways to raise money without raising taxes.

The publication detailed some examples:

In Grapevine, Texas, outside Dallas, a company can pay $1,000 to put its name on a 2-by-5-foot sign in a school gym and advertise daily on a school television station. For $4,000 more, it can hang more signs on outdoor stadiums and school buses.

For $15,000, a business can get recognition on the school district voice-mail system and paint a sign on a school roof, visible to passengers flying to the nearby Dallas-Fort Worth airport.

In Colorado Springs, Colo., schools began in 1994 offering advertising space in hallways, on school buses and on athletic fields. Burger King-sponsored ``spirit buses'' at the district's five high schools are painted with the mascot of each high school, along with a smaller Burger King logo.

In Arizona, the governor signed a bill that lets school districts sell advertising space on school buses, and a similar bill is under consideration in Tennessee. Measures to allow signs on buses failed in New York and New Mexico.

In Seattle, a citizens group convinced the school board against going forward with plans to accept advertisements on school property. After the board rescinded the plan, a survey of Seattle classrooms found that corporate logos were already there: on posters, computer mouse pads, calendars and book covers.

Education Week noted that advertising in schools is nothing new. Local businesses have long placed ads in yearbooks, student newspapers and athletic programs. Proponents say corporate sponsorships is a way to get money schools need without raising taxes.

But critics of corporate sponsorship, the publication noted, say young people are ``bombarded with advertising in malls, on streets and on television. Schools should offer a commercial-free (environment) . . . focused solely on academic learning, not corporate hype.''

Olenick acknowledges there will be criticism or ``a healthy debate,'' as he calls it, of the local proposal.

``I'm really proud of my colleagues on the board for having the guts to step forward and do something different,'' he said.

Harris said the sponsorships would involve well recognized, well-regarded national corporations, promoted in tasteful ways.

``All I can see is the positive end of it,'' she said. ``What can be negative about giving money for kids?''