Sheriff’s Liaison to Return at One School : Education: Supervisor Michael Antonovich allocates $55,000 to fund a counselor at Crescenta Valley High. Second deputy won’t return to Altadena, however.

LA CRESCENTA —  One of the two Crescenta Valley sheriff’s deputies whose assignments as counselors for troubled students were eliminated in budget-cutting this spring, will be returning to La Crescenta schools in the fall.

But the second deputy, who had been working in Altadena schools, will remain on patrol duty, said Capt. Michael Quinn, commander of the station.

After receiving nearly two dozen letters of protest from parents, students and school officials, Supervisor Michael Antonovich decided last week that he would use $55,000 of his discretionary money to fund the Crescenta Valley Regional Sheriff Station’s school liaison deputy program.

However, Antonovich only provided enough funding for one position. Quinn said he decided that there is a greater potential for trouble at Crescenta Valley High School in La Crescenta than at Altadena’s Eliot Middle School.

The school liaison deputy program--which began two years ago--had been touted as a crime prevention program to help keep potential delinquents out of trouble and in school. But Quinn said it was due to be eliminated as part of budget cuts now being made throughout the Sheriff’s Department.

That meant that two deputies who had spent their workdays counseling youths would return to regular patrol duties, Quinn said.

The news of the program’s elimination prompted an outcry from parents and school officials, who contacted the supervisor’s office to voice their concerns. Antonovich’s office subsequently agreed to pick up the tab to send one deputy back to school.

“A number of people cared a lot and wrote very good letters,” said Ollie Blanning, an assistant to the supervisor. “Letters are nice to show that what you believe works does work.”

The supervisor had already funded the La Crescenta position for the past two years on a trial basis, Blanning said. This year, though, the Sheriff’s Department was due to start covering the cost of the deputy position, Quinn said.

When the captain learned that he would have to cut the program, he said he appealed to Antonovich’s office to fund it for a third year.

Quinn said he hopes the Sheriff’s Department will still come up with funding for the Altadena position.