LA-area schools seek movie productions to earn extra bucks as state dollars dry up

Cash-hungry LA schools seek movie shoots on campus

LOS ANGELES — In an era of yawning budget deficits and teacher layoffs, schools in the Los Angeles area are looking at a nontraditional source for some extra cash — Hollywood.

School districts from Lawndale to Glendale are seeking to earn thousands of dollars a day from renting their campuses as locations for movies, TV shows, commercials and even truck parking.

The money is being used to save teachers’ jobs, upgrade school facilities and replenish districts’ dwindling funds.

Officials at FilmLA, the Los Angeles film promotion nonprofit, say they’ve had a flurry of inquiries from cash-strapped districts in recent months asking how they can market themselves to production companies, but not all schools allow movie shoots because the campus can be disrupted.