LYNWOOD — Fourteen graduating seniors from Firebaugh High School will receive $150 scholarships after a 3-2 vote by the City Council Tuesday.

The students had reportedly been promised $300 scholarships by their prinicipal but the funds for the grants could not be located at the school.

The principal, Jonas Silverio, was placed on administrative leave by the school board in May and ultimately resigned.

The seniors will receive their high school diplomas Friday at the school’s first-ever graduation ceremony.

Mayor Pro Tem Aide Castro brought the scholarship issue to the City Council’s attention. Castro works for the school district as a community liaison.

In an interview Wednesday, Castro said Firebaugh acting Prinicipal Cheri Tuinstra approached her about the scholarships, which she said had been promised to the 14 students, who are part of the school’s athletic program.

Tuinstra, was not aware of the scholarship crisis until last week, Castro said.

Castro said she brought it to the attention of the City Council, because when she found out about the crisis it was too late of a notice to raise the funds for the students or to look for sponsors.

She said she held a fundraiser recently to present two $500 scholarships to Lynwood High School students, but had she known about the Firebaugh crisis, she would have sought more financial donations.

Council members every year are allotted a $10,000 discretionary account in order to purchase pens, business cards, stationery, Christmas cards, or other items.

At first Castro did not have the full support of council members regarding the scholarships, but after getting the green light from the city manager to use her discretionary account funds for the scholarships, Castro was supported by Mayor Maria Santillan and Councilman Alfredo Flores.

Councilmen Ramon Rodriguez and Jim Morton voted against the item.

Castro said she made sure she brought the matter to her colleagues in the most appropriate manner possible.

“I don’t see anything wrong with this,” Castro said. “These kids were promised these scholarships. Maybe I couldn’t give them the entire $300, but I was able to give them half. My whole thing, is that these kids shouldn’t be punished by mistakes adults make.”

The school district itself recently handed out three $1,500 scholarships; one to a graduating senior at Firebaugh, and two to Lynwood High School seniors.

“We needed a quick and to the point solution to fix this,” Castro said. The funds are allotted to council members to use at their own discretion, Castro said, but “in my opinion, these funds should go back to the community … to me if we have that money, it’s to give back to the community, that’s how I see it.”

The Councilwoman said she didn’t want to turn the whole issue into a political thing or to blow it out of proportion, but rather, it should shine a light on the graduating seniors who were selected to receive the scholarships by maintaining a 3.0 average throughout all four years at Firebaugh.

“The kids are happy and that’s what matters,” Castro said. She said she didn’t see the students’ applications, but met all 14 students at a scholarship breakfast held at Firebaugh Wednesday in their honor.

Councilman Rodriguez said that he could not support the item saying that approving it would open a Pandora’s box.

“It’s not a large amount of money, but what is going to happen when the other high school comes to the City Council and asks for scholarships. Are we going to deny them? No, we won’t be able to,” Rodriguez said. “To me, council member’s discretionary accounts are still the public’s money. It is not our personal money, it is the public’s money, and the public should decide where that money goes, not us. But that is just my opinion.”

Rodriguez said there is enough division already between the two high schools and approving the item could be looked at by students at Lynwood High School as a form of favoritism. “All students in this district deserve the same opportunity to apply for the same scholarships, but that didn’t happen in this case,” he said.

Mayor Santillan said she agreed with Rodriguez on the matter, but also agreed that the 14 students shouldn’t have to suffer for someone else dropping the ball.

“Ms. Castro told me that the principal had already promised these kids the scholarships, and that now they weren’t going to get it,” Santillan said. “If she had not volunteered using her own discretionary account, I would not have supported it. We just had to lay off four employees, and are operating on a very lean budget, so something like this — when only one group of students in the city are going to get scholarships, and the other isn’t — I wouldn’t have supported it either.”

At the same time, Santillan said, it is not fair for students to have done all they were required to do to win these scholarships, and then graduate empty-handed.

Still, the mayor said, that a process like this, in the future should be done fairly.

“If 14 students at Firebaugh are going to get scholarships from the city, then 14 students from Lynwood High School should also receive them,” she said.