HAYWARD — Things just haven't been the same at Hedco House since budget cuts took its teachers away.

There's still a dedicated staff, and they're still helping mentally ill adults along a path toward integration with society.

There's counseling to keep people on the right track, and group meetings to help identify triggers and warning signs. There are social skills classes and hands-on work to be learned in the kitchen and around the house and garden.

But in June, services for adults took a big hit in the Hayward Unified School District budget, and funding for five Hayward Adult School teachers who split 50 hours a week at Hedco was eliminated, leaving staff with no choice but to cut the educational programs at the facility.

"All of our funds are tied to rehabilitation," said Grace Oakes, director of Hedco. "Education is excluded from the (government) funding we get."

That means it can't offer computer classes, or courses promoting health and nutrition. Job skills classes, such as resume writing, are gone, as are mathematics and reading — staples for those who were seeking a GED.

"You need (a GED) for a job," said Oakes. "It's so important, and a lot of people aren't comfortable taking those classes at an adult school."

She said paid classes are prohibitive when you live on a monthly $650 check. Moreover, the atmosphere in those classes is not right for Hedco clients, some of whom are afflicted with

schizophrenia or are bipolar.

"They can get paranoid, insecure," Oakes said. "They have been treated poorly by society — there's a stigma attached to mental illness, and there's discrimination."

It's an accessibility issue, she said. If they feel comfortable, they will learn. But when afflicted with a thought disorder, a classroom of strangers can be a terrifying prospect.

"Not everyone is willing or able to do that," said Carrie Rose, who has been in the program since March 2007.

"It can be too much — people will get stressed out and not do it anymore. ... People will not put themselves in that position. We all take baby steps. Our baby steps just take a little longer to go from step one to step two."

Jan Peterson, who taught at Hedco for 20 years, said the educational component of the program is crucial in terms of helping clients take those steps.

"We all know what happens if you don't have education in your life," she said. "You are not going to be able to achieve. The educational component makes people realize that all is not lost — there is hope and you can achieve and you can learn."

Hedco is part of the Bay Area Community Services group, which has similar facilities in Alameda, Fremont, Oakland and Pleasanton. All but Alameda have partnerships with the city school district to get teacher support, and all were hit hard by cuts, Oakes said.

"But we're the only one that completely lost all our funding," she said. "We were cut by 100 percent."

Oakes and Peterson both fear that means it will be very difficult to get the teachers back.

"We all know that once you cut a program completely, it's gone," Peterson said. "Out of sight, out of mind."

At the Oct. 14 school board meeting, trustees heard a presentation on the cost of funding Hedco, which cost $135,000 per year.

Board member Luis Reynoso made a motion to bring the matter to a vote at a meeting later this month, possibly returning at least a portion of the funding.

"I think it's reasonable — they're not asking for much," he said. "If we don't (fund the program), we're saying it's all over."

Trustee Paul Frumkin said he did not want to get into a process that would pit various interests against each other — earlier the same meeting, people from HAS independent study classes, Saturday classes and the school's Learning Center made impassioned pleas for funding. The Sorensdale Recreation Center for the Disabled also has seen support slashed.

Frumkin said returning funding to Hedco would necessitate cuts elsewhere, and the district's primary concern is K-12 education.

He said he understands that the population served by Hedco is vulnerable, but he noted that some children in the district are in a similar position.

"A kindergartner not ready to read is fragile," he said. "A high schooler who doesn't have access to a counselor is also one of the most fragile."

Oakes said she appreciates that, but there's a key difference in terms of the support they receive.

"You can say that K-through-12 students are fragile," Oakes said, "but frankly, they have parents. Folks here, well, we're the only ones advocating for them."