SAN PABLO - Education advocate Scottie Smith said she doesn't know if she can walk 70 miles from San Pablo to Sacramento, but she is willing to try.

Smith and about 28 West Contra Costa school district parents, teachers and activists plan to make the 70-mile trek to the state Capitol starting Friday to demand more state money for the district and forgiveness of a 1991 state loan.

The group is asking others to join them on their symbolic march to draw attention, not only to their beleaguered school district, but also to the dismal state of education in California.

The route will take them through Vallejo, whose school district recently asked the state for a bailout loan.

Smith said that once the marchers reach the Capitol about 1 p.m. April 16, they hope to meet with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

"We hope he sees the importance to meet with the community and sit with our delegation," Smith said.

Robert Oakes, press secretary for Sen. Tom Torlakson, D-Antioch, said the senator hopes Schwarzenegger hears the group's plight.

"He's a strong supporter of bringing this message to the Capitol," Oakes said of Torlakson, who plans to join the marchers about two hours outside Sacramento.

Torlakson was one of four East Bay legislators who wrote Schwarzenegger last month asking him to help the West Contra Costa school district refinance the outstanding balance of a state loan that rescued the district from bankruptcy 12 years ago.

Sarah Creeley, a Hanna Ranch Elementary School teacher, said the idea of the march was born in a grass-roots movement after the school board approved $16.5 million in cuts, eliminating athletics, libraries, elementary music and 201 positions last month.

Since then, a core group of people, including Creeley, Smith, Downer Elementary School teachers Michael McDonald and Thomas Prather, and activist Cesar Cruz, have spread word about the march.

So far, Smith said the group has raised about $600 to rent vans needed to carry first aid kits, food and water. In addition, the vans will transport people who can only commit to walking a certain number of miles.

The group will begin the trek at 4 p.m. Friday outside Downer Elementary School. The eight-day march will take place during the district's spring break, and therefore will not hurt the school district financially if students wish to participate, Creeley said.

Downer student Kenneth Saechao, 10, plans to join the march.

"Let's go tell the governor that we are going to fight for our schools," Kenneth said at a rally outside a recent school board meeting.

On the first day of the march, which falls on Good Friday, the group will walk along San Pablo Avenue through Richmond, Tara Hills and Pinole, where they will spend the night at the Pinole United Methodist Church.

Creeley said marchers will walk an average of about 12 miles per day.

The group will spend nights at churches in Fairfield, Dixon, Davis and West Sacramento. They plan to stay in Vacaville on the fourth day, but haven't found a church yet to put them up for the night.

"One of the most important messages of the march is that we have to take care of our kids' education and no libraries, and no counselors is no kind of education," Creeley said. "This is for the children and making change and making children a priority."

San Pablo City Council members Genoveva Garcia Calloway and Paul Morris, school board members Glen Price and George Harris III, the Richmond Progressive Alliance, the Hercules NAACP, and the Education Not Incarceration Coalition are among the officials and groups endorsing the march.

Reach Ana Facio Contreras at 510-262-2798 or acontreras@cctimes.com