By Allen Nelson Santa Monica
The recent debate over how to spend the $268 million of BB funds has obscured the big picture vision of the ambitious Facilities Master Plan (FMP) that is a well thought out document — actually many individual documents, one for each school — outlining changes that need to be made to each campus and an estimated cost to do so. The plan could take two decades to implement. This information is available at ourschool-plan.com.
Unfortunately, there is no quick, easy to read summary showing the total cost of the FMP. However, if you review each proposed project and add the estimated costs of all projects together you come up with a price tag of $480 million. Putting an actual dollar amount on such a multi-decade project is difficult since present value dollars do not equate to future value dollars which take inflation and the like into account. Superintendent Dianne Talarico has recently suggested in your paper that the total amount may be over $1 billion dollars, which I assume is future value dollars.
In any case, the cost to transform the Santa Monica Malibu Unified School District into the FMP vision will require much more than the $268 million the district currently has to spend. The community will need to step-up and vote for more funds in the future. The willingness to do so will depend on two things occurring: 1.) A clear understanding of how more money will benefit the community; 2.) Evidence that the district is able to wisely spend and make a significant impact with BB funds.
Point 1 is not always easy to make to a community. However, most times citizens, even those without children, have been willing to support school bond measures since they understand that a strong school district brings many tangible and intangible benefits to their city.
Point 2 provides a great opportunity, but also a potential pitfall, to the district’s effort in convincing the community to support future school financing. If the community — both those with children as well as those without — believe BB monies are being spent wisely and showing results, they will be willing to step-up to the plate again. If results are not dramatically shown, future funding measures may be in jeopardy. The operative word is “show.”
My simple premise is that people believe what they can see and that people appreciate quality. Santa Monica High School is the most visible school and the heart of the district. Nearly 80 percent of district students eventually attend the school and probably 99 percent of Santa Monica and Malibu residents pass by it at least several times a year. Remodeling Samohi so it rivals and compliments the state-of-the-art parking structure and new city buildings directly across from it would cause the community to buzz about how positive things are being done by the district. SMMUSD would be able to point to a strong, prominent example showing what can be done with more funding. A beautiful Samohi project would lead to an energized, engaged, excited citizenry willing to fund the FMP vision to completion. Voting more money to Samohi by the School Board last Thursday was not only the right thing to do because of the compelling needs of Samohi, it also was the smart thing to do to help ensure future funding by the community. It remains to be seen whether the initial $57 million that was allocated is enough since the FMP envisions about $112 million needed for Samohi.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on November 5, 2007. Read the original PDF.