> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.smdp.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # City Council responds to drought Bridge faces rough waters Key Samohi summer program loses funding - URL: https://www.smdp.com/city-council-responds-to-drought-bridge-faces-rough-waters-key-samohi-summer-program-loses-funding/ - Published: 2008-06-12T15:00:00.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-24T19:53:40.000Z - Author: Guest Author - Tags: Education, Malibu, #archive-import *Decision raises questions of access, commitment and transparency* *By ALICE OLLSTEIN Special to the Daily Press* SAMOHI For years now, teachers at Santa Monica High School have noticed that diversity in the school’s advanced classes is rare. “It was impossible to ignore,”said English and social studies teacher Randy Denis. “When you looked at your honors and AP classes, students generally looked the same. That didn’t feel right. And since students have an equal capacity for intelligence, we knew that something was wrong with the system.” To address this, teachers worked with the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District to found the Bridge program, formerly called Access, seven years ago. The six-week summer program serves around 75 students, and until this year was taught by one English and one history teacher. The purpose: To help students underrepresented in honors and AP classes bridge in to the advanced track. Educators recommend students who show potential but lack certain skills or opportunities, knowing that advanced placement classes are needed for success in higher education and the workplace. “Six weeks is a short time,” said Denis. “We don’t have any illusions that you can turn someone around completely in six weeks. But it’s a recognition of a student’s potential and a chance to give them the foot in the door.” This year, the Bridge program had its funding cut in half by the school board, meaning that only one teacher, Denis, could be hired for this coming summer and the program could only accept half the number of students. When several teachers and administrators complained via e-mail to Samohi Principal Hugo Pedroza, he announced that he would “restore”the funding. Pedroza later explained that the money will come from a state fund for “intervention” — usually used for students in danger of failing high school or the California High School Exit Exam. Since the school only gets 5 percent of enrollment money for all programs outside the school day, including early morning and remedial classes, this money often runs dry before summer. The situation is exacerbated by the school’s existing $150,000 deficit and the state’s reimbursement rate of only 70 percent, Pedroza said. Summer school principal Leslie Wells explained that the program can now accept the same number of students, but that they won’t have the benefit of two teachers working collaboratively. Pedroza feels that this is a reasonable change. “You’re paying two teachers for what you’d normally pay only one,” he said. “I understand that they’re Bridge students and deserve special attention, but if the normal student-teacher ratio is 30 to 1, why should they get a 15 to 1 ratio? It’s got to be fair across the board.” Students who have taken the Bridge program, disagree citing the importance of a two-teacher team. “I got two points of view and two different opinions on my papers,” said junior AP student Jessica Soltan. “Because of this, my writing became a lot more clear.” Junior AP student Mark Garcia explained that having two teachers with two areas of expertise made it possible to split up the class to focus on students’ various needs. Those at the district level defended their choice, noting this year’s statewide budget crisis. “Unfortunately we don’t have the full funding for everything at the level we want, but we are committed to the program,” said school board President Oscar de la Torre. “We are uncertain as to what the state budget will look like, but we do know that our teachers are not planning to strike like in LAUSD and we’re not laying off 200 teachers like they did in Inglewood,” de la Torre said. “As bad as the state budget looks in terms of education funding, one thing we can say is that Santa Monica is not in the terrible situation that many school districts are in.” Others blamed bureaucracy, high turnover and miscommunication at all levels for the program’s rocky condition. Some, however, feel that the issue is not money, but commitment. “Every summer up until this one, the district stepped up to fund the program because they saw it as important,” Denis said. “There’s always a money shortage, and summer is always tight, but up until this year, someone’s always found the money to make the class happen in its full capacity.” English teacher Pete Barraza team-taught the Bridge program in previous years but could not be hired for this summer. He too questions the district’s commitment. “If you make it a point to have a school-wide or district-wide philosophy and mission to increase access for equity, then there should never be a question of whether to fund the program or not,” he said. Denis feels that although SMMUSD has good programs in place, it lacks a strong, united effort to address the issue of access. “It’s been very piecemeal,” he said. “There are programs over here and over there, but there’s been no one at the district level on this, aware of it, pushing it along.” Wells disagreed. “The fact that we even offer summer classes like this show that we are trying to help students,” she said. Though the summer program helps build academic skills and prepare students for the social challenges of an advanced class, no funding is available to check up on these students once the school year has begun. The lack of data on how many students drop the honors classes, or how many continue on the advanced track, make it difficult to analyze the overall success of the program. Denis joked that he would “love a graduate student with lots of free time” to collect and process such information. “It’s hard to carry out support after the summer with nothing in place,” said Barraza. “We have supportive teachers doing what they can, but that’s where it ends.” To help the Bridge students feel more secure in staying in an honors class, I House Principal Eva Mayoral annually schedules them in “cohorts” so they have a support group of friends from the program. Other ideas include incorporating a chemistry course into the Bridge program, as minorities are even more noticeably underrepresented in the sciences. All plans, however, will depend on the murky financial future, regardless of near unanimous recognition of the program’s importance. “People think of this program as just a way of helping the underrepresented students, but all students benefit when you diversify an honors class,” Denis said.“When a class is strictly one group, it’s not a complete class.” ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/55/9f/559f9abc-8372-4a2e-8c2d-27386da4e363/content/images/2026/10/061208-05_01.jpg) (Photo: BY ALICE OLLSTEIN Special to the Daily Press) *Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on June 12, 2008.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/061208.pdf?ref=smdp.com)