By MY WRITE BY BILL BAUER
It’s too bad that there was only one day’s notice of the school district’s public forum held Tuesday, April 25, that was in regards to what parents and the public want from the new public school superintendent.
The Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District is searching for a replacement for schools superintendent John Deasy, who resigned a couple months ago to accept a position at a school district in Maryland. Deasy had been here for five years.
In hopes that the school board doesn’t make the same mistakes again that they made by hiring Deasy, here’s my two cents worth.
In April, 2002, a Cesar Chavez Day celebration at Santa Monica High School, organized in part by Oscar de la Torre — who was not on the school board at the time — and approved by Deasy, turned into a labor march from Samohi’s campus to the nearby Doubletree Hotel — the target of a bitter Hotel Employee and Restaurant Employee (HERE) organizing drive.
Joining the demonstration were a number of HERE outsiders, high school and district administrators and Deasy. School board members Julia Brownley and Maria Leon-Vasquez also participated in the rally designed to force Doubletree management into signing a union contract.
Using public school facilities for a labor action against a private business offended many school supporters and business interests. I guess it never occurred to Deasy, Brownley or Leon- Vasquez how much their actions threatened good will and financial support from key benefactors. It’s a classic case of personal ideology eclipsing their fiduciary responsibility to education.
In Deasy’s case, taking sides in a non-school, labor dispute was an example of how lacking he was in public relations skills.
Just two weeks after this faux pas and after purchasing a $900,000-plus condo near Montana Avenue, Deasy asked the school board for a loan. School members agreed until they found out that the loan was illegal. So instead, they gave him an $85,785 advance on earnings.
When that story broke in the now defunct Ocean Park Gazette, an angry Deasy called OPG publisher Carolanne Sudderth and told her his finances were “nobody’s business but his own.” Sudderth replied that “borrowing” money from the school board made them everyone’s business.
Then, there’s the “Deasy Tax.” Approved by the school board in 2004, it dictates that 15 percent of personal donations to all schools must be set aside and used to support schools underserved by donations.
I know of one clothing company whose semi-annual factory yard sales helped raise $2,000 and $4,000 a year for John Adam’s Middle School’s music program. When the company learned that money from its sales was going into a “slush fund,” they moved their sale to a Culver City school.
Then, there was the controversy about Olympic High School when a former principal spoke out about secret plans to close the school — which Deasy heatedly denied. About the same time, a Samohi staff member told me that Deasy was livid when he found out that a small outside grant had been applied for to support an unbudgeted student activity.
What is Deasy’s legacy after five short years here? 1) A lot of unfinished business; (2) The division of Samohi into six “houses” with more overhead and little improvement in student learning; (3) Increased racial tension at Samohi; (4) Serious learning inequities that are still unaddressed and (5) Further increases in an already top-heavy administrative overhead with a number of new positions — all in the $120,000-plus annual salary range.
Numerous parents I’ve talked to are concerned about a lack of discipline in the classrooms and the unwillingness of teachers or staff to control it.
“It makes for an impossible learning situation,” said one middle school parent, who asked to remain anonymous in fear of reprisals being directed at his daughter.
If I were on the school board, I would-n’t hire someone strictly for their left-leaning political philosophy as seemed to be the case with Deasy. Rather, I’d hire an educator and an efficient administrator.
We need a superintendent who is a common sense disciplinarian who can work towards building order and racial harmony. Someone who’ll reign in a profligate budget and improve the learning process.
Lastly, hire a superintendent with a long-term commitment to our children, not a boomer who sees our schools as a stepping stone to more lucrative positions, elsewhere. (Bill Bauer is a longtime Santa Monica resident.)
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on May 1, 2006. Read the original PDF.