By Tricia Crane Former chair, Special Education District Advisory Committee
I write this letter in response to your story (“Gag reflex: Former CFO can speak,” May 10). I support those City Council members who believe that the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District should conduct its business with transparency and accountability and who have called for the lifting of a gag order that was imposed on the district’s former chief financial officer, Winston Braham.
As a longtime supporter of schools and an active member of the school community, the aspect of this issue that concerns me most is the school district’s increased use of gag orders, which appear to go beyond the customary disparagement clauses.
Gag orders abound in the school district. Parents are being required to sign gag orders in order to secure educational services for their children with special needs. These gag orders preclude them from revealing or discussing the particulars and the cost of services provided. As a result, parents not only live in fear of losing services for their children through an inadvertent slip of the tongue, but we as a community also have no access to the financial records and no idea how many dollars are being spent as result of these agreements.
Last year, the Special Education District Advisory Committee asked the Board to investigate this practice. While the Board offered no response, a staff report appeared designed to cow the committee by referring to their reasonable request for public information as “derogatory and inflammatory.” The message seems to be “Concerned citizens go away. We don’t want your input or oversight.”
In light of this move toward insularity and secrecy, it is entirely appropriate for City Council members to be concerned about the school district’s financial practices and to require open access to what should be public information as a condition for increased city funding.
I very much want the district to receive this additional funding and it is my sincere hope that they will do everything they possibly can to create a more open and transparent environment, and thereby, earn the ongoing support and confidence of the council and the community at-large.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on May 12, 2007. Read the original PDF.