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# School District digs another fiscal hole
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/school-district-digs-another-fiscal-hole-2/
- Published: 2006-11-27T16:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-25T01:17:23.000Z
- Author: Bill Bauer
- Tags: Opinion, Malibu, #archive-import

I’ve taken a lot of heat for my criticism of the incompetent way Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District finances have been handled over the years.

What should we make of the revelation that, once again, the district has committed money it doesn’t have for teacher pay raises, hasn’t a clue on how to fix the problem and buried the bad news until after the election?

According to the Daily Press, (Nov. 20, 2006, Page 1) “The school board reached a tentative agreement for a 5-percent pay raise effective with the Santa Monica-Malibu Classroom Teachers Association on Oct.16.”But,it appears that neither school board members, district bureaucrats or the union were concerned about whether there was enough money -- $7 million over three years — to pay for it.

New Superintendent Dianne Talarico signed a document certifying the district’s ability to meet the costs of the agreement (without the certification of Winston Braham, the district’s chief business officer) submitted to the L.A. County Office of Education on Oct. 18.

The district’s latest spending faux pas finally became public at a District Financial Oversight Committee meeting on Nov. 14, two days before the school board meeting.The FOC was concerned that an agreement had been reached without the money to cover the expense.

Amazingly, SMMUSD bureaucrats and board members still haven’t learned the importance of a balanced budget. Five years ago, The Santa Monica Mirror reported that the district faced a nearly identical crisis. RAND Executive Vice President and then- FOC chair Michael Rich told the school board on March 12, 2001,“Over the last 20 months, the financial crisis has become a crisis of competency and credibility, requiring fundamental reforms of serious systemic problems.”

Rich added, “These systemic problems trigger cyclical budget crisis because the district continues to approve such items as teacher salary increases though the budget does ‘not have enough allowance for the salary increases,’ and because little money is held in reserve.”

Almost six years later, those running the district are still overspending, endangering education and public support for schools. Apparently, there’s no will to budget for salary increases or operate in a fiscally responsible manner.

The district lurches from crisis to crisis and struggles with debt. Fixes required as a result of ongoing mismanagement come from our pockets through unnecessary parcel tax measures and annual multimillion dollar bailouts by the city.

Worse yet, a pre-election “conspiracy of silence” ensured this scandal wouldn’t cost school board incumbents Shane McCloud, Oscar de la Torre and Emily Bloomfield votes. The “hush-up” also protected board member Julia Brownley, who was running for the 41st Assembly District, as well as Measure BB — the $268-million school bond proposal — from voter backlash.

In a surfsantamonica.com interview, outgoing board member, McCloud said politics were also involved: “McCloud noted that the teacher’s union did not throw its weight behind Prop BB until the tentative agreement was reached three weeks before the Nov. 7 election.”

Two weeks ago, the school board delayed official ratification of the new contract until January to buy time to develop a scheme to deal with the $7 million deficit. All board members except for McCloud expressed confidence that funds would be found. The tooth fairy?

Who’s going to pay the piper? Suggestions such as cutting programs and school supplies or delaying class size reductions will only make up a small part of the deficit. Reserves are inadequate. Wanna bet that school supporters will beg City Council for another bailout? Or, they’ll ask us again to ante up for their own fiscal incompetence with a new or increased parcel tax bailout?

Things could get worse. How about SMMCTA president, Harry Keiley suggesting that the proposed three-year salary increase might not be enough and that teachers “may want more?”

I agree with former District Oversight Committee member Chris Harding, who recently wrote on surfsantamonica.com, “The District simply cannot afford to substantially increase spending -- even for the laudable goal of raising teacher salaries -- and then scramble after the fact to find additional revenue and/or cut programs for our students. Such an approach will, in the long run if not immediately, undercut rather than serve our shared goal of providing educational excellence for all of our district’s students while fairly compensating our teachers.”

Amen. But, will “they” ever learn?

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on November 27, 2006.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/112706.pdf?ref=smdp.com)