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# School district draws line in sand
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/school-district-draws-line-in-sand/
- Published: 2002-01-24T16:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-22T23:58:39.000Z
- Author: Andrew Fixmer
- Tags: Education, Malibu, #archive-import

*Superintendent sets strict criteria for reducing class sizes*

Officials plan to stop allowing non-resident children to enroll in Santa Monica Malibu Unified schools for at least one year.

Under a plan unveiled by school superintendent John Deasy at last week’s school board meeting, only non-resident employees of the school district, as well as Malibu and Santa Monica residents, will be allowed to enroll their children in the district.

Otherwise, no new permits will be issued to children residing outside city limits, stemming roughly 300-400 students per year. Children with current permits and their siblings who have not yet reached school age will be allowed to stay.

Five years ago the school district was under-funded and unable to cope with the financial weight of educating its students. So in its effort to raise money, the school board allowed many out-of-district students to enroll in Santa Monica. With the increased enrollment came extra money from the state.

Currently, out-of-district children make up 21 percent of the entire student body, bringing in more than $12 million in state funding. If the school district trims 300 of those students in the first year, it will lose an estimated $1.4 million.

“Unless there are substantial sums of money — and I want to emphasize substantial — to offset the money we get (from the state) this will only be a desirable policy that cannot be achieved,” Deasy said. “We must use the first year to find new funding sources to continue keeping class sizes low in future years.”

School officials said about 45 percent of the non-resident student body is from city or school district employees.

School board member Jose Escarce said while the remaining 55 percent “have no obvious connection to the school district, they are reflective of years of a liberal permit policy.”

“More permanent and lasting permit policies can be put in place in one year from now, but for now this moratorium would give us some breathing room to make some lasting decisions,” he said.

The teacher’s union president said the current overcrowding problem was a direct result of the school district’s desire to have more money.

“The policy that is wrongly in place regarding permits has brought us to this situation,” said Harry Keiley, president of the Santa Monica Malibu Classroom Teachers Association. “The net result has been increased revenue for the school district but it over crowded classrooms and forced teachers to share classroom space.”

Late in the discussion, some school board members DISTRICT, from page 1 were leaning toward weakening the proposal to allow more permits, but Deasy stood firm saying the financial and academic health of the school district depended on lowering class sizes.

“It feels very difficult to talk about some of these (permit cuts). On the other hand, I have to say we do not have the money to continue running the system as it is,” he said. “So I want to be very clear on that issue. We have systematically increased permits to bring in revenue into a system that can’t support it.”

> “It feels very difficult to talk about some of these (permit cuts). On the other hand, I have to say we do not have the money to continue running the system as it is.” — — JOHN DEASY SMMUSD superintendent

Schools feeling the greatest impact from increased enrollment are Santa Monica High School, John Adams and Lincoln middle schools, and Franklin and Juan Cabrillo elementary schools.

Parents of permit students warned against eliminating their children from the school district entirely, and pressed Deasy for assurances that the proposed permit policy would not be made any stricter.

“I am a permit parent. My children are permit students. We are a permit family,” said Jeff Condon, a Westwood resident with a Santa Monica law practice. “Your proposed policy is disturbing to me because my children have been invited to the dance — so to speak — by you, but now you feel that you wish to change your mind based on some vague measurement system.”

Condon said he understands the need to lower class sizes and his children would be eligible to remain in Santa Monica schools.

“But I still feel compelled to make the point that it would be patently unfair to break up a family in the school arena,” he said. “I know life is generally unfair, but we have an expectation that people will act rationally” and allow our children to remain together in Santa Monica.

Administrators will write up the proposed classroom reduction plan into a policy. It will be presented to the school board for ratification in late February. Deasy said there was some urgency to enact the plan before the district began working on next year’s budget.

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on January 24, 2002.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/012402.pdf?ref=smdp.com)