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# SM schools are maxed, but ready to reopen
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/sm-schools-are-maxed-but-ready-to-reopen/
- Published: 2003-09-02T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T02:51:04.000Z
- Author: John Wood
- Tags: Education, Malibu, #archive-import

*Enrollment is up, services are down*

Nearly 13,000 local students will shuffle back to class on Wednesday.

All 18 of the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District’s campuses open for the first day of school this week, with no space to spare.

“We don’t have a single open classroom in the district,” said School Superintendent John Deasy.

Deasy said more than 70 new teachers and staff members were hired for the 2003-2004 school year and enrollment is expected to increase by 50 to 75 students.

“We are definitely ready to open,” said Deasy on Labor Day, which he spent dealing with last-minute details for the coming school year.

A jump in districtwide test scores and the redesign of Santa Monica High School into six small campuses has given momentum to the back-to-school push, Deasy added.

Results from the May statewide tests in math and English were returned to the district last week. Deasy said they show the district is way above the state average and the results greatly improved over last year.

5D3,A complete report will be given to the SMMUSD School Board in October.

Deasy said the results show the district surpassing the statewide target in some categories by 300 or 400 percent. The most dramatic gains were by African American and Latino students, and were focused mostly in the district’s elementary schools, Deasy added.

Samohi is expected to experience a significant boost this year because of the recently completed redesign process, which separates the school’s 3,400 students into six campuses. Each of the six campuses — which are named “S” “A” “M” “O” “H” and “I” — has its own principal, two advisors, a teacher leader and about 600 students.

“It’s coming together nicely,” said associate principal Mark Kelly, who spent Labor Day straightening out complexities in student scheduling. Kelly said many of the lowerclassmen will have all of their classes in their respective houses, while administrators will work towards achieving that same goal for upperclassmen next year.

Under the plan, which is geared towards giving teachers more one-on-one time with students, the entire school will share athletic, music, theater and other non-academic programs.

One of the key tasks facing the school district in the coming year is figuring out how to handle an expected multi-million dollar state shortfall or the 2004-2005 year. Much of the money needed for 2003-2004 was raised through a local parcel tax and extra cash contributions from the cities of Malibu and Santa Monica.

City Councilman Ken Genser said he would like to make City Hall’s one-time contribution an ongoing source of revenue but City Hall has some serious problems of its own.

“It’s going to be difficult,” he said. “We’re going to have additional cuts to make next year.”

There are about 800 teachers and certificated workers, like special education workers, psychologists, and speech therapists, in the district. That number has stayed about the same over the past three years, with new teachers being hired only when others retire or take a leave of absence.

Programs and classes were kept at last year’s levels, despite the historic shortfall in state funding. But funding for supplies, and maintenance, custodial, office and other workers was cut earlier this year to meet the budget shortfall.

“There are a lot of services that aren’t going to be there,” Deasy said, adding that students will be more seriously hurt if those services aren’t quickly restored.

> “There are a lot of services that aren’t going to be there.” — — JOHN DEASY Superintendent of schools

John Deasy

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on September 2, 2003.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/090203.pdf?ref=smdp.com)