SMMUSD HDQTRS — Santa Monica public school students can expect to have much to look forward to this year, as City Hall and other groups help the district maintain high quality program-ming, officials say.
Students coming back to school this fall will also find they have a little more elbow room in their classes.
Officials from the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District say the 2004-05 school year is expected to have a slight decline in enrollment. While records show last year’s class had 12,400 students, this fall is expected to begin with 200 less.
District officials said they won’t know for sure until school is underway. Although enrollment does affect funding for next year’s budget, officials didn’t speculate what the impact would be until the number of students attending the SMMUSD is official.
Meanwhile, the district is going strong, despite financial setbacks within the last four years and a shaky economic forecast for the California public school system, said John Deasy, superintendent.
Last year, the district had its first surplus, with $1 million at its disposal.
However, Deasy, other school officials and parents are concerned that Proposition 76, if approved, will strip K-12 funding throughout the state and devastate public education in California.
Not taking any chances on the district’s financial future, the local public schools continue to be subsidized $6 million per year by City Hall, in order to maintain the high level of programming residents expect.
The SMMUSD approved five new programs last year intended to increase student engagement and tighten the achievement gap within Santa Monica schools, which will be going online soon.
The programs will offer students who are slipping academically a chance to re-engage with the school system by tutoring younger students for pay; having better access to counseling services to work through the college application process; and taking advantage of an improved liaison service intended to facilitate communication among students, parents and the schools.
Those who have left school will have the option of attending a new community day school as a way to Classes will be given the world re-enter the educational system.
In addition, the school district is seeking to put a uniform cultural-studies curriculum in place for all 9th and 10th grade students that is intended to foster their appreciation for diversity and broaden their perspectives.
The SMMUSD school board unanimously approved the programs, with some warning they might need to be tweaked to fit the cultural needs of students.
The district is hoping to begin piloting many of these programs this fall.
CULTURAL-STUDIES IMPROVEMENT All 9th and 10th grade students will be required to take a cultural-studies course that will span two years and be incorporated into current course loads.
The cultural-studies course, which will explore world history from a cultural perspective, is being developed by faculty and the administration. It will be an intensive course with the intent of enhancing students’ research and writing skills.
The course will culminate in 10th grade with a public project to be presented before a panel of experts familiar with the topic. The student will choose a topic having to do with current policy and events, research and explore it, and develop a policy solution to discuss with the experts.
School officials said the program will be developed through the summer and might begin in the fall.
A PAID TUTOR PROGRAM A nationally recognized tutoring program, in existence for 15 years, is to begin in Santa Monica in September.
The Value Youth program seeks to identify middle-school students who are becoming disengaged from the educational system and train them to become academic tutors for younger students.
The tutors will spend one hour a day, three days a week, assisting elementary-school students with reading.
Tutors will be matched with an adult mentor in the business community and be paid for their participation.
Hilary Rhodes, a doctorate fellow with the RAND Corp. who has helped the district coordinate the new program, said research shows the paid tutoring approach is effective in energizing middle-school students because it fosters a sense of value for tutors.
Nonetheless, some school board members approved the program on a note of caution, stressing the tutoring program needs to be tailored to local needs to be effective.
Deasy said the program will cost $45,000 to $50,000 to pilot this fall at John Adams Middle School.
OTHER PROGRAMS ON THE WAY In an effort to address the needs of minority students in the Santa Monica school system, the school board also approved two new policies last year.
The first mandates that all students must be counseled about the college application process before high school graduation.
In addition to the college counseling service, the school board also approved restructuring its liaison service to help students and parents coordinate their participation within the school community.
The effort, intended as a response to minority parents who are having trouble navigating their children through the school system, allows for more minority representation among liaison staff, many of whom will be hired this summer during the restructuring process.
In another effort to tighten the student achievement gap, the school board has approved a community day school that will allow students to re-enter the educational system, to be held at Memorial Park.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on September 6, 2005. Read the original PDF.