Council listens to testimony before passing city budget
By Daily Press staff
Hundreds marched on City Hall Tuesday night, demanding that elected leaders shell out millions of dollars to free the school district from its financial woes.
“This is the beginning of a movement to restore our funds for public education,” said rock ‘n roll singer Jackson Browne, who has a 12-year-old son that attends John Adams Middle School. “Many of us live here because the public schools are so good.”
The Santa Monica-Malibu School District was facing a $13.7 million deficit heading into next school year. But thanks to the passage of Measure S on June 3, $6.5 million will be given annually to the district in the form of a $225 parcel tax on every property in Santa Monica and Malibu for the next six years.
But clearly the parcel tax won’t completely bail the school district out of its dismal financial situation, largely because of Gov. Gray Davis’ cuts in funding for public schools so California’s $35 billion budget deficit can be filled.
School supporters, desperately looking for the other $7.2 million to close the district’s deficit gap, have recently been pressuring the Santa Monica City Council to bear the responsibility of balancing the school’s budget.
City Hall in the past has regularly contributed $3 million to the school district on a voluntary basis, which is about 1 percent of the city’s total budget. Last year, the City Council gave an additional $1.5 million to the district because of a previous budget deficit.
“We are not whole... right now we simply want to be made whole,” said Superintendent of Schools John Deasy. “Right now we simply have to have what our kids had last year and nothing less.
“We are fortunate to live in this city, a city with means,” he added.
“We looked at it as a very straightforward case.”
Some school supporters think City Hall should pay an additional $4 million on top of its $3 million contribution. They have written letters to their elected leaders and to the local newspapers, held rallies and started a fund-raising campaign that has been difficult to ignore.
The Council was scheduled to approve the city’s $353 million budget on Tuesday night, but not until they heard hours of testimony from parents, school staff and faculty, and other community members who argued for how important the future of the schools are to Santa Monica and its kids. At times, Council Chambers was so packed that people had to stand in the aisles or wait outside.
With City Hall facing its own $16 million budget deficit this year, council members have said in the past that giving more money to the schools would be nice, but it isn’t realistic.
However, comments made by council members at Tuesday’s rally seemed to indicate that perhaps additional funding would be given to the district. The council had not made its decision or passed the budget by press time.
“You know we have a tough situation tonight,” Mayor Richard Bloom said to the crowd shortly before the meeting. “We’re going to go back upstairs and make things work for this city...
“We know how important this issue is to the children and to the people of the community.”
“We know how important this issue is to the children and to the people of the community.” — — ALLAN GOLAD Director of property management, Douglas Emmett — RICHARD BLOOM Santa Monica Mayor
Councilman Mike Feinstein told the group that he would vote to give the schools money and Council members Kevin McKeown and Ken Genser also said they hoped funding could be restored to the district.
Now that the Measure S funding is secure, officials plan to rehire many of the 200-plus workers who were laid off in March.
The positions to be brought back are: 21 elementary teachers, two elementary assistant principals, one elementary principal, 20 middle school teachers, 25 high school teachers, two nurses, more than six elementary music teachers, five music aides and accompanists, one fine arts coordinator, four groundskeepers, four administrative assistants, two fiscal service workers, two personnel positions, one career center specialist and five elementary librarians.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on June 18, 2003. Read the original PDF.