New group hopes to usher in an era of school accountability
In light of a string of controversies that have plagued the school district, each centered on questions of accountability and transparency, a group of parents have formed a grassroots organization aimed at bringing in a new era of leadership.
Powered by active and vocal school parents, LEAD — Leadership, Effectiveness, Accountability, Direction — organized in response to the issues of financial management and special education that have cast a shadow on the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District, the coalition hoping to fuel stronger leadership on the Board of Education and in central administration.
“We feel there is something we can bring to the process and while we intend to be constructive, we want to hold the district leadership accountable,” Debbie Mulvaney, one of the co-chairs of the organizing committee, said. “We want to be part of the process because we want a positive outcome.”
Mulvaney, whose son will soon graduate from Lincoln Middle School, said she would hope the school board will seek public input in the selection of both the interim and permanent replacement for Talarico, emphasizing transparency in the process. Several board members have pledged to an open process that will include public input sessions.
“Being Santa Monica with a very active resident population, I expect leaders to emerge and to push the envelope,” school board President Oscar de la Torre said about the formation of LEAD. “In the end, I think we are all on the same page.”
The district has faced trying times in the past two years, starting with the resignation of Chief Financial Officer Winston Braham in November 2006, fueling speculation that he had a fallout with the administration over a proposed teacher salary raise. Braham, who refrained from signing off on the salary raise, was restricted from speaking publicly about the circumstances surrounding his departure for months because of a confidentiality agreement in his exit contract, drawing criticism from the community.
A financial consultant was later hired, eventually finding the district could accommodate the salary raise if it made some fiscal modifications, which were adopted.
The clause was eventually lifted and Braham spoke out during a City Council meeting last summer, which revealed little about why he eventually left.
It was in that same meeting when the council decided to withhold roughly half a million dollars in city funding to the school district, concerned about confidentiality clauses in special education settlement agreements. The issue eventually led to the release of a report in April that found while confidentiality clauses and settlement agreements were legal, there was concern in its utilization in Santa Monica-Malibu, which has seen more than 140 in the past three years.
The confidentiality clauses have since been suspended entirely by the school board and the district has started the healing process.
The organization grew out of conversations between parents who shared the same feelings about the problems with transparency, figuring there was a way they could provide constructive criticism to school leaders “than complaining in idle conversations,” Laurie Lieberman, co-chair of the organizing committee, said.
39A,“By ‘lack of accountability,’ we mean in part listening to the community and the appointed advisory committees and really hearing what people on those committees are saying,” Lieberman said, referring to the Financial Oversight Committee and the Special Education Advisory Committee.
LEAD organizers stressed the coalition is not meant to be an adversary to the other major school lobbying group in the district — the Community for Excellent Public Schools — pointing out that several of its founders, including Mulvaney, are also members of CEPS.
“We would hope to be as successful as CEPS has been,” Mulvaney said. “We are an … organization with ultimately the same goal of having the best school district that we can possibly have.”
Shari Davis, the chairman of CEPS, said she had spoken with the LEAD founders while they were still forming their organizational ideas, noting that the two groups are complementary.
5FE,“We are very much in sync on what we want for the district,” Davis said. “Our emphasis being on the funding side of making sure the school has the resources they need will work well with a group promoting leadership and reform.”
Much like CEPS, LEAD will also make endorsements for candidates running for the school board. Four seats will be up for grabs this November, including for former board member Emily Bloomfield’s half-term.
The organization is in the process of developing guidelines for endorsing candidates.
“We want to be open to all potential candidates and incumbents and talk to everyone to determine who we will endorse and who embodies the type of leadership we think the district needs,” Mulvaney said.
Transparency will also extend to the grassroots organization.
The founders say the organization is open to the community and the general membership will have the power to elect the steering committee, which has yet to be established. LEAD is currently being run by the organizing committee.
“We really hope to be seen as a constructive organization,” Lieberman said. “We see ourselves as trying really hard to not be out there criticizing the board, but saying if we were out there, what would we be doing?”
Jump hedline: Group hopes to usher in new era of school leadership
Suggested pullquote: “Being Santa Monica with a very active resident population, I expect leaders to emerge and to push the envelope.”
School board President Oscar de la Torre said about the formation of LEAD.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on June 5, 2008. Read the original PDF.