Last week’s Daily Press Q-line confirmed that many people seem to dislike the Santa Monica/Malibu Unified School District.
I’ll bet it has to do with the schools always running in the red and begging for funding.
Problems really started in the mid- 1990s after the district granted a sizable pay raise for teachers and administrators, then ran short of money.
Poor asset management, not knowing how many students were in school, questionable reorganization decisions and inept contract negotiating by the school board have accelerated the flow of red ink.
No wonder, every year, they go hat in hand to the cities of Santa Monica and Malibu for ever-increasing multi-million dollar bailouts. And, they’re turning to us, again.
Last week, the district’s financial oversight committee announced that SMMUSD teachers were among the highest paid in the county with salaries 19 percent above the average. Classified employees were tops in the county with salaries 34 percent above the county average.
Of course, teachers and other classified employees haven’t volunteered to take pay cuts. Instead, they are contributing heavily to the district’s “Yes on S” parcel tax campaign.
With 12,400 students and a claimed budget shortfall of $13.5 million, the per student deficit in SMMUSD is $1,089 per student. Twenty percent of SMMUSD’s students don’t reside in Santa Monica or Malibu. It costs more to educate these permit students than the district gets in state support.
Has it occurred to the stewards of our schools that these some 2,400 permit students are substantial contributors to the shortage of classrooms and teachers? Wanna bet the district hasn’t even asked permit parents (or any other parent) for donations to help out?
It seems we’re all aboard a runaway train. There’s no incentive to cut expense and stop waste. We’re being taken for a ride when they coerce us to pass two bonds ($125 million in debt) and two parcel taxes. And, like the Terminator, they’ll be back for even more.
The school board is controlled by the Santa Monicans for Renters Rights’ political machine. SMRR members are dominant on the school committees including both the previous “EE” and present “S” ad-hoc parcel tax committees, the Committee for Excellence in Education and the financial oversight committee.
All the familiar faces — including SMRR co-chairs Denny Zane and Patricia Hoffman, and their sycophants — are heavily involved. So, in addition to financial problems, we have agendas and heavy-handed propagandizing.
In recent years, we’ve seen school board members and district employees, including Superintendent John Deasy, use school resources to demand the unionization of local hotels — under the guise of education. (I think the correct word is propaganda.) Then there are the flyers routinely sent home with students. Last week’s civics lesson flyer was basically a request for absentee ballots so parents could vote for Measure S. Two years ago, Grant Elementary School students were given pro-homeless PTA flyers suggesting they approach total strangers on the street and ask them how their day was going.
The “Yes on S” campaign will raise and spend about $200,000. This money is not going to schools, rather it’s going to SMRR’s favorite consultants and out-of-town political firms for salaries and campaign materials. Between “EE” and “S,” about $400,000 will flow into SMRR associates’coffers — associates hired by SMRR to push their candidates and political causes.
The financial disclosure statement filed by the Committee for Excellence in Education (Yes on S) as of April 19 even shows a $3,500 payment for “consulting” to former school board member Pam Brady. Why isn’t she donating her services? How many other SMRR cronies are on the payroll?
Aren’t parents sick of the constant blackmailing of their children’s education? Year after year, district administrators threaten teacher firings and cuts in services, classrooms and programs if we don’t give them the money. This is emblematic of a school district totally out of control and running amuck.
So, when are parents and opposition activists going to figure out that supporting SMRR-controlled entities, even if it is the schools, sustains and perpetuates incompetent decision making, financial mismanagement, political game playing, left wing agen-dizing, more extortion and higher taxes?
We must stop going along with their program. We need to make substantial changes — starting with those in charge and begin running the district as a business instead of an experiment in social engineering with an unlimited budget.
Then, maybe we can begin to like and willingly support our schools, again. (Bill Bauer is a longtime Santa Monica resident and a freelance writer.)
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on May 16, 2003. Read the original PDF.