School District Update

By Michael Davis
The School District is tossing around ideas about how to boost revenue since the parcel tax, Measure A, went bust. The first priority is direct fundraising. The Board of Education last week established the rules for this new plan, which will take place through August. The Financial Oversight Committee also gave the board a whole host of ideas on new revenue sources, including increasing attendance (the state gives the district money based on daily attendance) and  using district properties for advertising. And there might be a plan to put a new parcel tax question to the voters in November.
With the fundraising plan people can donate as much money as they want to the district through the Santa Monica Malibu Education Foundation (SMMEF). And they can pick one of three “buckets” (that is the name the district used) they want to fill with their money. One bucket is for elementary classroom size reduction, which means hiring back some teachers. The second bucket is for counselors and secondary school classroom reduction. So if you give money to this bucket, you get a 50-50 split of your money going to each item. An additional bucket also has two items, with this one featuring elementary school music and elementary school libraries.
“It’s been a busy week,” said Linda Gross, director of the SMMEF, said at the board meeting. “The number of e-mails and phone calls I alone have gotten shows that there is enthusiasm and desire to reinstate these cuts.”
The District will try to collect as many donations as possible by August. Any money garnered in that time can be used for the 2010-11 school year. There is also a chance that a new parcel tax measure could be written, but this could not help the financial situation for the upcoming school year. The committee that created the last one is going to meet again. School officials were saying that it might be a good option to get this before the voters in November.
“We would really be doing ourselves and our kids a disservice by not being optimistic about getting this passed in the near future,” said Board member Ben Allen. He also quoted Rahm Emanuel in an attempt to get the crowd excited. “Never miss an opportunity that a crisis presents.”
Measure A was approved by 64.25 percent of the voters. But this was not good enough, because parcel taxes require two-thirds of the vote to win. This was the first parcel tax not passed in the SMMUSD since 2002. After that one failed, another measure was presented to the voters less than a year later, and it won, although not by very much.
Interestingly, while Measure A received enough votes in Santa Monica, it did not receive enough in Malibu, and that is probably why it lost overall. Laura Rosenthal, a City Council member from Malibu, mentioned this during a speech to the Board of Education at the meeting.
“Measure A lost in Malibu and it won in Santa Monica. I guess I am challenging the board again to look again at separating the districts,” Rosenthal said.
She referred to the need for Malibu to leave the District as the “elephant in the room.” She asked that the board support a resolution for the county to do an analysis. Allen said he favored that. No other board members said anything.