Letters to Council: Funds for Schools

February 26, 2001

Dear Council members,

$3.2 in un-earmarked funds? What wonderful problems we have.

The school district is not so fortunate. We are, once again, looking toward budget reductions which will have a direct negative impact on the quality of education in this community.

The City has been exceedingly generous and supportive of our schools in the recent past; and for that we are grateful. But in truth, we still fall short of state and federal guidelines in nearly every curriculum.

Many of the community's residents -- the very people who are pivotal in generating the City's income -- live here because they seek a quality education for their children; and they have stated their willingness to pay for it via higher rents and mortgage payments, school bonds measures, and propositions. Our schools should reflect the economic climate of community; yet to date, that has not been so.

Investing in education benefits everyone--not just in the short term, but for years to come.

Our schools need help; and you have the means to provide that assistance. Please remember our children during tomorrow evening's deliberations.

DK Stanton
JAMS Parent
SAMOHI Parent
Fine Arts DAC Music Subcommittee Chair

February 26, 2001

Dear Members of Council:

This note is in support of our fine schools. Please use whatever funds our city can spare and put in towards our schools.

As Ben Franklin stated in 1779 "Every great society begins in the classroom"

God Bless our city, country and planet.

Thanks for your time.

Bob Kronovet
Registered SM voter, parent, business owner.

February 26, 2001

Dear Santa Monica City Council Members,

As a parent with two children in Santa Monica Public Schools, I urge you to budget as much money as possible for education. Children are our future, and they need our support, financially as well as emotionally.

Also please do not cut any money from the music budget. Santa Monica is rightly proud of its music programs, and it is up to City Council to see that they are supported and maintained.

Thank you,
Bennett Tramer

February 26, 2001

Please support music education in the Santa Monica schools.

Charles & Sharon Dobeck

February 26, 2001

Dear Members of the Santa Monica City Council:

I think the most important use of the surplus funds is to spend it on the children and teenagers in Santa Monica Public Schools. Please put the money toward their future and supporting their education now.

Thank you.

Suzanne and Nels Mitchell
Santa Monica

February 26, 2001

When I think of Santa Monica I always remember the chicken and the egg. Is Santa Monica a great place because of the great schools or are the schools a great place because of Santa Monica.

As a parent, teacher and PTA Co-President, I am asking you to continue to support our schools and therefore all of our children.

Sincerely,

Martha Durán-Contreras
Will Rogers, Teacher, PTA
John Adams, Parent

February 26, 2001

Dear Council Members,

First, a most hearty thank you for the support that you have shown the Santa Monica Schools in the past, and in particular our tremendous music program.

The school district, teachers, parents, and students have all worked hard,
with your help, to create the finest music program any community could ask
for. It represents an important reason to live in the city of Santa Monica.
My family and I all take part in the musical experience of Santa Monica, and
I encourage you to continue to support it in any ways that you can, including
any supportive funding that you can provide.

I'm sure the members of our community would agree that a well rounded youth and citizenry help create the community climate that we all prefer and enjoy. A thanks in advance for all you, the council members, can do to continue to encourage this.

Craig Peterson and Family

February 26, 2001

Dear Council members and other interested parties:

Thank you for making education one of your top priorities for 99-00. Since you have a $3.2 million budget surplus, I urge you to fund the SM-MUSD with the surplus funds.

My older daughter at JAMS is using a so-old-it-is-out-of-print math textbook; there is no funding whatsoever for art or drama; the elementary music program is not anywhere close to what it should be and insufficient tutoring is available for those not performing at grade level. (Not to mention that NO programs are in place for gifted children at all for Grant or JAMS students.) Our public schools are grossly underfunded: need exists everywhere.

As a CPA and union activist at Santa Monica College, I know that unrestricted funding is not always spent to maximize learning for students. However, you have the opportunity here, at the local level, to make sure that the funds you have to give to the Unified School District are spent EXACTLY where YOU, as a City Council, think they should be spent.

Art? Music? Tutoring? Special programs? Please work with the School Board to
establish short term and long term spending priorities for the discretionary
dollars you control.

Thank you,
Teri Bernstein

February 26, 2001

Dear Council Members:

We are fortunate to live in a community with a unique sensibility and a commitment to excellence in public education, as demonstrated by your generous and appropriate funding of public education in the past.

As a parent with a child attending a Santa Monica school, and another child who
will be in District Schools, I urge you to intelligently, generously and sustainably fund public education in Santa Monica, particularly the music and arts programs, which are the glue that hold our district together.

It is not only the children who benefit, the whole community benefits because the
decent public schools are what makes Santa Monica an attractive place to live and work. Voters like me will continue to support council members who support public education. Thank you.

Sincerely,

Tiiu Lukk
Santa Monica

February 26, 2001

Please support our schools with all the funding that is needed to make Santa Monica-Malibu the premiere school district in our state. Our children shouldn't suffer due to lack of funding, they deserve the best!

Roberta Reid

February 26, 2001

Dear City Council,

I am sorry I am unable to attend the meeting tomorrow evening concerning the $3.2 mil unspent in 1999/2000.

We are already hearing of cuts that may be made in the coming year due to proposed budget shortfalls in the SMMUSD. It is extremely important that no cuts be made that will affect the level of education of Santa Monica Public School Students.

My twin daughters go to John Muir and are in first grade. At present their education is excellent, but I am concerned about how the testing will affect their learning, and the larger class size in the 4th and 5th grades. I think this is a time to protect and enrich the present level of education.

John Muir is a Title one school that has the most diverse population racially and economically in the district. We are just starting to tackle many issues involved with community communication and participation. If we have to yet again take parents away from their children's homework to fight budget cuts, it will exhaust the community spirit we have recently built.

There is only so much energy a parent has to work full time, do home work, and then take care of the family. Fighting the school board, and City Council should be the least of our worries.

Please help to allow Santa Monica Parents to sleep at night by putting $3 million back into our schools.

June Stoddard
John Muir Parent
JS Executive Search

February 26, 2001

Dear Mayor Feinstein and Members of the City Council,

In deciding how to spend money not allocated in your previous budget, I hope
you will keep the following considerations in mind:

1. Our local school district, even with recent funding increases, is not receiving adequate revenue to provide the education that our children deserve (and in using the term "our children," I mean all children, because if the council believes, as it has stated, that all homeless people are our brothers and sisters, than ALL children are OUR children.)

2. Voters in Santa Monica, a vast majority of whom do not have children attending local schools, have repeatedly demonstrated that education is a very high priority for them.

3. Although the Board of Education recently gave a substantial raise to SMMUSD teachers, the salaries are nothing to brag about, and are certainly not out of line with other school districts in Southern California. This year, the L.A. Unified school board gave its teachers a raise that was 25% higher than the raise voted in SMMUSD. CTA (California Teachers Association) lobbied hard for this last funding increase from the state, staging a rally of 6,000 teachers in Sacramento before the increase was voted, so school districts all across the state granted similar raises this year.

4. The list of budget cuts in the the superintendent's budget planning summary of 2/15/01 is troubling to me in the following ways:

a. Reducing teaching staff for Opportunity classes at the middle schools --
Kids having difficulty in middle school need help which cannot be provided in
classes with a 30:1 student-teacher ratio. If their problems are not solved or at least addressed in middle school, things will only get worse when those kids reach high school.

b. Eliminating the P.E. Coordinator -- My daughter attended elementary school
in the district when this position was vacant. Elementary principals, whose offices are in the front of the schools, cannot even see what the non-credentialed, ill-paid P.E. "aides" working on the playgrounds in the back of the schools are doing, let alone train, monitor, and evaluate their performance. Children get into disputes during P.E. that untrained "aides" do not know how to resolve, and then the unresolved disputes carry back into the classroom, disrupting learning. Kids can't concentrate on math when they're still angry because their team lost a game due to some other kid "cheating" during a game and getting away with it. Chris Corliss has provided great leadership for the elementary P.E. aides as well as making sure that the newly refurbished elementary playgrounds are designed properly. To eliminate his position would be a step backward and students will suffer.

c. Reducing the Fine Arts Coordinator position by 50% -- To expect the elementary principals to schedule music teachers who work at 3 different schools each day is wishful thinking. As for hiring, when my daughter was in second grade, she sang in an after-school parent-organized chorus taught by a woman who not only didn't know how to run a chorus rehearsal, she didn't even know how to read music. The principal and parents thought she was great!

In fifth grade, the PTA-funded general music teacher informed the students
that Bach learned to play the piano and then he learned to play the harpsichord. (Bach played the clavichord, the harpsichord, and the organ. The piano had not been invented in his lifetime.) She also described how she liked to listen to "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring," a liturgical masterpiece, while she took her bath. According to this principal-hired, principal-evaluated music "teacher", Sousa was a great composer because he liked children. (That he is considered the "father" of the modern symphonic band, that his marches, such as "Stars and Stripes Forever" and the "Washington Post March," inspired many composers to write music for band, and that his performance tours throughout the country inspired thousands of
young people to learn to play band instruments was not communicated to the students.) This teacher also modeled "belting," a singing style that is physically harmful for young children. The principal and the parents thought it was great!

A Fine Arts Coordinator would have determined during the interview process that neither of these people was adequately trained to teach young children. The principals, however well-intentioned, did not know.

A year ago, when this Fine Arts Coordinator position was on the cut list, I compiled a a list of tasks that was 3 pages long, single-spaced, and this was before the "For the Arts" endowment was in process. To expect someone to do all these tasks as a half-time job is unrealistic. The Fine Arts program, i.e., the students, will suffer.

d. Reducing the Special Education Department by one administrator -- This is a step backward for the district's special education program and may, unfortunately, lead to lawsuits if the district is unable to comply with the federal mandates in this area. Students and their families will suffer.

Two other concerns I have are connected with the current school reconstruction and modernization process. 1) We are adding many new classrooms, with no money available for more custodial help. New classrooms are usually carpeted, and if they are vacuumed only once a week, students with allergies and asthma will have more difficulty learning. 2) We're also, in cooperation with the city, adding more grassy playfields that will be used seven days a week, with no money available to increase gardening staff.

So I urge you to seriously consider giving as much money as you can to the school district. I know you have a lot of demands placed on you, but please
remember that children are at our mercy. They have no choice as to what they do between 8:00 and 3:00 (school is their only option) or as to where they go to school. We need to do our best to make their daily "work" at the schools in our district as rewarding and productive and un-frustrating as possible.

Thank you for your consideration.

Zina Josephs