Todd Hess Takes Helm at School Board

By Jorge Casuso

With a unanimous vote Thursday night, the school board elected Todd Hess as its first male president in a decade. Thomas Pratt was unanimously elected as the board's vice president.

The two men will replace outgoing president Margaret Quinones and Julia Brownley, who presided over the seven-member board during one of the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District's most fiscally trying years.

"It's going to be so nice having some of the men of the board do some work around here," Quinones joked after the vote. "This is a tough, thankless job. It's easy to come and complain and demand, but it's harder to sit here and say, 'I wish I could do everything.' I'm really glad it's over, because it's been real hard work."

Hess and Pratt will take the helm at a time when the district faces an up to $5 million budget shortfall that is the result of enrollment projections for the 1999-2000 school year that are some 300 students short, most of the miscalculation in Santa Monica and Malibu high schools. As a result, the board faces painful layoffs and program cuts it will begin discussing later this month.

"No decisions have been made, no discussions have taken place," said Supt. Neil Schmidt, attempting to quell a persistent rumor that instrumental music programs were on the cutting block. "That may not reduce anxiety, but it puts it in some sort of context."

Once again, parents and children pleaded with the board not to cut the music programs, echoing pleas made to the superintendent's Financial Task Force during its first two public meetings in Malibu and Santa Monica this week. The task force is scrutinizing the district's spending and exploring ways to increase revenues.

"This task force has a daunting, broad task," Anita Landecker, one of the task force's four members, told the board. "I caution you that none of us are school professionals, so you get what you pay for, and you're not paying anything," she joked.

"What you're going to get are a lot of ideas, but not necessarily like when you hire someone full time," she said. She added that the task force meetings drew the same parents who normally turn out at most meetings because there has not been "a broad outreach of the Santa Monica parent community."

Some parents continued to call for the task force to meet regularly in public, instead of holding only a few meetings to get parents' input after weekly sessions behind closed doors.

"This is crucial business being done, and it is crucial that the public see this as an open process," said John Petz. "Please realize this isn't a private club."

Before Hess was handed the gavel, there were fond parting words for Quinones, who has served on the board for seven years and who was passed over during contentious deliberations before finally gaining the board presidency a year ago.

"From my vantage point, it's been a great year serving with you," Brownley told Quinones. "I can say with certainty it hasn't been the easiest year, but I think you've done a wonderful job and fulfilled your duty with a lot of passion and grace."

"Your leadership and dedication only run a close second to your compassion that you demonstrate for all children," said longtime board member Pam Brady.

Before relinquishing the gavel Quinones asked the board not to forget "the voices that don't come here and don't use the process."

Then, after a five-minute recess, Todd Hess banged the gavel, and, without any opening words, announced the next item on the agenda.