Committee
Recommends More Funding for
Samohi |
By Anita Varghese
Staff Writer
October 16 -- The School
District’s Measure BB Advisory
Committee on Monday rejected a funding
plan proposed by District staff that
would give upscale Malibu High School
students nearly twice as much bond
money as their more needy Santa Monica
counterparts.
Instead, after an emotional plea by parents,
the committee voted to recommend that the School
Board on Thursday boost the amount slated for
Samohi by nearly $20 million to $57 million.
Staff originally recommended the high school
receive $44.4 million in Measure BB funds and
then reduced funding to $38.4 million after the
District’s facilities master plan was discussed
at public hearings and school site meetings in
July, August and September.
“I think for staff to tell us there is
equality between Samohi and Malibu High is frankly
unbelievable because anybody who knows these two
campuses well would never possibly reach that
conclusion,” said Chris Harding, a local
land use attorney who is a member of the committee.
“This is not defensible and this is not
arguable,” Harding said.
The committee vote comes after a group of parents
whose children are enrolled in District schools
formed the Coalition for an Excellent Samohi Campus
to persuade advisory committee and School Board
members not to adopt staff recommendations.
The coalition claims bond measure funding, as
presented by staff, for the Santa Monica High
School and the dual Malibu High/Middle School
campuses are not equitable when Santa Monica High
School would receive $11,650 per student while
Malibu High School’s $27.5 million allocation
would divide into more than $21,000 per student.
“Samohi’s campus – which should
be a source of community pride, matching the excellence
of our students, teachers, administrators and
parent volunteers – is instead an embarrassment,
suffering from decades-long neglect,” wrote
coalition co-chairs Laurie Lieberman, Judith Meister
and Elizabeth Gelfand Stearns, in a five-page
letter to the School Board.
“If the board were to follow District staff’s
recommendation, Samohi’s campus would deteriorate
even further,” says the coalition. “Measure
BB provides the board with an opportunity to chart
a new course for Samohi.”
Incorporated within the facilities master plan
are defined school building projects based on
current and future facility and curriculum needs
identified in Measure BB, a local $268 million
bond measure approved by voters in November 2006.
District Superintendent Diane Talarico told the
advisory committee that staff was trying to follow
the stated purpose of the bond, which is “to
enable the District to enhance the educational
opportunities of all the students in the District
and to achieve one of the board’s primary
goals of providing comparable schools for all
students throughout the District.”
“What we attempted to do with our recommendations
was spread the dollars so that every school received
something,” Talarico said. “We really
are bringing forward our best thinking.”
Harding toured Santa Monica High School and spoke
with many athletic coaches who told
him the school’s sports fields
are dangerous for students to use.
Harding also said he only saw a run-down campus
with dilapidated facilities and mildew on the
outer walls of some buildings.
“If you look at the comparability standard
in Measure BB, there is absolutely no way anyone
can justify the treatment of Santa Monica High
School,” Harding said.
Gleam Davis, the advisory committee’s co-chair,
developed her own funding scenario for the School
Board to consider.
This scenario, which the advisory committee favored
by a six to three vote, raised Santa Monica High
School’s Measure BB funding to $57 million
from a staff recommendation of $38.4 million.
Malibu High School would receive $13.5 million
under Davis’ Scenario G.
Edison Language Academy would get $24.5 million
and $10 million was recommended for district wide
projects designed to enhance technology, fire,
life and safety goals.
“We didn’t pick projects that just
needed to be done,” Davis said. “We
picked projects that needed to be done first and
we picked projects based on socio-economic and
academic equality.”
Mark Kelly, the principal at Malibu High School,
was disappointed with the actions of the Coalition
for an Excellent Samohi Campus.
“I don’t have a problem with any
school advocating for itself, but
I do have a problem when that advocacy
comes at the expense of another school,”
he said. “The parents, students
and staff at Malibu High School and
the community engaged in a planning
process that was endorsed by the School
Board and District staff.”
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