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- What is the significance for our community of ensuring adequate funding for our school district, its programs, early childhood education and after school programs? Please elaborate.
Schools are the birth place of our Democracy. A unique feature of early America was the land grant program to create public schools. Schools educate the population to participate in our civic life. The significance to the entire community is that, as former State Superintendent of Schools Delaine Eastin was fond of saying, it’s other people’s children that are the airplane mechanics, the doctors and nurses, and the shop keepers that keep our society functioning.
Excellence in our School District and its programs requires adequate on-going funding that is reliable from year to year. Appropriate, challenging education and affordable childcare should be available for all children and their families in Santa Monica and Malibu. When I was elected to the Board of Education in 1986, there were fourteen rigid education tracks at Santa Monica High School, no Malibu High School and only two preschool programs in the District and four or five before and after care programs. When I left the Board eight years later we had more the doubled the percent of students who had completed the A-F (now A-G) requirements for the University of California. We raised academic standards for all children and we lowered the percentage of drop-outs by close to ninety percent.
We created before and after school childcare programs in every elementary and middle school and had four stand alone preschools. We made the commitment to these programs because of the research has proven that early childhood education is critical to the intellectual and social development of our youngsters.
We had to cut our budget for seven of the eight years that I was on the Board (even though we brought in several new revenue sources) yet we developed leadership and our internal capacity so that our children could be successful.
- What priority would you attach to ensuring adequate funding for our schools, after-school programs, and early childhood development in the city budget?
I would continue to work on a partnership between the City and the School District to guarantee that our children are considered in the City Budget. I would expect the Board and City to put a high priority on these programs. I also continue to believe that the Board of Education should receive City funding with as few restrictions as possible so that they can determine the best ways to meet the educational needs of our students.
- Are you familiar with and do you fully support the agreement negotiated for the City to provide funding to the School District?
Yes I am and yes I do. I lobbied for the agreement because of how much I care about both agencies and the people they represent.
- Do you fully support providing the maximum level of funding for our schools under City-School District agreement? Under what circumstances would you not be willing to do so?
I think that both parties to the negotiated agreement squeezed as much as they responsibly thought they could out of the agreement. I fully support it. It was entered into in good faith and it is just as valid as any contract that either the City or the District has entered into. There are no circumstances under which I would be unwilling to honor the agreement.
One caveat here; the actual contract has not been signed yet. As part of the Financial Oversight Committee of the District, I and others have asked to see the actual language of the contract before it is signed to be sure that it is an accurate representation of the agreement.
- If the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District faced a budget crisis brought on by circumstances outside the District's control, such as by funding cuts from the State of California, would you be willing to support crisis funding to the District even beyond the City-School District funding agreement?
I will answer this question to you in the same way that I answered the Employee’s Coalition. We would all have to sit down together and determine whether or not there is a crisis. To a parent, any cut in a program is a crisis since his or her child will only be at that age and grade level once. We would have to comb through the District budget and actual expenditures to find out if there is anything that can be done internally. We would also have to comb through the City budget to see what can be done to resolve the crisis. After really looking at the two budgets, I would be willing to support crisis funding. Unfortunately, billions of dollars are being misused in Washington and our States and Cities and Schools are suffering.
I will not be satisfied until our Nation’s, State’s and Cities’ children are receiving the education, nutrition, housing and medical care that they need to thrive.
- Please provide specific examples of how you have supported the district and the education of our youth? How have you shown leadership to ensure adequate city funding for our schools? As a council member, what kind of leadership will you show to address school funding?
As I mentioned in the first question, I was on the Board of Education for eight years. During that time I was president twice and vice-president twice. I was also a PTA officer at my children’s schools and a Council PTA vice-president. I was an AYSO Soccer Commissioner for six years and Registrar or Assistant Registrar for three. I was an appointed member of the Los Angeles Mayor’s Task Force on Childcare, the Santa Monica Working Group on Youth, and the Santa Monica Commission on the Status of Women. I also co-founded a local pre-school. I have been aggressively supporting the District and the Education of our Youth in Santa Monica for more than twenty years. I continue to serve on the Financial Oversight and the Intercultural Advisory Committees of the SMMUSD.
I have worked on the passage of every Parcel Tax and General Obligation Bond that the District has put to the voters in the last twenty-five years. I have worked to bring grants to the District and I have participated in the hiring of top notch administrators that could build partnerships that brought in funds.
I have lobbied Sacramento and worked with other organizations to build school funding in the state budget. I worked for the passage of Proposition 98 and I contributed money and gathered signatures for the CEPS initiative even though I don’t like budgeting by initiative. I helped search the City budget for money that could be used to fund schools.
I worked with CEPS before and during the process of trying to get the City to agree to better funding. The District requires a reliable income stream from the City on a long term basis. I have always seen this and was the first School Board Member to push the City to $500,000 and then to over a million dollars a year. Schools are specifically mentioned in the City Charter and I believe that the City has a responsibility to the schools just as it does to its other services and facilities. I have been unwaivering in this belief and I have acted on it consistently from the time that my own children were little until today even though my children are all adults and have graduated from college.
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