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- How important do you believe excellent public schools, early-childhood and lifelong learning programs are for our community? Give specific examples.
Making the learning experience more compelling for our public school students is what
I do for a living, every day. Just last week I got the following unsolicited email from our music staff at John Adams Middle School:
From: Angela Woo <woo@mail.smmusd.org>
Date: Wed, 13 Sep 2006 17:12:50 -0700
To: Kevin McKeown <kevin@mckeown.net>
Cc: Apryl Hardisty <hardisty@mail.smmusd.org>
Subject: Super-Kevin Strikes Again!
Hi, Kevin!
How can we thank you for all that you've done for us? The AprylNet and Woo-Fi have opened a whole new way for us to teach and interact with our students as we wander around our classrooms with our laptops. What a treat to go "unplugged!" I've even thought about having interactive lessons with other classes on campus via iChat!
Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!
Angela (aka Woo-Fi)
For over a decade I have brought effective and innovative computer technology to SMMUSD classrooms and kept it working, dependably. For longer than that - perhaps fifteen years - I've been an active participant in the SMMUSD District Advisory Committee on Instructional Technology.
As a City Councilmember I have been the only regular Council attendee at meetings of the Early Education and Child Care Task Force, carrying their issues and funding requests to the Council. I helped broker the SMC Bundy Campus access agreement, delivering a unanimous Council vote for the College to welcome Dr. Tsang to our City.
- To what degree do you feel that protecting adequate funding for our school district, its programs, early-childhood education and after school programs is a community responsibility? Please elaborate.
I've been extraordinarily proud and actively supportive of the leadership Santa Monica has demonstrated in providing unrestricted funding to SMMUSD, to use as our elected school board decides. I was the leader on making sure the city fully staffed our school parks later into the afternoon and evening, so the children of working parents in particular had safe places to socialize and play. Right now, I'm helping parents get new playgrounds in the northern part of our City, where demographics are shifting toward more young families.
My fundamental belief is that caring for and educating our children is a primary function of our society, and there are no jurisdictional distinctions to a child in need or a student seeking betterment. With working parents, single parents and often the lack of extended family, we challenge young people in our society as never before. Rather than decry the often tragic results of unnurtured childhoods, we must continue to take positive action here in Santa Monica to provide community parenting.
Over the years I've been in office I've delivered significantly increased funding for pre-school, demonstrated to be the time in a child's life where social and academic skills can be most effectively helped to form. I championed allocation of an additional $250,000 annually to subsidizing child development for low-income families.
- What priority would you attach to ensuring adequate funding for our schools, after-school programs, and early childhood education in development of the city budget?
Very high.
- Are you familiar with and do you fully support the agreement negotiated for the City for the agreement negotiated for the City to provide funding to the School District?Ó What was your role, if any, in crafting or passing this agreement?
Familiar and fully supportive, I participated by making sure that other City needs could be adequately met and that appropriate savings were identified so that our community could recognize its responsibility to support all children in our public schools and fulfill that responsibility with resources. I willingly deferred other less pressing priorities to make the funding of SMMUSD possible.
- In the upcoming January 2007 City-School District contract discussions, do you intend to support the maximum $1 million-dollar increase indicated in agreement, provided that city revenue benchmark increases have been reached? Under what circumstances would you not be willing to do so?
Yes. None.
- If the SMMUSD 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?
Our City is fortunate to have significantly diversified revenue streams, as contrasted to the School District, which is primarily dependent on Sacramento. Should a District budget crisis require additional assistance for our public schools, so long as the City's needs could be met as well, I would give such crisis funding a very high priority.
- Please provide specific examples of how you have supported the district and the education of our youth?
I have literally stood with District leadership on every issue at at every point where my leadership could help the children of our community. Besides examples already listed in answers to earlier questions, I've secured City funding for the sound system at Samohi's Barnum Hall, agendized and passed allocations sending music groups to Europe and Hawaii, and found City money to send a teacher to China and students to the World Economic Forum in India. I am the Councilmember most likely to be seen on campus personally honoring student environmental work at Samohi, or acknowledging business donations to our musical programs at Muir/SMASH, or judging the science fair at Franklin. The only thing I don't do is teach music — that's the other Kevin McKeown.
- How have you shown leadership to ensure adequate city funding for our schools?
Unquestionably my own personal commitment to education, working every day with teachers, students and administrators throughout Santa Monica and Malibu, sets an example for the City Council of how important at least one of their colleagues believes lifelong learning to be. Besides that, the number of creative ways I've found to indirectly support the educational mission of SMMUSD and the excellent academic and social resources we afford to young people in Santa Monica, in and out of school, sets a standard for City involvement in the lives of our young people.
- As a council member, what kind of leadership will you show to address school funding?
I pledge to fulfill the community's desire for excellent public schools, and toward that end consistently am expressing my strongest endorsement for the Council candidacy of Gleam Davis. I have supported her at SMRR, the Democratic Club, and will continue to work to see her join me on the Council dais. I ask CEPS to endorse me as well as Gleam, and make us fully a team.
- Do you endorse Measure BB, the Santa Monica-Malibu School Safety and Repair (Bond) Measure on the November 7, 2006 ballot and will you actively campaign for its passage?
Absolutely.
Thank you for your support!
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