On the same night the board approved the equity gift policy, it pledged to support the process of a Malibu secession initiative that was born from discontent over the superintendent’s handling of the gift policy debate.
By Susan Reines/Special to The Malibu Times
The Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District Board of Education approved the superintendent’s Equity Fund Thursday, bringing closure to months of debate that led Malibu parents to investigate splitting from the joint district because they felt the superintendent mishandled the debate and ignored their opinions.
On the same night, the board pledged to support the separation process initiated by the parent group, the Malibu Unified School Team, on condition that MUST collects signatures of 25 percent of Malibu voters.
Neither vote was unanimous. Two board members, including the Malibu member, opposed the Equity Fund, which will require that 15 percent of gifts to schools go into a fund to be distributed throughout the district. Another member said she would not sign the Malibu separation petition.
Mike Jordan, the Malibu board member, said he would have supported a voluntary Equity Fund but disagreed, like many Malibu parents, with taking 15 percent of every gift regardless of the donor’s wishes.
“I believe [a voluntary fund] would have served as a catalyst for unity in our great district and rallied all of us around a cause we deeply believe in,” Jordan said. “I believe we would have already had hundreds of thousands of dollars in this fund, perhaps more, and would not have alienated those in Malibu and Santa Monica who opposed the mandatory process.”
The other board member who dissented was Shane McLoud, who said during a preliminary vote in February that it was “inappropriate to alter someone’s generosity.”
The other four board members present voted for the mandatory fund.
Board Member Maria Leon-Vazquez said she supported the fund because she came from a working-class family and valued universal high-quality education. “The bottom line for me is that we have to be able to provide at least the basic needs for all of our students to get ahead,” she said.
Later in the evening, Leon-Vazquez was the only board member to oppose signing the MUST redistricting petition that would initiate county review of the district split.
Leon-Vazquez, who is running for re-election, gave the same justification for opposing the separation process as she did for supporting the Equity Fund-the board’s duty was to serve every student in Malibu and Santa Monica.
“If members from the city of Malibu feel that we as a board did not follow what our mandate was, to represent all children, so be it. All I can say is I’m here in terms of representing all children in both cities,” she said. “I figure if they [MUST] want to move forward with the petition process, that’s fine, but I’m not ready to sign on.”
Leon-Vazquez also made comments suggesting she was unconvinced by MUST parents’ repeated statements at the last meeting that their desire to separate stemmed not from the gift policy itself but from the larger issue of local control over education.
“It’s unfortunate that because of circumstances regarding a gift policy, which is supposed to be for the benefit of all children in both cities, that we have to go to this extreme,” Leon-Vazquez said Thursday.
New Year, same Special Ed, parents say
Parents told the board the situation for special education students hadn’t improved since last year, when the district’s programs were found to be far out of compliance with government standards, even though
the department says it made improvements this summer.
Two glaring deficiencies in special education have been lack of an autism program and standardized math curriculum. The district spent more than a $1 million in 2002-03 to send students with disabilities to private schools because the district could not serve them.
Special Education Director Cindy Atlas said the district had begun to implement the strategic plan for revamping special education by doing research, hiring consultants, conducting teacher workshops and planning to pilot math and autism programs.
Parents said they saw little change for students, however.
“We have nothing really going at the beginning of the semester,” said David Kramer, vice chair of the Special Education District Advisory Committee and Malibu High Site Governance parent representative.
“You have to be more on top of your staff,” he said to the board. “The administration here, for so many years, has just not been there, and there’s no one on anybody’s tail. It just keeps going on and on and on.”
Running star’s fate on MHS team undecided
The board split over whether to allow Jake Greene, a junior who posted school records at Malibu High, to run on the school’s cross country team this fall while attending private school.
Greene left MHS because he was struggling academically, but his new school has no state-certified running program.
Three board members opposed Greene’s participation, saying it could be extra liability and unfair to MHS athletes. Because the board split, Greene’s petition was neither denied nor approved and will return when all seven members are present.