Superintendent Tim Cuneo was one of seven people who spoke against the charter petition by Point Dume parents. The board has 60 days to consider the appeal.
By Laura Tate / Editor
At the Los Angeles County Board of Education meeting Tuesday, Tim Cuneo, superintendent of the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District, was first in line to voice his criticisms against the move to turn Point Dume Marine Science Elementary School into a charter school.
The board was scheduled to hear the issue Tuesday at 3 p.m., but it was not until 6 p.m. that public speakers were allowed to voice their concerns, and Cuneo was first of seven who spoke against it, with at least a dozen critics, including a Juan Cabrillo Elementary School teacher, in the audience. At least 10 people spoke in favor of the charter application.
Cuneo rehashed the theme that parents’ fears of Point Dume elementary school closing are unfounded.
“[Their fears] do not provide a basis for the conversion of the school to charter status,” he told the board.
Parents initiated the drive for charter status due to the budget crisis, which they feel could greatly affect the school and because of Cuneo’s comments about the school’s closure if things got worse. The school had been closed before.
The SMMUSD Board of Education, going with Cuneo’s recommendation in a staff letter, voted against the petition in early December.
Ali Thonsen, one of the parents leading the drive for charter status, was not surprised to see Cuneo at the meeting, nor by his comments: “I think it’s pretty much expected,” she told The Malibu Times Tuesday after the meeting. “This is the first conversion that LACOE has ever heard on appeal. I’m not surprised if they [the superintendent and the SMMUSD board] are vehemently opposed. It makes complete sense.”
As to whether he has a personal agenda against the charter movement, Thonsen said, “It was his words that started all this. In November of 2009, he said it [that Point Dume possibly could be closed if the district’s budget crisis worsened]. We were all there and we all heard it. And that started this process. So he might take it personally.”
Another criticism from the SMMUSD board was that the charter application did not sufficiently outline enough funding for the school.
However, Cathi Vogel, who wrote the budget for the application, told the county board members, “This board (Point Dume school charter board) is well groomed and ready to take on these fiduciary responsibilities.”
Other critics included Harry Keiley, former president of the Santa Monica-Malibu Classroom Teachers Association, who said that the school would be more in danger of closing if it achieved charter status than it would if it stayed as a SMMUSD school.
“There’s a time and place [for conversion],” he said. “This is neither the time nor place.”
A Juan Cabrillo Elementary School teacher, who said she was speaking on behalf of the entire teaching faculty at the school, also spoke against it. Seven people in the audience stood up when she referenced the faculty.
The county Board of Education has 60 days to consider the charter appeal. If it does not approve the petition, then parents can take it to the state Board of Education.
There are 232 charter schools currently operating within Los Angeles County, although the County Office of Education supervises only seven of those. During the 2009-10 school year, the county board heard eight charter petitions. Three were approved, three were denied, and two exceeded the number of days allowed to hear it and were voided.
Should the county grant Point Dume charter status, it would operate under county supervision. A board, comprised of parents and at-large community members, would take the place of the SMMUSD Board of Education, running the day-to-day operations of the school, including governance, human resources and financial matters. The charter school would still be governed by state education standards, including test scores, and would be subject to a twice-annual audit. Private fundraising would make up any budget shortfalls. The petitioners currently have more than $400,000 in signed pledges, which will kick in should the school achieve charter status.
Most of the school’s funding would come from state tax dollars for daily attendance.
Petitioners plan to recruit students from outside the school district to the new charter school in order to boost enrollment and alleviate concerns over a lack of diversity. That goal has led to skepticism from some Malibu citizens, who fear that the Point Dume charter school will end up siphoning students away from Juan Cabrillo and Webster elementary schools.
Knowles Adkisson contributed to this story
Charter petitioners’ best bet may be the county
The newly installed governor’s selection of seven new state Board of Education members, replacing those who strongly backed charter schools and favored parent involvement in education, may have an affect on Malibu parents’ attempt to achieve charter status for their local school.
If the county decides against approving the petition, then the decision would go to the state Board of Education.
Many believe the California Teachers Association, which heavily backed him during his gubernatorial campaign, influenced the move by Gov. Jerry Brown, replacing seven of the 11-member state Board of Education.
The county Board of Education is comprised of seven members, and it oversees the operation of the Office of the Los Angeles County Superintendent of Schools.
The following profiles were culled from the Board of Education’s Web site.
Board President Thomas A. Saenz, a graduate of Yale University and Yale Law School, was appointed to the board in 2001 to complete an unexpired term, and was reappointed in 2003 and 2007. He is president of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, for which he previously served as a lawyer and was lead counsel in many high-profile civil rights cases, including education equality.
Rudell S. Freer has served on the board since 1996. Her 40-year career in public education includes positions as a teacher, principal and region administrator in the Los Angeles Unified School District, as well as teaching graduate students for 13 years at Mount St. Mary’s College. She also serves on the Education Council of the Los Angeles Music Center, the board of directors of the California County Board of Education and the Delegate Assembly of the California School Boards Association. She received her bachelor’s degree at UCLA and her master’s degree at California State University.
Gabriella S. Holt was appointed to the Los Angeles County Board of Education in 2010. Holt served eight years on the Palos Verdes Peninsula Unified School District Board of Education and two years on the Southern California Regional Occupational Center Joint Powers Board of Education.
She received her Executive Juris Doctor degree in health and administrative law from Concord Law School, accounting credential from UCLA and a nursing undergraduate degree from the University of Michigan.
Holt is president/CEO of Citizens for California Reform, a nonpartisan public advocacy organization.
Maria Elena Yepes was appointed to the board in 2009. She is a professor of English at East Los Angeles College and received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in English from the University of California.
Yepes served on the Board of Directors for the Salesian Boys and Girls Club from 2000 to 2004.
Board Vice President Douglas R. Boyd Sr. was appointed in 2008. He has been an attorney for the past 25 years, practicing in the areas of state and local taxation, criminal, governmental and administrative law. Boyd earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Maryland, a master’s degree in Public Administration from Pepperdine University and a Juris Doctorate from Loyola Law School.
Leslie K. Gilbert-Lurie was appointed to the board in 1996, and has three times served as vice president and president. She worked for nine years as an executive with the NBC Television Network and is now a writer. She is immediate past president of the Alliance for Children’s Rights, which is a nonprofit legal rights organization dedicated to representing indigent children on matters of custody, health and education issues.
Gilbert-Lurie, who earned her bachelor’s degree and law degree at UCLA, is also a member of several nonprofit boards of trustees, including the Los Angeles Music Center.
Rebecca J. Turrentine was most recently appointed to the board in 2009. She also served one two-year term on the board from 2005 to 2007. She retired in 2003 from her career as an educator, serving for the last 10 years as the Superintendent of the Bellflower Unified School District. Turrentine received her doctorate in Educational Administration with a specialization in organizational leadership from the University of Southern California.