A dispute involving the SMMUSD’s use of confidentiality agreements with parents of special needs students and with the district’s former chief financial officer has riled some council members.
By Jonathan Friedman / Assistant Editor
In an attempt to satisfy some Santa Monica City Council members’ concerns, the school district is planning to send the city leaders a packet of information about its policy regarding confidentiality agreements. Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District Board of Education President Kathy Wisnicki said this week she hopes this will help to end the stalemate on the council, which last month was unable to reach a majority decision on increasing the city of Santa Monica’s annual contribution to the district.
Last month, the council considered a city staff recommendation to raise the annual contribution to the district from $6.5 million to $7.25 million. The council unanimously supported an increase of $220,000 to cover inflation, but the remaining $530,000 in question was put into a special fund, where it will sit until a majority of the council (four of the six members eligible to vote on the matter, a seventh member who works for the district cannot vote) can come to an agreement. The dispute involved the district’s use of confidentiality agreements with parents of special needs students and with former Chief Financial Officer Winston Braham. Two of the council members proposed that the district be instructed to halt this process immediately, while another two asked for a lighter request of the district to work to “achieve transparency.”
“That left us in a bind pending council concerns,” Wisnicki said in an interview this week. “We don’t really have clear guidelines as to exactly what they want to see; whether it be financial information, procedures that we follow in special education.”
Wisnicki said there are discussions currently taking place between the staffs of the city and district. In addition to the district putting together information to submit to the City Council, district officials also want a special agenda item placed on the June 12 Santa Monica City Council budget meeting, so they can explain their policy. The school board will discuss this further at its meeting this Thursday.
With the $530,000 placed in a special fund until a deal can be worked out, there is little danger that the money will not be available if and when the dispute is settled. In the meantime, the district is not assuming it will be getting that money as it prepares its own budget for the next fiscal year, which begins in July. But Wisnicki said there is still a desire to get past this matter quickly.
“The longer we delay, the harder it is on us,” Wisnicki said.
At last month’s council meeting, a few parents of students receiving special education plans spoke about the signing of confidentiality agreements before their children could receive the services. They said it was an uncomfortable process.
“Parents not only live in fear of losing the services for their children because of an inadvertent slip of the tongue, but we as a community have no access to the financial records and no idea how many dollars are being spent because of these agreements,” Santa Monica special education parent Tricia Crane told the council.
Following the parents’ testimonies, Wisnicki told the council the agreements with parents are necessary because each education plan is different for each student. The confidentiality, she argued, prevents parents from trying to compare what their child is receiving to another, when the comparison might not be valid. She said the agreements are also resolutions that prevent the student’s education plan from going to court.
Wisnicki said this week that the school board should host a workshop in the coming months to discuss the district policy.
“The issues that were brought about by the special education parents will be addressed at the appropriate place, which is with the school board,” Wisnicki said. “I don’t believe that the City Council is the appropriate forum for those concerns.”
She also echoed a statement by Santa Monica City Councilmember Ken Genser, who was reluctant to tell the district it should abandon the confidentiality agreement practice, because he did not have enough information to decide whether it was a good policy, and he did not feel comfortable instructing the district on how to conduct its business.
“I believe to dictate policy on our special education agreements really falls within the jurisdiction of the school board,” Wisnicki said. “It’s an extremely complex issue. It’s an issue that we are always grappling with.”