The measure bans PTAs from fundraising to pay for extra staff and programs at individual schools, instead centralizing district fundraising with a nonprofit foundation. Malibu Mayor Laura Rosenthal asks the board to get behind a petition to form a Malibu school district.
By Knowles Adkisson / The Malibu Times
As expected, the school district Board of Education voted unanimously last week to prohibit parent teacher associations from raising money to pay for extra staff and programs at individual schools, due to concerns about educational inequality within the district. Fundraising will instead be conducted through the nonprofit Santa Monica-Malibu Education Foundation and distributed equally to schools throughout the district.
Boardmembers characterized the decision as fundamentally about equality, where children within a public school district should have equal opportunities for education.
In Malibu, where schools offer more extensive programs than their counterparts in Santa Monica thanks in large part to money raised by PTAs, opposition has been nearly unanimous. Many Malibu parents fear that successful programs at their schools will be dismantled if the Education Foundation is unable to drastically increase its fundraising to bring the same level of services to all schools in the district. Others warn that large Malibu donors will simply stop giving if they cannot donate to their schools directly, or pull their children out of the school district and send them to private schools.
The board’s decision has strengthened sentiment in Malibu for the creation of an independent Malibu school district.
“Malibu has learned its voice will not be heard, that its contributions will not make a difference,” Webster Elementary parent Craig Foster said. “Your closed minds have silenced the voices of your supporters in Malibu.”
The Malibu City Council voted unanimously Monday last week to support a petition to study the formation of an independent Malibu district. The petition would in effect be a negotiating process between officials in the cities of Malibu and Santa Monica, as well as the school district and other stakeholders, to come to an agreement on how to disentangle the two communities from shared tax measures currently benefitting the unified school district, as well as a host of other issues. At the end of that process, the Los Angeles County Office of Education would then make a determination whether separate school districts for Malibu and Santa Monica are viable.
First, the board must agree to support the petition and enter into negotiations with Malibu city officials. Malibu Mayor Laura Rosenthal, who as a private citizen led previous unsuccessful attempts to create an independent Malibu school district, urged the board to quickly place an item on its January agenda lending its support to the petition.
“Agendize this quickly so that we can begin working together,” Rosenthal said.
Meanwhile, the fundraising policy passed Tuesday last week by the school board would only apply at first to elementary schools, excluding secondary schools until current fundraising contracts with PTAs at those sites expire. Superintendent Sandra Lyon will create an advisory group of about 30 people by the end of January 2012 to settle on specific details of the plan. The group, comprised of various stakeholders such as teachers, parents, administrators and others, will meet with representatives from the Palo Alto and Manhattan Beach school districts, where centralized fundraising has been successful.
By June 7, 2012, a contract will be drawn up between the district and the Education Foundation identifying the foundation’s goals and responsibilities for fundraising. The contract would be finalized shortly thereafter. The Education Foundation would then take over responsibility for all elementary school fundraising by 2013.
The board said the initiative would improve equality in the district.
“I strongly and with a great deal of conviction support this policy,” Board President Jose Escarce said. “And I do so with tremendous optimism, because I see the incredible positives it could have.”
Board Vice-President Ben Allen noted that PTAs could still raise money for school supplies and activities, meaning they won’t be totally neutralized under the new policy.
Still, concerns over the policy were not limited to Malibu. Parents at some Santa Monica schools, as well as the district’s Financial Oversight Committee, have commended the school board’s goal but questioned whether the decision has been rushed.
A Nov. 27 Los Angeles Times editorial argued that school board had not performed the necessary outreach to the community to build support for the measure.
“At Santa Monica-Malibu Unified, district leaders have been moving their pooled-funding policy through the approval system without having adequately addressed legitimate concerns,” the editorial stated. “They should stick to their goal, but when it comes to redistributing people’s money, details matter.”