Custodial and clerical positions reduced; new teachers brought in at elementary level.
By Carolanne Sudderth/Special to The Malibu Times
The new school year has begun, and children returning won’t see too many changes from last year, despite the recent financial crisis schools statewide have been up against.
“The budget cuts haven’t hit too badly,” Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District Superintendent John Deasy said. The passage of Measure S, the property tax proposition, will allow local schools to loosen their belts a few notches.
“We’ve adjusted our budget,” Deasy said. “We’ve hired new faculty and new administrators. I think schools are starting off from a really great place. We’re really gearing up for a huge [success].”
Staff reductions have been primarily in the clerical and custodial areas.
“Those have been really reduced,” Deasy said. “But both of those areas are trying really hard to limit their impact. We’re going to have to work through that, but I think that we’re going to be okay.”
Webster Elementary School will be full of new faces, both young and old.
“Our school is absolutely full and overflowing,” Principal Phil Cott said.
And, as a result of increased enrollment, new classrooms are being added at the last minute at both Juan Cabrillo and Point Dume elementary schools, but not at Webster.
“We don’t have any room,” Cott said.
New teachers will also be brought in.
“Dume is hiring a teacher to handle our overflow and Cabrillo is hiring [one] to handle their own high numbers,” Cott said.
With 88 pupils, Webster’s kindergarten class is the largest ever-or at least within recent memory.
“I’ve been here for 14 years and this is the largest we’ve ever had,” Principal Cott said.
Several faces will be missed at Webster, and new ones introduced.
Teacher Bea Poole died last year and Joan Kaczorowski retired after a very distinguished career, which included teaching nearly every grade.
“She was one of the leaders of our staff,” Cott said.
Two young teachers moved to other states because “they just figured out that they would have an awful hard time having a family here on a public employee’s salary,” Cott said.
Victoria Winokur moved to Vermont to continue her teaching career, and Rick Dzula relocated to Nashville in the hopes of being able to make a better life.
“And those were two fabulous young teachers. They just had to move to other places to have a decent lifestyle.”
There will be four new teachers on hand as well. Lisa Spitz will help handle the surfeit of kindergartners. In the upper grades, Webster will welcome Shauna Donfeld, third grade; Carin Sanford, fourth grade; and Kristina Cook, fifth grade.
Webster curriculum will be about the same. Students can look forward to continuing math and language programs that were begun a few years ago.
“These are programs that were adopted district wide where every student in every school is using the same text. It’s really the first time [the texts] have been with district standards,” Cott said.
Cott’s advice for first-day parents is to start early and allow enough time. Parking and traffic are always terrible and these have been complicated by the closure of Civic Way Center.
“We’re working with the center to make that work-and we’re wondering if the whole thing will be abandoned.”
He offered one other suggestion, “Relax.”
“Don’t agonize over which teacher your child gets. Just be prepared to support the school and everything will work out absolutely beautifully. I’m sure that despite what they might say, [the children] are really excited to get back to school and begin learning again.”
Although the school district paints a rosy picture, other Malibu residents are still bristling over Measure S, the recently passed school parcel tax, which adds $225 to every property tax in the district. Malibu resident Tom Fakehany was part of the select committee that designed the parameters of S.
“There were 38 of us that sat down and worked on it, and then the school board and went and put in what they wanted. As soon as they got that parcel tax, they spent $170,000 moving buildings around at Malibu High. If [the district] is so tight, why didn’t [they] use the money on something else? We wanted the money to go to classroom instruction.”