I find it ironic that Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District (SMMUSD) has wasted time, money and resources to get out a “Parent Engagement Survey” when many of their very “engaged” constituents have been showing up at Board meetings, hoping to be heard, and finding their concerns and requests falling upon deaf ears.
I sent this letter to Sandra Lyon and the Parent Teacher Association (PTA) leaders in response to the survey:
“Despite my fondness and gratitude to the PTA for all that it does for our kids and schools, I will not be filling out the joint SMMUSD/PTA survey that came home today.
I, and many others, have collectively spent thousands of hours throughout the last year trying to get the SMMUSD Board to hear our pleas to clean up the PCBs at Malibu Middle School/Juan Cabrillo Elementary and, prior to that, to hear our point of view on VSS — to no avail, as a matter of fact, they never opened their ears to listen.
I am now spending my valuable time home schooling my daughter because I’m not about to put her health at risk, due to the causal effects of PCB exposure. I know of dozens of others who have had to do the same or are having to pay thousands of dollars (over and above tax dollars we already spend for a public education) to send their children to independent schools.
I will continue to fight for what is right for our children, but I will not waste a single second being patronized by a survey that I know will not change one single thing that is important to our family nor provide any benefits for my child or the children of Malibu. Been there, done that.
There are many, many Malibu families in a lot of turmoil and pain over how to educate their children in a safe and healthy environment that is not being provided by SMMUSD. A Parent Engagement Survey now is not only bad timing, but it’s a slap in the face to those of us who have tried for years to have our voices heard to only fall on deaf ears.”
Teri Carcano, parent of a third and seventh grader doing ISP