The city’s vote on whether to give the school district a half million dollars is delayed for a month. Malibu parents express support for special education program and assistant superintendent Tim Walker.
By Jonathan Friedman / Assistant Editor
At an emotional meeting last week on Tuesday, several city officials criticized the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District’s alleged lack of cooperation since last year’s agreement to enact a moratorium on confidentiality agreements with special education parents. The council was scheduled to vote on whether the school district had honored the city’s demands from last summer regarding the district’s special education program, but the vote was delayed for approximately 30 days at the request of Superintendent Dianne Talarico so she could investigate allegations about violations of the moratorium.
Santa Monica officials last summer voted to withhold a $530,000 increase to the city’s annual contribution to the district unless it had an independent review done of its special education program and agreed to the moratorium. Last week’s meeting was to determine whether the district had met its end of the bargain.
Talarico told the council that since the moratorium was established, 28 parents have signed confidentiality clauses in settlement agreements for what is called the student’s Independent Education Plan. She said these clauses did not violate the moratorium because her staff told her they were signed with the parents’ blessing. But she said she has since learned this might not be true.
“It has come to my attention via the rumor mill … that some of the parents who may have agreed to the confidentiality clauses or requested them … felt that they were coerced into signing the confidentiality clauses,” Talarico said.
Several council members took offense to the term “rumor mill” and said they had received e-mails from parents saying they were coerced. Talarico said she had not received those e-mails. The council members suggested this is because parents were afraid to contact the district.
“One of the largest problems you have … they [parents] don’t trust you and they don’t trust your staff,” Mayor Herb Katz said. “And that becomes a problem.”
He added, “These people are still scared. And that is why I think they came to us. And they shouldn’t be coming to us.”
Talarico said she trusted her staff, but would look into the matter. She said she would report on the issue at the May 15 school board meeting. When asked by the council what would happen if it were determined staff members had done what was alleged, she said there was a “progressive discipline procedure.” She would not specify what that meant, despite pressure from the council to do so.
School board President Oscar de la Torre, who has been an outspoken critic of the confidentiality agreements, made a promise to parents at the council meeting. “Any type of abuse [by district officials] or any type of hostility will not be tolerated,” he said.
Mayor Katz expressed doubt that the school district had done what the city requested regarding the independent review and the moratorium.
“I am not convinced from listening to our superintendent that she’s going to do much over the next 30 days,” he said. “She hasn’t done anything yet. That bothers me.”
Several Santa Monica special education parents criticized the district at the council meeting. Many of these people also spoke at the past two school board meetings with similar comments.
Although they have been critical of the district for several years, the Santa Monica special education parents’ fury has intensified since last month’s release of the review of the district’s special education program by Lou Barber & Associates. The report states the district has a good program in several aspects, but it blasted many features, including what Lou Barber considered an overuse of confidentiality agreements.
The reaction to the report has been much different in Malibu, with parents in this city criticizing it for ignoring Malibu parents who had praised the district’s program to Barber during the preparation of the document.
At the recent school board meeting, several Malibu parents spoke positively about the special education program, and came to the defense of Assistant Superintendent Tim Walker. He has been under fire from many Santa Monica parents for what they consider his poor handling of the special education program.
The special education issue is not on the agenda for Thursday’s Board of Education meeting, which takes place at Malibu City Hall. However, there is an item on the closed session agenda regarding Walker’s contract. The closed session, which includes personnel and litigation matters, is not open to the public. But the public can come to the meeting to speak on a closed session item before the closed session begins.
The regular agenda for the meeting includes a discussion about the district’s Equity Fund, including a proposal to change its name to the Achievement Fund. The Equity Fund was controversially created in 2004. Fifteen percent of all gifts donated to a school in the district or the district as a whole must be placed in the fund. The fund is then distributed among the district schools based on a formula that takes socioeconomic standing, student populations and education abilities into consideration. Many Malibu parents criticized the creation of the fund.
A three-year contract with a 3 percent raise for classified employees (people who are not teachers or administrators) is also on the agenda.
The meeting begins at 4 p.m., with the board going into closed session shortly after that. The public portion of the meeting is scheduled to begin at 5:30 p.m.