Local parents want their children to be able to attend any school within the district, and have the right to do so before those who live outside school district boundaries can receive interdistrict permits.
By Michelle Logsdon/Special to The Malibu Times
Parents and their children living within Santa Monica Malibu Unified School District (SMMUSD) boundaries may face staying at the bottom of the district’s permit priority list if their voices are not heard at the school board’s meeting this week.
During its next meeting this Thursday, board members will decide whether to place intradistrict permits on the priority list above interdistrict permits for children of city employees.
Intradistrict permits allow children who live in Malibu or Santa Monica to attend a school within the district other than their neighborhood school. Interdistrict permits allow those who do not live within the city boundaries to attend SMMUSD schools such as children of employees in both cities, who live elsewhere.
The question facing the board this week is whether to move intradistrict permits above interdistrict permits for children of city employees, which give first choice to local parents. Earlier versions of the list did not include intradistrict permits at all, but it was later added to the bottom of the list.
The current priority listing is as follows:
1) Interdistrict permits for children of SMMUSD employees.
2) Interdistrict permits for children entering kindergarten, first, sixth or ninth grade who have siblings already on permit in SMMUSD, plus siblings of recent (within the last three years) graduates who attended on permit.
3) Interdistrict permits for children of employees of the cities of Malibu or Santa Monica.
4) Intradistrict permits for children who live in Malibu or Santa Monica and want to attend a school outside their neighborhood.
The issue of permit priorities arose out of a one-year permit moratorium that begins next month. In the past, the district allowed interdistrict permits as a means of increasing funding from the state. Districts are supported through the state-allotted Average Daily Attendance (ADA) formula, meaning they receive a set amount of funding per student based on attendance numbers. By allowing students to transfer in from other districts SMMUSD officials hoped to increase the district’s operating budget.
Unfortunately, the open-door policy led to overcrowding and parents began to complain about the possibility of a drop in the quality of education.
“The moratorium is the first step in bringing this situation under control,” said board member Jose Escarce. “Very few districts set out deliberately to reduce enrollment, and trying to do so poses all sorts of difficult puzzles and problems.”
One of those puzzles is the permit priority list that has undergone numerous revisions over the past several months. The priority list would kick in only if the district has space available and no one knows yet if it will.
A group of parents will speak at the meeting in favor of moving the provision for intradistrict permits to a higher priority than the other permits.
Approximately 20 parents called the school district inquiring about the meeting. Board Member Pam Brady said the parents she talked to want intradistrict permits first on the priority list or at least equal with interdistrict permits for district employees (SMMUSD has about 750 teachers and 750 classified workers).
Parent Deirdre Roney has a son at Webster Elementary School and wants him to attend Lincoln Middle School instead of her neighborhood school, Malibu Middle School.
“Lincoln is closer to me, but I understand that the new permit policy is necessary to solve the problem of overcrowded schools,” Roney said.
Roney believes the number of intradistrict permit requests for Lincoln Middle School could be up this year because the school recently won the 2001 Disney Spotlight School of the Year Award. Lincoln also received the 2000 National Blue Ribbon School of Excellence Award and the State Distinguished School Award in 1999.
Brady said she is reviewing the Education Code and talking with parents to try and make an informed decision this week.
Escarce said, “We have used several guiding principles in developing the moratorium policy, with the main one being keeping families together. In this regard, I personally feel very comfortable with a priority list that favors residents of our two cities who already have intradistrict permits.”
The Board of Education meeting starts at 7 p.m., Aug. 8, in the district administration building at 1651 Sixteenth St. in Santa Monica.