Malibu High principal taking new job, Juan Cabrillo principal stepping down
Malibu High School Principal Mark Kelly will be taking a new position within the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District at the end of the month, superintendent Sandra Lyon said in an email to parents. Kelly will serve as the new Director of Student Services following the retirement of current director Marolyn Freedman at the end of June. A new principal will be selected for the 2012-13 school year.
“I am grateful for the wonderful support from students, teachers, staff, parents and the community throughout my eight years as principal,” Kelly wrote in a letter to parents. “Serving as principal of Malibu High has been one of the most rewarding experiences in my career, as well as one of the most humbling. It is the right time for me to leave and to accept this new responsibility.”
Kelly has been principal at Malibu High since 2004. A job description for the position of Malibu High School principal has been posted on the district’s website.
Additionally, Juan Cabrillo Elementary School Principal Barry Yates is stepping down. Pamela Herkner-Chasse will serve as the school’s new principal. According to a press release from the SMMUSD, Herkner-Chasse comes to the district from the Conejo Valley Unified School District, where she has been the Principal of Ladera Elementary School for the past four years. Before that, she served as adjunct professor and lecturer at California Lutheran University, principal of Sycamore Canyon School and principal of Glenwood Elementary School, among other positions in education.
Community group supports accused teacher, NAACP calls for removal
Members of the community have begun speaking out in support of Jennifer Gonzalez, the Malibu High School teacher accused by a ninth-grade student of slapping her during class. A recently created Facebook group titled “MHS Students for Gonzo” had grown to 2,484 members at press time Tuesday evening. The page has dozens of postings proclaiming Gonzalez’ innocence. The group’s description reads, “We all know these accusations are false. Let’s give support to Gonzo, who has supported all of us in more ways than one.”
Meanwhile, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) has spoken up in favor of the student. At the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District’s Board of Education meeting Thursday, the NAACP urged the board to remove Gonzalez for allegedly slapping an African-American student. Superintendent Sandra Lyon said the district is investigating the claims thoroughly, and so far has no indication it was a racial incident.
Dionne Evans, 15, alleges Gonzalez, her English teacher, publicly slapped her a few weeks ago for not completing her homework. The Special Victims Unit of the Sheriff’s Department confirmed it is investigating the alleged incident as a child abuse matter because it involves a claim of physical touching of a minor. Evans’ attorney, Donald Karpel of Beverly Hills, told The Malibu Times that while the criminal investigation proceeds he intends to seek civil remedies.
Evans told KTLA in an interview she was sitting at her desk on May 22 when Gonzalez walked over and struck her half a dozen times in the face. Gonzalez was reportedly mimicking a scene from the movie “Bridesmaids,” in which a character attempts to “slap some sense” into another.
Gonzalez continues to teach the class while Evans is completing her course work in the school library.
Hearing on Malibu High field lights set
A public hearing will take place during the City Council meeting on June 25 to discuss the application and approval for the installation and operation of four 70-foot permanent light standards on the main sport fields of Malibu Middle and High School.
The council meeting takes place at City Hall’s Council Chambers, 23825 Stuart Ranch Rd., at 6:30 p.m.
For more information, call 310.456.2489 ext.233.
Panga boat found near Malibu
A panga boat possibly carrying drugs was found on the coast near Pacific Coast Highway and Deer Creek Road around 1 a.m. Tuesday morning. Ventura County Sheriff’s officials responded to the incident per a request from U.S. Immigration and Custom Enforcement. Several people were reportedly detained at the scene. Further details were not immediately available.
This is the second report of a panga boat found in the area this week. Early Monday morning, two men were arrested after officials found one ton of marijuana in a disabled power boat off the coast of Oxnard.
School district budget outlook worsening
The Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District has to get its spending under control if it wants to stay out of the red in the very near future, school officials told the Board of Education Thursday.
The district shows deficits in each of the next three years, a pattern that will only get uglier if the state government continues to cut money out of public education, said Jan Maez, the district’s chief financial officer.
Maez mapped out three scenarios for coming years that she called “Best Case,” “Worst Case” and “Worst Case with Hope.”
Only in the best case scenario, which assumes no further cuts from the state level, does the district manage to maintain a fund balance by the end of 2014-15.
That balance is still $10 million less than the district has in the bank as the 2011-12 school year comes to a close.
In the other two, which assume almost $5 million in cuts from the state level, the district has a negative fund balance.
The “with hope” scenario optimistically assumes that the district will have $2 million in unspent funds each year. Although this has happened consistently over the past several years, it is not a budgeted savings and not a sure bet.
The negative numbers at the end of the third year in the two “worst case” scenarios could mean that the Los Angeles County Office of Education, which reviews school budgets, won’t accept the budget as it stands.
That could mean more cuts on top of the $2.5 million in reductions that the board approved after its Feb. 18 study session, in which it decided to cut positions and increase class sizes at some grade levels.
This text originally appeared in the Santa Monica Daily Press.
School board considers reorganizing Education Foundation
A professional consultant and a parent group told the school board last week that the Santa Monica-Malibu Education Foundation will have to reorganize itself from the top down if it expects to raise enough money to pay for programs at all of the district’s schools.
It came during an update on districtwide fundraising, a controversial policy the board passed in November 2011 that radically altered the way parents could donate money to public schools.
Rather than pay the salaries of teaching assistants or supporting arts or sciences programs at specific school sites, the districtwide fundraising model restricts parents to buying “stuff,” while entrusting the Education Foundation with raising enough money to pay for staff for programs throughout the district.
The policy is meant to impose some equity on a district that historically saw huge amounts of parent dollars flooding into some schools, while others languished in per pupil parent spending and the amenities it provided.
But if that’s going to work, the Education Foundation is going to need a lot more than a three-member staff, tiny office space and a few fundraising events a year, said Paul Lanning, a consultant with RPR Fundraising, LLP.
Lanning’s recipe for success involves a list of big donors and the institutional capacity to evolve from a community fundraising organization to a professional one.
This text originally appeared in the Santa Monica Daily Press.
PCH Bike Route Project to be discussed
The City of Malibu is hosting a meeting Saturday to discuss the project design strategies of the PCH Bike Route Project. The meeting, which is open to the public, will take place at 10 a.m. at the Malibu City Hall, 23825 Stuart Ranch Road.
For more information, call 310.456.2489 ext.254.