The Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District is only about 51% of the way toward its fundraising goal of $4 million for this academic year, according to data reviewed during last Thursday’s School Board meeting.
Should the district not earn its goal amount, it is up to the SMMUSD Board of Education to determine what, if any, programs will be on the chopping block, or figure out a way to provide students with the programs and services to which they’ve become accustomed.
Some board members feel that Malibu parents, who have in the past expressed discontentment with districtwide fundraising, have been lagging behind in giving.
As of the Thursday, April 18 meeting, the district had earned a total of $2,058,168, according to Santa Monica Malibu Education Foundation (SMMEF) Executive Director Linda Greenberg.
According to Greenberg, fewer individual donors have stepped forward to pledge in the 2014-15 school year, totaling 2,080 families, down from approximately 2,500 in the 2013-14 school year.
Greenberg added that those who donated gave more this year, though, bringing family donations up to $946,000 “and change” this year, compared to $728,734 last year.
“What the trend is showing is that fewer people are giving but those that are giving are giving more,” Greenberg explained.
“We are going to keep fundraising until the end of the school year, and then we’ll start all over again, because this is an annual campaign,” Greenberg went on to say.
As for what can be done, no official decision will be made until the May 4 SMMUSD Board of Ed meeting at the earliest, though the Board agreed that certain programs should be protected, such as elementary school literacy coaches and instructional assistants.
Board Member Craig Foster suggested that though cutting programs should not be an option, parents would likely be incentivized to donate based on “programs that really excite parents.”
“You give them an art program, you give them a music program where they’re up dancing — you give them an incremental program, and you’ll have them reaching into their pockets,” Foster suggested.
Foster went on to say the best way to go about with the incremental program would be to accept, first, that donations generally plateau at $2 million, based on the giving that went on in 2013-14 and 2015-16.
“I think we should take $2 million worth of these programs into our budget, I think we should … ask $2 million for next year, and I think we should increment our programs upwards if we can surpass $2 million,” Foster said, “We can’t back off, we can’t cut programs, we can’t accept less.”
Fellow Board Member Maria Leon-Vazquez, herself a Santa Monica resident, then suggested that another way to fill the funding gap is for Malibu parents to step up.
“The biggest piece is … In Malibu, I don’t think we can get our parents on board,” Leon-Vazquez said. “They’re at the point where they’re just waiting until they can break [away from the unified school district.]”
Malibu residents have in the past expressed support for breaking away from the SMMUSD, including creating the nonprofit AMPS, Advocates for Malibu Public Schools, which Foster was president of during the time he was elected onto the School Board.
Foster took exception to Leon-Vazquez’s assessment of current giving.
“What I’d like to say is, Malibu is 17% of the district and the success … of this plan doesn’t rest on 17% of the district,” Foster said. “That’s not productive for what we’re doing right now.”
Board Member Richard Tahvildaran-Jesswein agreed with Foster.
“It’s not clear to me that it’s just one community not giving,” Tahvildaran-Jesswein said. “There are areas in both places.”
Board Member Ralph Mechur sided with Leon-Vazquez.
“The numbers show that there are segments of our community that for… reasons that they have, are not participating to the extent that one would expect.” Mechur said.
“People can not like what I say,” Mechur said, “but at the end of the day, if they have the capacity and aren’t participating in our grant program, the people who are hurt are the kids.”
Board President Laurie Lieberman said that the numbers don’t lie.
“It’s not pointing fingers to look at the data to say what we are and aren’t making, and where we are and aren’t raising it from,” Lieberman said.
“What I see is, generally speaking, I think our participation is too low overall. I think the Malibu participation, which can’t be missed, is better than it has been, but it’s lower than anywhere else,” Lieberman said.
Requests to the district for more specific numbers regarding Malibu’s participation in funding were forwarded to Greenberg, who did not provide the data by the time The Malibu Times went to print.
According to the SMMEF website, all Board Members have themselves donated to the fund, with the exception of Oscar De La Torre and Vice President Jose Escarce.
Lieberman did agree with Foster in regard to raising funds for “something that’s aspirational.”
“I think it would be better to not make people raise funds for what they already have,” Lieberman said.
District staff report they will compile various “scenarios” for funding options in the upcoming school year to present to the board on May 4.