Santa Monica High Schools gains six new teachers. District budget passes on ‘best-guess’ scenario, depending on budget changes in Sacramento.
By Jonathan Friedman/Special to the Malibu Times
In a last minute-decision, the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District (SMMUSD) Board of Education chose to create six new teaching positions at Santa Monica High School (SMHS) in place of bringing back several positions that were included in a designated restoration package. The idea behind the move is to bring the student to teacher ratio at SMHS closer to that at Malibu High School.
“For many years Santa Monica High School has been understaffed relative to Malibu High School, and understaffed relative to what I think any notion of what adequate staffing is in terms of teachers for a high school,” board Vice President Jose Escarce said.
Shortly after the SMMUSD made its $13.8 million in budget cuts, the board established a ranking of three packages for which jobs and programs would be brought back as more revenue was found.
The first package included the following positions returned by the parcel tax, Measure S: 66 classroom teachers, two nurses, the elementary music program, the fine arts coordinator, four custodians, four administrative positions, a fiscal services employee, a computer services employee, two personnel services workers, a career specialist and five elementary library coordinators. The second one totaled about $3.5 million, and was based on the amount of money the district hoped to get from the cities of Santa Monica and Malibu. With the City of Malibu giving the district $380,000 and Santa Monica donating $2.25 million more than its usual annual sum, the district was able to restore some of the items in the second package. The partially restored portion of the second package includes three fulltime and one part-time nurses, four elementary library coordinators, one fulltime and one part-time middle school library assistants, one high school library assistant, 10 fulltime and one part-time physical education aides and specialists, the physical education and health coordinator, three computer lab technicians, 11 administrators and office specialists, two personnel workers, two staff workers on special assignment, the fiscal services supervisor, the textbook coordinator and the summer school program.
The third package will only be able to be restored if the district finds an alternative revenue source, which Superintendent John Deasy admitted is unlikely to happen this year. Not included in any of these packages was the creation of new teaching positions at SMHS, causing concern for board member Mike Jordan.
“There is something a little weird to me and disingenuous about how all spring long we had package number one, all spring long we had package number two,” Jordan said. “And then we get down to the very night where we adopt the budget, and suddenly a whole new thing comes in.”
But Jordan supported the motion in the end because he said he felt its merits outweighed the problems.
With the creation of the new jobs, several second-package positions were taken off the restoration table. They included the personnel commission office, four custodians and one high school library assistant. None of these positions had been filled yet, so no person was losing a job at the expense of the creation of a new one. Keryl Cartee, chief steward of the union that represents the district’s classified employees, said she was concerned the classified staff was being treated with less respect.
“I just have a real growing concern for things to be balanced on the backs of classified support staff,” she said.
Cartee said she envisioned a situation where more teachers are brought back, while classified staff numbers remain stagnant, putting more stress on them.
“That’s going to build and build to the point where it’s not manageable anymore,” she said. “The administrators won’t be properly supported. The teachers won’t be properly supported.”
Cartee suggested moving some teachers from one high school to the other could lessen the ratio differential. Deasy said he could not support that.
“I think that the level of education services at one school should not get diminished so that another school can gain,” he said.
He added that he did not approve of what he called Cartee’s placing one group of employees against another group.
Although the district approved its budget, it still could change because so much of it depends on what occurs in Sacramento. While the legislators continue to battle over different proposals, the district was only able to pass its budget on a best-guest scenario. Deasy said he hopes there will be a clearer picture in August, at which time the district plans to take another look at its budget.