Malibu High School and Middle School students are taking part

Students who have fallen behind in their studies since the COVID-19 pandemic are being given a chance to catch up through a tutoring program that started in 2020. The program was encouraged by the late Dr. Jacqueline Mora, who served as assistant superintendent of educational services at Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District. Today more than 100 needy students are taking part in the free program that’s funded through the Santa Monica Education Foundation.

One of the companies contracted to provide free tutoring is SimplifiEDU. Its CEO, Jake Adams, explained that during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic many students fell behind during remote learning. Distance education can require additional support for those not equipped for technological aspects of remote education. There was a targeted effort to reach students with the most need: students in what’s called “tier 3.” Students who met academic and socioeconomic requirements with teacher referrals were first approached in 2020.

SimplifiEDU and a couple of other tutoring companies were vetted by Mora and two other SMMUSD coordinators to provide the free service funded by grants. 

“Our program is unique from what other aid is being provided,” Adams said. “We don’t have a curriculum. We work through the student’s problem at hand to help students get past a certain marker or state standards. The value that Dr. Mora saw in the program is basically this idea of having an adult teacher/mentor being able to invest in a student and their education.”

Most of the tutored students start their programs on a D or F level in the classroom. 

“They aren’t doing well in their classes and are being referred to us,” said Adams, who explained that so many children were falling behind in 2020 when the program rolled out, a lottery had to be held to enroll students: “We initially took nearly 100 students.”

Initially, students were allotted once-a-week remote sessions. All tutoring is one-on-one.

“It doesn’t matter where the student is at; if they’re super far behind in their homework or working on a certain concept, we meet them where they are and work to help them get back on their feet academically,” Adams commented. “To have that tutor there to help them get through the class and get through what’s required of them navigating distance education, having a tutor is so helpful.” 

Many of the tutors are graduate or college students who understand the infrastructure of online classes and navigating through academic struggles. 

Adams stated, “We’ve seen some great results. A lot of kids seems really engaged. Some went from D or F level to being able to pass the class and getting into C’s, A’s, and B’s. We’ve had great results with just once a week.” 

Tutoring has now been expanded to twice weekly. Subjects include math, English, science and social science.

The tutoring program was initially rolled out to middle school students. In 2023, the free program opened to high schoolers. 

Currently, SimplifiEDU is supporting about 100 students in the district, seven from Malibu.

“Dr. Mora and SMMUSD staff were super in supporting these families. The district provided devices to students who needed them. A lot of parents have said they really appreciate this,” commented Adams.

Note: the current 2023-2024 school year is filled. 

SMMUSD spokesperson Gail Pinsker emailed, “It’s based on narrow criteria to support our students with the greatest need. It’s important for parents to understand that criteria includes: English learners, socio-economically disadvantaged, Black/African American or Hispanic/Latinx. 

“This program is set for the year with the invited qualifying students who opted in by the fall deadline.

“That’s it for this program for this school year.

The letters went out in late August 2023 after review of Spring 2023 test scores, evaluations and meeting other criteria as noted.”

Pinsker emphasized, “We do not promote this program or have interest in people contacting us for more information as this is not an open program to families other than this very narrow group who qualify. 

“As noted, only 44 middle and high school students in Malibu qualified for this school year.

It’s a very small group of students who need the additional support.”

Currently, three MHS and four MMS students are enrolled. Although qualification letters already were sent, SimplifiEDU has three spots open to provide the same service to other families in the Malibu area. 

Two requirements are past state standards tests proving the student is below grade level in math, English, science, or social studies and proof of participation in another need-based program at school. Contact info@simplifiedu.com.

Rehabilitation specialists, some battling addiction and some who are sober curious, gather to discuss the fentanyl crisis

By Barbara Burke

Special to The Malibu Times

The statistics are absolutely astounding. Malibu and our country are facing what some experts characterize as the “fourth wave” of the opioid epidemic, according to a report last week from Millennium Health, a laboratory that monitors the use of illicit drugs and prescription medication. The study reveals that an overwhelming number of fentanyl-positive urine samples taken from addicted persons — almost 93 percent — contained additional substances. 

According to Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute of Health’s National Institute of Drug Abuse, the combination of methamphetamine and fentanyl use has risen meteorically since 2015 — by 875 percent. 

They gathered at Malibu’s newest rehabilitation center, Carrara Luxury Rehab Center, to discuss the insidious effect of fentanyl.

“We are out of time!” said Richard Taite, director of Carrara, founder of Cliffside Malibu, and one of those who journeyed from addiction, to a somber audience of attendees, some of whom provided testimonials about their addiction battles, some of whom explained the horrifically agonizing effect of losing a loved one or friend to addiction and some of whom were sober curious.

“When I was a kid, you could experiment with drugs and alcohol,” Taite said. “Kids today don’t have that rite of passage. We need to remember that kids who are under 25 years old feel indestructive — their frontal cortex is not fully developed. When I sold Cliffside a little more than five years ago, fentanyl was not a thing.” 

Taite returned to the world of treatment centers in response to the crisis, he added.

Voices of Recovery 

Taite hosted a Voices of Recovery discussion panel on Feb. 25, where fentanyl awareness advocate Parker Noriega shared her heart-wrenching story about losing her brother, Cooper, to fentanyl in 2022, and other panel members recounted their struggles with the treacherous substance.

“The epidemic of fentanyl that is gripping our nation changed my family’s life forever when we lost Cooper,” Noriega said. “ Fentanyl, a synthetic opioid, is a silent killer you cannot see, smell, or taste. Although it’s hard to imagine, fentanyl is up to 50 times stronger than heroin and 100 times more potent than morphine — it lurks in the shadows, disguised in counterfeit pills or mixed with other drugs, waiting to unleash its deadly grip on unsuspecting victims.”

Illicit fentanyl is flooding our streets through illegal drug markets and has become a weapon in the hands of traffickers, Noriega added

“It’s added to substances to make them cheaper, more potent, and tragically, more addictive, causing a surge in deaths, with statistics climbing daily,” she said. “It’s a grim reality that 2 milligrams, equivalent to just five grains of salt, can kill a person instantly.”

Taite noted that fentanyl is responsible for 200 deaths a day. 

“Two hundred families’ lives are ruined every 24 hours,” he said, noting that country musician Jason DeFord, more popularly known as Jelly Roll, recently spoke on Capitol Hill and compared those statistics to a commercial airplane crashing every single day in America. 

Entertainment personality Renee Graziano (“Mob Wives,” “Celebrity Big Brother”) characterized herself as “a grateful recovering addict,” and shared, “My message is as real as this disease which is plaguing this country. If the disease of addiction would have told me that I was going to rob my son of 13 years of his life, would be self-medicating the day I buried my father, my sister who I love dearly would stop speaking with me for a year and a half, would overdose four times, causing my son to have to come to the hospital thinking it was the last time he would see me, and about the heartache and pain I caused my parents and family, I would have fought harder. Matter of fact, the disease of addiction did tell me that, but I was too high to hear it.”

Taite further addressed the overwhelming tragedies caused by insidious, diabolical fentanyl. 

“We lost more than 100,000 people to fentanyl last year and it is projected we will lose 150,000 this year,” he said, characterizing the crisis, as “a love call that means that we need to love on those who are sick with this disease — they come to us broken and we need to love them as they go through the process of fighting this challenge.”