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- What is the significance for our community of ensuring adequate funding for our school district, its programs, early childhood education and after school programs?
I’m sure many candidates will reflect that ensuring appropriate funding for our schools, early childhood development and after-school programs will help maintain real estate value and lower crime rates. While this may be true there is really one over-riding reason for this community to invest in children and it is to help them become all they can. Healthy, happy and educated kids and later as adults.
This community values it’s next generation and has always demonstrated this support.
- What priority would you attach to ensuring adequate funding for our schools, after-school programs, and early childhood developement in the city budget?
Funding our schools should be second only to public safety as a budget priority for our City. It should otherwise be above all other community needs.
- Are you familiar with and do you fully support the agreement negotiated for the City to provide funding to the School District?
I fully support the agreement reached between the City Council and CEPS to provide more funding for our schools. I might have been a bit more aggressive.
- Do you fully support providing the maximum level of funding for our schools under the City-School District agreement? Under what circumstances would you not be willing to do so?
I fully support providing the maximum level of funding under this agreement and would under no circumstances support giving less.
- If the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District faced a budget crisis brought on by circumstances outside the District’s control, such as by funding cuts from the State of California, would you be willing to support crisis funding to the District even beyond the City-School District funding agreement?
Should the district suffer further or future occasional cuts to the funding provided it by the State of California I would support crisis funding in addition to the current agreement and I would, as a Councilperson, seek additional local funding streams.
It is safe to assume that this State will, at times, experience further budget shortfalls and our community must provide to insulate our children from the disastrous effects this has.
- Please provide specific examples of how you have supported the district and the education of our youth? How have you shown leadership to ensure adequate city funding for our schools? As a council member, what kind of leadership will you show to address school funding?
In this election and among these candidates I am the person who is second to Patricia Hoffman as having had the most experience with supporting our public schools and demanding excellence for our children. Other candidates may have approved city funding as sitting Council members and may have had some limited PTA experience but, they all have far less understanding and direct experience supporting our kids.
I have been a PTA President at McKinley, Vice-President at Lincoln, a Vice-President on the Santa Monica/ Malibu Council.
I founded Save our Playgrounds and Citizens for School District Reform. While Citizens for School District Reform was controversial within the District it’s activism resulted in the the District making commitments for provide more meaningful financial oversight of it’s expenditures.
Few in this community had the courage to challenge the status quo and our small group effected change including that of District leadership.
I also was a member of the SMMUSD Childcare Taskforce, a school Site Governance Committee and a ES Oversight Committee.
As a Council member the education community and the communities children will have a friend and one who will assure that our school’s are never neglected.
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