[Editor’s Note: In a controversial decision last month linked to state funding, the School Board of Beverly Hills voted to eliminate some permit students. One of the most plaintive, eloquent protests was issued by the student daughter of Howard Levine, CEO of Brotman Medical Center, Culver City. For further context, the Beverly Hills Courier’s report is appended to Ms. Christovich’s letter.]
Dear Honorable School Board Members:
My name is Amanda Christovich, and I am a seventh grade student at El Rodeo.
I have switched schools every two years up until I came to El Rodeo in the fourth grade. Moving schools was the hardest thing I have done yet in my life.
The feeling when you first walk into a classroom with 30 pairs of curious, judgmental eyes is one that I hoped never to experience again, but ended up doing twice.
Going to two different schools in four years was very difficult. You had a first year and a last year, and that was it. My time at those schools was like a novel, with a beginning and an end, but no middle, no story. I didn’t have enough time to feel at home.
Then I got to El Rodeo. The beginning was difficult; a lot harder than moving to Warner. But after a long time of getting used to the change, I had friends and a life there. It continued, bonds got stronger and I felt more at home. El Rodeo has, since then, become my second home.
I moved to El Rodeo on a permit, and it has been easily renewed every year. But almost in the blink of an eye, all of that has seemed to change.
I recently found out that the School Board was proposing a simple, easy plan to weed out all of the Permit Kids. I, as a seventh-grader, was safe. Until the end of eighth grade when I would be kicked out of the district, and the doors to Beverly High would be closed for my many permit friends and me. This is because of the California budget crisis, and there would be a large chance that Beverly Hills schools would go into a program called “basic aid.” This means that since the Beverly Hills property taxes exceed the amount of money that the state gives our schools per student, the funding from California would disappear, and Beverly Hills would operate on the property tax only.
There are two issues for kicking kids like me out of the school for that reason:
1. What if we don’t go into basic aid? If you vote to kick us all out and we don’t go into basic aid, you would deplete the per-student money that the state gives out and actually lose money. This would mean that your plan and idea would backfire.
2. My family is on the list of highest donors for our school. Most of the permit families give extremely generous donations to the school. If you eliminate that, where would the schools get the funding for performance assemblies, outside teachers, like the dance teachers from the Debbie Allen Dance Co.,or even the money for musicals and talent shows? What kind of school would we be without just those few activities that the permit families actively, financially and personally, support?
If you kicked me out of my home, the Beverly Hills School District, I would be lost. You might say that everyone can recover. Everyone goes through it, and it’s not such a big deal. Just because people survived doesn’t mean it’s okay to inflict that kind of emotional damage on us kids. We have no control over our future until we are legal adults. It’s up to people like you to be our people, our families, our protectors. Does it really make sense that my straight A’s, my perfect record and all of the money my family contributes to the school will mean nothing at all? That in the end, my reward for all of my hard work is getting kicked out?
And I’m not the only one. If 500 students get kicked out of the district, what about the teachers who are going to lose their jobs because their positions are no longer needed? How does this help the economy? How does this help the families of those teachers? How is this going to make life in Beverly Hills better? El Rodeo provides a sanctuary, a home. And so will Beverly High, I know. It is significantly important to myself, my permit friends and my non-permit friends as well that we move on together into high school. My mother once called the BHHS halls home, and so did my aunt and uncle. My life is in Beverly Hills. Not only have the permit students been friendly with each other, but we’ve become so close to Beverly Hills residence students as well that kicking us out would also break bonds and friendships of natural Beverly Hills school students, which means this would affect them, too.
And all I am asking you to do is to consider us, the kids, and how even though you can disregard their displacement as a minor issue that everyone goes through, the kids can’t. Why can’t we stop and think about the causes of our actions? This isn’t black and white. This is deciding the future of 500 students. You are the respected School Board members. You are supposed to decide what is right for the schools and the children in them. Is the right thing to do to quickly boot out 500 children of your student body? Correct me if I’m wrong, but as far as I can see, that isn’t exactly in the best interest of our students.
I know the quote, “May you have a strong foundation when the winds of change shift.” This quote, from a Pepsi commercial of all things, has wisdom in it. If you kick me out of your district, what foundation will I have when the winds of change shift? What foundation will any of the permit kids have when the winds of change shift?
Thank you for taking the time to read and consider my letter.
From the weekly Beverly Hills Courier
By Amanda Peabody of
the Beverly Hills Courier
The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times and various other media outlets are inaccurately reporting the decision made by the Beverly Hills unified School District Board of Education (Jan. 14).
In a security-laden meeting that stretched to almost midnight, the board voted to oust roughly half of the reported 470 “permit” students.
The New York Times stated in an article posted to their Web site Wednesday that the “board voted Tuesday night to dismiss roughly 470 students enrolled in its schools on out-of-district permits.”
In actuality, the board voted to non-renew permits for less than half of the reported number.
The decision follows a contentious two-year debate as Beverly Hills Unified School District prepares for a restructure in funding. BHUSD will no longer receive state monies and instead be funded through City tax dollars. The transition, called basic aid, no longer allots state-provided average daily attendance (ADA) dollars to the 775 students on permit. Of those, 484 are classified as “opportunity,” or permits that are open to any non-resident. The move to non-renew the elementary and middle school permits will eliminate an estimated 200-plus students.
Opportunity permits for students in kindergarten through sixth grade will not be renewed. Seventh grade students will be invited to apply for a 2010-2011 opportunity permit and granted graduation through eighth grade. Eighth grade students will be allowed to finish the current school year but will not move on to high school.
“The story reported by The Courier is an accurate reflection of the events that transpired at the board meeting,” said board member Brian David Goldberg. “The New York Times statement is an absolute fabrication and misstatement of what the board did Tuesday.”
The Los Angeles Times has since amended their story in response to The Courier’s accusation of inaccuracy Wednesday.
In the nearly five hour meeting, over 50 speakers approached the board pleading for a resolution–often with accusations, condemnations or, in some cases, offers for a solution. The position of the board was clear, however: the business of the district is to provide for resident students first.
“Why can’t people who live three- to five-miles (from City limits) move in,” asked board Vice President Lisa Korbatov. “I am emphatic for the students; I am emphatic for the parents. But you have to plan.”
“The children on opportunity permit are wonderful kids,” said board President Steven Fenton. “There are compelling arguments on both sides. I want to believe that everyone here is making the best decision possible for the school district and the city of Beverly Hills… People think the Board of Education is making the decision for the parents. We are not. It is the parents.”
Board member Jake Manaster called for an immediate recertification of all BHUSD students and verification of resident addresses.
“I find it tacitly unfair to be discussing the kicking out of kids on permit while there are many people using illegal addresses,” said Manaster. “I am here to say to those that are illegally here, ‘you better find a new address.’” Manaster called the predicament the board finds itself in a symptom of an ailing state education budget and asked for donations to Beverly Hills Education Foundation, the only certified funding program equipped and able to effectively utilize charitable dollars.
The board directed BHUSD staff to draft an “FYI” letter for parents stating the new permit renewal terms, but it is in no way a legally binding document. BHUSD can not guarantee renewal under any condition.
“We will act with complete confidence on this letter, but I do not want to create a contract,” said Manaster.
“We will not deny anyone the right to apply for a permit,” said Superintendant Jerry Gross, calling the board’s decision “more lenient” than previously expected. “You are in a better situation than when you entered the room.”
The draft letter will be vetted by BHUSD legal counsel and made available to parents in the coming weeks.
