George Laase

A doubling of classroom time does not necessarily lead to a doubling in learning.

Although both tax increase initiatives have made it onto the November ballot – Gov. Brown's Prop. 30 at the top, Pasadena attorney Molly Munger's Prop. 38 near the bottom – here is one important difference: Prop. 38 prevents the state Legislature from having any influence over how the new revenue is spent. Prop. 38 accomplishes this by sending the revenue generated directly to the individual school districts. That should keep it out of the state's sticky fingers. The amount received by each school district is to be based on its enrollment, not on the state's Average Daily Attendance (ADA) figures. Once beyond the state's reach, only local school boards could decide what to do with the funding from Prop. 38.

The weekend's Fiesta La Ballona competition between the old District guard, the Parent-Teachers Assn (PTSA), and the new, up-start kids in the School District, United Parents of Culver City (UPCC), was the much-anticipated event in the city.

On one of the premier days of his photography career, the versatile George N. Laase captured a supremely dramatic interlude at Fiesta La Ballona last Saturday night:

According to the website for the Molly Munger-sponsored Prop. 38 (YES on 38 - Money for our Schools NOT Sacramento // Welcome) on the Nov. 6 ballot, which promises funding for schools while bypassing the state Legislature, here is the apparent pledge for Culver City schools:

School Board member Kathy Paspalis was interviewed yesterday by this paper, saying, “Equity at all of the schools really doesn't make sense from a programmatic standpoint. They all have different needs.”

Supporters of Gov. Brown’s Prop. 30 say that it’s all about the public schools. But the California School Board Assn., which favors its passage, admits that Prop. 30 will not provide any new funding for our public schools. So is it really about public education? Or about sustaining the status quo? As if, leaving things as they are really is an acceptable alternative.

With the latest droll missteps by the School District in giving its triple-step marching orders to Culver Park High School, the community has lost its confidence in the District’s administration and in the information it releases.

I wonder if School Board members are aware that Culver Park High School was on the El Marino Language School campus long before the Immersion program moved there from El Rincon, in the early 1990s. So, in fact, one could just as easily argue that the Immersion program is infringing on Culver Park, and not the other way, as it is being portrayed.

Open letter to School Board members: