A controversy almost bound to happen.
Like a smoking timebomb off in a corner that fails to draw needed attention, the barely noticed matter of parent-funded programs with conflicting guidelines throughout the School District has been hanging around for years.
The varied, inconsistent rules resembled a tangled mess that needed to be unscrambled, School Board member Laura Chardiet said this morning.
But no one did.
The perplexing pile was ignored until it was too late.
Speaking as a veteran PTA leader, Ms. Chardiet said that the PTA presidents from all District schools and the PTA Council board meet monthly at the District headquarters to review their activities and exchange ideas.
“Whenever the issue of parent-funded programs would come up – the question of what the proper system was, who was allowed to do what – it never was clear how those programs worked,” Ms. Chardiet said.
“Things were done differently at every school. There were different models.
“This has been going on for a long time, and now it has come to a head.”
That, Ms. Chardiet told the newspaper, is why last night she broke through the wall of caution formed by her Board colleagues in response to a dispute that has become public and ugly between hundreds of proud parents of El Marino Language School and the non-teachers union ACE, the Assn. of Classified Employees.
Ms. Chardiet seemed to shock fellow Board members while pleasantly stunning the parent-dominated audience at last night’s School Board meeting with a policy proposal she hopes will create equity and transparency for every school’s parent-funded programs.
“People are going to say that certain Education Code issues need to be addressed,” said Ms. Chardiet. “My motion and resolution basically outline what the Ed Code says. It is very legal.”
