Re “Zeidman Puts LAUSD Permit Policy Change into Context”
In the midst of the already exciting teacher-layoff season, the Los Angeles Unified School District unleashed a bombshell last week, a mass student permit revocation that has the Culver City district administration scrambling to respond and designing a long-term strategy.
Deficit-ridden LAUSD’s decision to impede 10,000 of the 12,000 students who transfer out every year — to recoup government funding — could inflict damage on Culver City beyond an estimated $5.7 million loss in annual state funding.
Too early to tell the exact impact, District Supt. Dr. Myrna Rivera Cote said this afternoon. But she is telling parents, Keep the faith, if you need a slogan. We will help you.
How serious is the potential loss of 1,467 students, about 20 percent of the student body?
“Nasty,” said Dr. Cote. “Devastating.”
Details to follow.
“We are gathering data,” Dr. Cote adds.
Asking how Culver City will emerge from the sudden loss of an unknown number of students is like asking who is going to win a war after only the first shots have been fired.
This is the dreaded nightmare of lurching from one crisis to another, from layoffs to a diminution of an unknown number of students.
Dr. Cote has been huddling with three sets of officials, from the adjacent districts of Santa Monica-Malibu and Las Virgenes, and from the County Board of Education. But the usefulness of their counseling with each other is in doubt because LAUSD appears totally in charge.
“There is no indication LAUSD is willing to discuss this with us,” Dr. Cote said.
Scrupulous Strategy May Backfire
After being so careful about teacher layoffs the last few weeks, she said, the Culver City District now faces the bizarre concept of opening in September with some teachers commanding empty classrooms. Since the jolting LAUSD permit policy revision officially was announced after March 15, the deadline for notifying teachers of layoff status, Culver City could find itself saddled with a disproportionate number of teachers.
Three school districts would stand to lose more than 1,000 students apiece — Santa Monica-Malibu, Las Virgenes and Culver City — and Torrance has more than 2,000 LASUSD transfers it could lose.
On the first day of the week, it is not clear how much more information Dr. Cote will have in 48 hours. She has scheduled a 90-minute public meeting with affected parents on Wednesday afternoon at 5 at the Robert Frost Auditorium on the Culver City High School campus.
In lieu of final answers or binding panaceas, Dr. Cote said Culver City and its two huddle partners, Santa Monica-Malibu and Las Virgenes, plan to provisionally enroll students whose parents already are appealing their permit transfer denials by LAUSD.
But the broad outlines of the early strategy still look tentative.
Here is Dr. Cote’s response last Friday to the school community:
NEWS BULLETIN
March 19, 2010
The challenges we now face due to the new LAUSD Permit policy are daunting. Below please find the information we have accumulated during the past few days.
• We currently have 1467 students in the Culver City Unified School District who are on permits from LAUSD. 332 of these students will fall into the “senior option” grades – 5th, 8th, 12th. They will be permitted to remain with us for one more year if the parent fills out a permit request with LAUSD. That leaves us with 1136 students who will be affected.
• The fiscal effect of losing those students will be a loss of $5.7 million to our unrestricted General Fund.
• There will also be a significant loss to Special Education and categorical funding. • The Office of Child Development will see a loss of approximately $150,000 in its before/after-school care program.
NEXT STEPS
• An Informational Parent Meeting will be held at Robert Frost on Wed., 3/24/10 from 5:00 – 6:30 (immediately preceding the Sexting Presentation).
• An informational letter will be mailed to affected families by Monday, 3/22/2010. • There will be follow-up meetings for parents on April 7th.
• We plan to re-enroll our students on a provisional basis – but their parents must be in the process of appealing a permit denial from LAUSD to be considered.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
• We are working closely with Santa Monica-Malibu and Las Virgenes School Districts as a consortium. Darline Robles, County Superintendent , has been very helpful. A conference call was held yesterday to specifically address our situation and another one is scheduled for 4/14/10.
• There was an excellent editorial in (Thursday’s) L.A. Times urging school districts, in times of budget crises, to not look at our students as “cash cows. Our students need and deserve the continuity of education provided in a school district that they and their parents have selected to attend.
I will keep you informed as new developments occur.
Dr. Myrna Rivera Coté
Superintendent
