Sixth in a series
Re “Driving by Sony Everyday Is a Thrill for Reynolds”
After moving out of Los Angeles as a little boy with his family in the early 1950s, returning to the metropolis only last October as the Assistant Superintendent for Business Services for the School District, how and why did Mike Reynolds circle back to Culver City?
“I will be very honest,” Mr. Reynolds said.
“My wife and I had a thriving business, called Mandated Costs, for 19 years.
“We served school districts throughout the state, helping them get more money in their General Fund revenues by filing what are called mandated cost claims.
“Every year, I would tell my wife Sandy, ‘They going to make this a unit rate and just give it away, so much money for ADA (Average Daily Attendance) (apportioned to each school district).
Year of the Right Prediction
“I said this every year for 19 years,” the Assistant Super said with a hollow, unfunny chuckle. “In the 19th year, they did.
“Gov. Brown, in his budget for the present year, said, ‘We’re going to give every district $28 for ADA. They can still go through all the claim filing – because it is a humongous task – if they want to. Or they can say, ‘Eh,’ and we will give them the $28.’”
That was dreadful news for Mike and Sandy Reynolds.
“Ninety-nine percent of our clients – they were all hurting for money, and this was before Prop. 30 passed on Nov. 6 – signed up for the $28,” said Mr. Reynolds.
He could read red flags all the way from the next county.
At 63 years old, the reality was, “It was time to go back to work.”
Coming Home
Consulting an online job-hosting service for educators, he espied an opening in Culver City that first developed last February.
“When I saw ‘Culver City,’ I said, ‘Hmm, that would be like returning to my roots.’
“I applied, and it just kind of clicked.”
Settling into what Mr. Reynolds hopes will be the final waystation of a career that has packed nomadic overtones – traveling from school district to school district – he talked about the bow that tied all of them together.
“There was a lot of commonality among the districts, and there also were cultural differences,” he said.
“Some districts did everything by the book, very formally, and others operated more like the Wild West. ‘This is our district,’ they would say, ‘and we are going to do what we want to do.’”
In that case, where does Culver City fit on the spectrum Mr. Reynolds just described?
“Culver City,” he said, “is a district that tries hard to do the right thing in terms of services to students and in following the Education Code. Yet the needs of the children, particularly under the (new) superintendent (Dave LaRose), are the top priority here.
“I never have been in a district so intensely focused on what is good for the kids. Everybody here is upbeat. With Dave’s leadership, he is totally focused on what is good for kids. I mean totally.
“Nothing is even on his radar.”
(To be continued)
