On the matter of evaluating an incumbent running for a new term, Scott Zeidman, President of the School Board, said the starting place is the condition of the schools when a candidate took office as compared to their state today.
“Four years ago when I started,” he begins, “we were totally and financially dependent on L.A. Unified for our well-being. We were headed toward disaster. You have to look at it across four years, 10 years, 20 years down the road, where we are going to be.
“We started a trend to decrease our reliance on L.A. Unified. In doing so, we are giving ourselves some financial independence we did not have before.”
Mr. Zeidman turned to changes that have reached the classrooms.
“We now have a grade-size maximum. It is a soft count. This insures that our district won’t overcrowd the schools. “Previously, it appeared the District was allowing as many to enroll as they could. This not only caused overcrowding but also would have led to catastrophic budgeting consequences.”
Mr. Zeidman said the listed objectives were achieved “through a lot of hard work and with a great Board.”
Controlling enrollment was a major Zeidman goal. “You have to look at this in a couple of ways,” he said. “I have yet to read any study in the world that says a bigger school is better than a small school. When you reach a certain level, 1500 kids, anything above that is going to be not positive for the children. I’ve yet to find a study that says ‘keep putting in more kids. It is better for them.’
“The concept makes sense to everybody in the public. However, because we get paid more in general, per student, than it costs to educate that student, even today with the budget cuts, as you lose students, you have to let go of personnel.
“If we do this the smart way, in a controlled, planned manner, a little bit each year, the personnel you lose, you can do it by attrition without letting go of a single position.”
(To be continued)
