Curren Price Jr., the new state Senator, is off to a staggering start with the School Board.
He is not taking their calls or answering their messages.
Previously a one-term Assemblyman, he was overwhelmingly swept into a vacant Senate seat on May 19 by 70 percent of voters.
He may be vulnerable, though, when it comes to responding to high-profile constituents.
Going into Monday night’s special 7 o’clock budget-centric School Board meeting, two Board members, Steve Gourley and Scott Zeidman, are exasperated over being ignored by Sen. Price.
For more than a month, they have been unsuccessfully trying to reach Sen. Price — who has made it clear he does things differently — by telephone and by email.
Both members said they have not received even the barest acknowledgement from the senator or his people.
Facing the most critical, and entirely unsettled, fiscal crisis in the memory of any School District employee, Mr. Zeidman and Mr. Gourley have been trying to build a bridge into the ear of Sen. Price to help affect apportioning of funds from the state.
Are Milk Moustaches Next?
The witty Mr. Gourley, who knows the Sacramento culture from eyewitness experience, told the newspaper he was thinking about putting Sen. Price’s mug on milk bottles, as is done with dchildren who have disappeared.
Having been one of the first persons to unhappily tangle with Gov. Schwarzenegger afollowing his unprecedented election, Mr. Gourley said, not so delicately, “The governor is a moron.”
State (education) bureaucrats are among Mr. Gourley’s least favorite persons, including state Supt. Jack O’Connell, who made a very nervous appearance in Culver City this spring. “Virtually no one in state government has a vision for education,” Mr. Gourley said.
Mr. Gourley floated a fund-raising strategy at last Tuesday’s School Board meeting whereby employees earning up to $40,000 would take a 1 percent pay cut, those in the $41,000 to $60,000 range 2 percent, those in the $61,000 to $80,000 range 3 percent, $81,000 to $100,000 4 percent, and the rest 5 percent.
That proposition probably will be addressed at Monday’s meeting.
Meanwhile, Sen. Price isn’t talking to anybody in Culver City over how to help even though a cornerstone promise in his campaign was to create 11,000 new jobs.
Three weeks ago this afternoon, Mr. Zeidman dispatched the following email to Sen. Price’s office:
It was a pleasure speaking with you this morning. As I explained, District Director James Westbrooks suggested that I contact you.
I am a member of the Culver City Board of Education, and I would like to schedule a meeting with Senator Price. I will be inviting Culver City Unified School District Superintendent Dr. Myrna Rivera Cote to join us at the meeting. I anticipate that Dr. Cote may also bring one or two other individuals to the meeting as well.
While we are more than willing to visit with the Senator at your Inglewood office, we would welcome Senator Price to visit with us at any of our schools. This would not only afford the Senator an excellent chance for a photo opportunity (and positive media coverage) but also would give the Senator a first hand opportunity to view our schools. As he is a graduate of Morningside High School, I am certain that Senator Price is well aware of the tremendous value of public education.
Please let me know the date and location that the Senator will be able to meet with us. While I realize that the Senator is quite busy, I would expect that the Senator would be anxious to speak to us about public school education in California.
I can be reached via telephone at (310) 925-8207, and via email at Scott.Zeidman@LASlots.com
Dr. Cote can be reached via telephone at (310) 842-4248, or via email at riveracotem@district.ccusd.k12.ca.us.
Thank you again for your consideration.
Very truly yours,
Both Mr. Gourley and Mr. Zeidman have said on numerous occasions that they feel imprisoned by the skintight funding restrictions imposed on school districts by Sacramento.
For example, Mr. Zeidman said $6 million reposes in a fund marked exclusively for capital improvements, a low priority in Culver City under the present emergency circumstances. A district may borrow from that fund to cover teacher-type funding. But it must be repaid within a year. “How ridiculous is that?” Mr. Zeidman asked.
Sen. Price’s thinking and his sphere of influence on the subject remain unknown.
