Formfully, Kathy Paspalis ascended to the presidency of the School Board two nights ago, and a caveat should be attached.
Even though the chair is occupied on a rotating basis, which sounds numbingly dull, each leader usually imprints his own unique mark.
As an attorney and the only non-educator among the five Board members, it remains to be determined whether Ms. Paspalis’s year-long reign will differ from her predecessor, Karlo Silbiger.
Leading off with the four-dimension but partially unpaid for capital projects program that has seemed like a slow-motion plan for the past year, Ms. Paspalis quickly shifted to an eye-catcher.
Given the School District’s budget deficit and the wait for uncertain state funding, “it may be time,” she said, “to talk to the community about whether they would like to do a bond.
“Here we have Inglewood, a nearby school district that was bankrupt and taken over by the state, somehow passed a $90 million facilities bond.
“If you take a look at our facilities, at what they could be and what they are, it is almost pitiful that we don’t have that same kind of opportunity here in Culver City.
“Then we could do what we want to do with the Robert Frost Auditorium.
“We could do what we want to do with the athletic field, and finally do something.”
At Tuesday night’s School Board meeting, Mike Reynolds, assistant superintendent for business, updated the progress on the four capital projects elements, parking lot solar panels, upgrading the athletic field, the Robert Frost and the state-mandated elevator system.
Not much seemed to have changed since a report last winter, two assistant supers ago.
“My experience of working with government, especially in education,” said Ms. Paspalis, “there is a slower than molasses pace that you just have to get used to.”
Still, she disagreed with the assessment of minimal progress.
“At the Frost, we have an architect and a feasibility study allocated,” Ms. Paspalis said. “We have moved along with the solar project. We have DSA (Dept. of State Architecture) approval on the athletic field, and we can’t move forward without their signoff.
“Those are all good pieces, and they are moving,” she said.
