By Debbie Hamme
The Assn. of Classified Employees — Culver City, the union that represents the support staff (clerical personnel, instructional assistants, food service workers, maintenance and operations staff, and security staff) of the Culver City Unified School District, has completed its interview process of the candidates that are currently running for the three available seats on the School Board.
We are pleased to announce that the following candidates have received our endorsement: Karlo Silbiger, Kathy Paspalis and Robert Zirgulis. We feel that each of these candidates will bring a unique perspective to the Board and will work exceedingly well with (holdover members) Scott Zeidman and Steve Gourley as we face the fiscal challenges of the next two years.
On a final note, we would like to thank Dr. Jessica Beagles-Roos, Dr. Dana Russell and Mrs. Saundra Davis for their many years of selfless dedication to the School District. We wish them well.
Debbie Hamme, President of the Assn. of Classified Employees — Culver City, may be contacted at antiquer01@aol.com
Why Support Measure EE?
By Robert Gray
We have great schools in Culver City, and we have many parents and residents who work tirelessly and selflessly to keep it that way.
As a parent with children currently at Farragut Elementary and the Middle School, I can assure you that we have excellent and dedicated teachers and staff who are second to none.
People still move to Culver City for the schools, and I feel Culver City would be a far different place if we didn’t have our own school district with quality schools.
It is becoming too rare a privilege for people living in urban areas to be able to send their kids to quality public schools in their own neighborhoods.
I hope this is something Culver City will fight to preserve.
Are our Culver City schools really in desperate financial need?
Is the pending parcel tax, Measure EE, really needed?
The answer to both is yes, in my opinion.
Definitely yes. Having just survived the last round of budget cuts, the School District now faces millions more in cuts due to decisions made in Sacramento and declining state revenues.
Pretty much anything non-essential has already been cut. We need Measure EE, in addition to everything else we can do, just to make it through these very tough times.
I feel certain our schools need the money EE will provide based on my experience last year on the District’s Citizens Advisory Budget Committee, CBAC, as a representative for one of our elementary schools.
I saw how dire the budgetary situation is.
Everyone did the best he or she could to protect our students during last year’s budget cuts (maintain reasonable class size, keep critical personnel and programs, maintain safety) and preserve the core of our great schools.
The School District made painful cuts. Many people we couldn’t afford to lose were given pink slips. If there was some needless administrator or some marginal item or program, we would have recommended it be cut it in a heartbeat. There just isn’t any program or position I know of left to cut that won’t significantly hurt our schools and our kids’ educations.
Last year, the District was actually contemplating putting more kids in classrooms than our teachers (or any super human beings) could adequately teach.
No one was even sure if the kids would have fit in all the rooms.
Our School Board, many parents and others worked hard to avoid such actions last year.
Money from Measure EE will specifically go to critical things such as maintaining reasonable class sizes. All of the money raised will stay in Culver City schools.
The parcel tax revenue alone won’t be enough to address the huge budget shortfall. But it will greatly help maintain the quality of our schools. Please support EE and our Culver City schools.
Robert Gray may be contacted at grayusa@sbcglobal.net
For the parcel tax: info@yesonee.com
