I submit this as a clarification of Ari Noonan’s commentary yesterday, “Permit Me to Say, Permits Dilemma Is Not Going Anywhere.”
The topic of “Permits” is one that has resurfaced during every election cycle I can recall in the 15 years I’ve been involved with our Culver City schools.
Periodically, the topic recurs in between elections as well. The School District has held presentations on the permit process at least three times I can recall in the past six to eight years during their twice monthly meetings.
Where Were the Critics?
Yet attendance at these presentations has been sparse even for active parents and citizens interested in the topic. Still there is no School Board policy to direct the Superintendent and her staff on how to manage the permit process.
Our District readily has acknowledged over- admitting permit students to the Middle School and high school a few years ago, resulting in the “overcrowding” that School Board candidates and a large number of parents have lamented.
Quality Programs
But the District has held a policy of allowing permit students into Culver City schools at least as far back as the 1970s, I am told. Fortunately, although there are no requirements to track the number of permit vs. resident students, our District began voluntary tracking of these numbers in the early 2000’s. As our resident student population grew during the 1990s, the School District added a number of outstanding programs and teachers, Japanese Immersion, the Academy of Visual and Performing Arts, expanded Scholars programs and expanded Advanced Placement programs, to name a few.
And when our resident student population began to decline three or four years ago, our District sought to maintain the student population at the same peak levels with students entering the District via permits.
Ineffective Move
The District’s goal was to maintain the same level of students along with funding to avoid eliminating programs and teachers. Undirected by the School Board as to how or what to do, this appeared to be a sound approach. But, as noted, it was not executed effectively. By supplementing our resident student population with permits, our District avoided painful decisions a smaller budget would force.
Our current permit population represents 19 percent of this year’s student body and 19 percent of the budget our District receives from the state of California.
Most of our permit students are transferring from the Los Angeles Unified School District, and LAUSD also is facing a decline in their enrollment.
A Prediction
At some point in time, it is expected that LAUSD will restrict those seeking to leave their district in the same manner Inglewood Unified School District has done already. When this happens, we could go from 19 percent to 1 percent from one year to the next.
Cutting 19 percent of any budget, household, business or school district, is not easy and certainly painful.
Having that amount cut out of our school budget in a single year would be toxic to our programs and teachers!
We need a Board policy to direct our Superintendent.
My suggestion has been and remains to:
1) Identify a working number of students each school site naturally supports,
2) Review each grade level at each site and only allow permit students into that grade not to exceed the approved student population for that grade/site.
3) Manage the budget to that level of revenue in advance of reaching the (lower) student population.
4) In conjunction with state law, set the bar for permit students so we attract those students we desire.
5) Uniformly enforce the “contract” permit students must sign to enter our District.
6) Set a Board policy to direct the District in this regard. This approach has the advantage of maintaining a workable student population without over-crowding, sets multiple year goals and expectations for student population all will understand and gives us a manageable approach to budget reductions.
Managing our student population to optimal levels goes hand in hand with a quality education for all.
It provides a road-map from which the District can ween itself from an unsustainable level of permit students, plan for the continued decrease in enrollment and make budget adjustments in a way that stays far away from the quality programs and teachers we currently enjoy.
Alan Elmont is a candidate for the School Board in Tuesday’s election.
