[Editor’s Note: Eleven days before the July 1 School Board meeting that may/not have doomed the bond measure campaign for this year, School District Supt. Dave LaRose, in a 500-word letter intended for all eyes in the community, addressed the need for a bond measure that may be headed for a revival.]
June 20, 2013
Dear CCUSD Families, Friends and Neighbors,
It is truly an honor to serve as a CCUSD team member. Our District and entire community model a true partnership – sharing a deep commitment to education, a generous sense of collaborative responsibility and an unwavering belief in all children. Our children benefit from this shared mission, learning and grown in an environment that is both rigorous and nurturing; challenging and creative; demanding and inspiring.
Our student achievement trends are impressive and are a primary indicator of a school system and community sharing high expectations for student and school performance. One well-known indicator of our District’s success is the fact that every CCUSD school has been designated as a California Distinguished School since the program’s inception.
Our students today face different challenges than students did a generation ago. State and federal legislation; Common Core standards, technology, and an ever-changing career landscape require teaching and learning that is relevant for today’s world. While our fundamental purpose remains the same – to ensure high levels of learning for all students – our students and teachers require practices, experiences, environments and resources that meet the demands of today.
Our District recently has completed a much-needed School Facility Assessment. This initial step to better understand our current reality involved parents, teachers, community members, District administrators and professionals in the field of school facility planning and modernization. This assessment will allow us to develop a detailed Master Facility plan that includes comprehensive Core Fundamental Facility Standards throughout the Culver City Unified School District. These standards would address the needs identified within the School Facility Assessment and will ultimately provide our students with the modern, upgraded facilities they require for school and future success. Due to years of deferred maintenance and economic challenges, these upgrades simply would bring our schools up to the standards that exist in many of our neighboring districts.
The most common way for school districts to fund extensive renovation and modernization projects is to propose and pass a local school bond measure. Bond funding can be used for repair, new construction, and modernization projects, and is subject to an annual independent audit for taxpayer protection. As you are most likely aware, the CCUSD community generously passed such a measure in 2001 to fund projects in the first phase of modernization.
Our community clearly values and expects high quality educational opportunities for all students. We share in and take great pride in a vision that refers to our District as “A Family of Schools.” This vision and cooperative spirit is at the core of our decision to become more intentional about our school facilities. In the coming weeks, we will be thoughtfully sharing all that we have learned from our Facility Needs Assessment. Our goal is to partner with all community stakeholders to develop a Master Facility Plan and Core Fundamental Facility Standards that will address the improvements our campuses need and our children deserve. I encourage you to become actively involved in our efforts to accelerate teaching and learning in CCUSD through the modernization and upgrade of our deteriorating school facilities.
