School Board Discusses Measure EE Funds at Meeting

In a meeting sprinkled with sometimes heated exchanges, the Culver City Unified School District Board of Education discussed the prioritization of Measure EE parcel tax funds last night at the Tuesday board meeting.

said at a that he wishes to extend the parcel tax measure, which is set to expire in 2014.

The measure calls for a yearly $96 parcel tax that will raise approximately $1.5 million annually for five years for Culver City schools. The money is used to fund math, science, art and music programs, technology and advanced placement classes. At the meeting, the board studied a breakdown of parcel tax allocations based on a budget from fiscal year 2010 to 2011 and discussed where the funds should be divided in the future.

Measure EE has been appreciated by many as a local measure that helps make up for dwindling state funds for education, forcing the district to require four furlough days for the 2011-2012 school year and discuss eliminating positions in the district. Many jobs, such as the , were restored to the budget earlier this year after much parent and union protest.

“What are the expected outcomes for this investment?” Siever asked, wanting concrete results regarding the parcel tax allocations from the previous school year. “I’m asking for what are the anticipated results for this prioritization for each category?”

The categories include: mathematics teachers, science teachers, art teachers, a library media clerk and an instructional materials clerk, among others. Assistant Superintendent Eileen Carroll said some positive results include smaller class sizes and more student involvement. “So many of these projects would result in higher student achievement,” Carroll said.  

While Siever was more interested in measuring progress, School Board Member Steven Gourley had other concerns.

“I don't know that there is an objective measure; however, I know what my objective was, and that was to save teachers' jobs,” Gourley said. “So classes would be smaller, and we got that. It would be worse now if we didn’t have this money.”

In response to Siever, said it would be challenging to see specific results in any particular category, given current budget losses to the district.

“Measure EE brings in approximately $1.2 million to our district,” he said. “It was not enough to cover our losses, so we’re not going to see objective increases because we don’t have the money we had before.”

However, School Board Member Karlo Silbiger said there is an easier way to chart the progress that has been made by looking at specific examples. “Had we not been able to hire these 12 teachers, this is how much the class size would have been instead of what it is now,” Silbiger said. “I think that’s the criteria Ms. Siever is looking for, and I think that could be pretty easily provided to us.”

agreed. She said the fact they have been able to retain teachers and a college counselor are in line with the measure’s overall goal.

 “We didn’t have to lose AP classes,” Jaffe said. “We were able to maintain what we have which I believe was the goal that people voted on.”

Jaffe agreed to provide the board with data that shows more specific information about any increases in the number of advanced placement classes and information about other categories affected by the parcel tax.

During the meeting, renovations at Culver City High School's Robert Frost Auditorium were also addressed by area resident Rania Daily, who referred to the community meeting held Monday night as “a great start.”

“We just want to be partners with you guys, allies,” Daily told the board. “We appreciate the step toward inclusiveness that was demonstrated yesterday. Inclusiveness will cause the project to go forward.”

During the meeting’s public comments, two school board candidates, and , alternated criticizing Zeidman on school board issues, including Zirgulis’ desire to use oil revenue to benefit the school district.

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