PTAs Stripped of Major Fundraising Roles

Malibu's  Chambers attracts a large crowd on occasion, but the one meeting in 2011 where all the seats were filled was not a municipal function. The Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District board and staff were visiting Malibu in early November to present the plan for centralized fundraising, and the response was overwhelmingly negative.

Most of the Malibu residents in attendance  to prohibit school PTAs from being able to raise money for hiring personnel such as reading specialists and teacher aides (PTAs already cannot hire teachers) and to support programs and services eliminated due to SMMUSD budget cuts.

The concept, which is more a general outline than an actual proposal, was quickly put together by recently hired . It calls for the nonprofit Santa Monica-Malibu Education Foundation to be placed in charge of these efforts. It would also be the only entity that could receive corporate gifts of $2,500 or more. Money raised would be distributed equally among the schools in the district.

Nice idea, the Malibu parents said, but this is not Utopia; it is the real world. Schools were already struggling to raise money in these tough economic times. The situation would only get worse if donations were not going directly to specific schools. Parents would give less, if at all, and may even take their children out of the SMMUSD. The schools would suffer.

Critics also said the Education Foundation could not handle the assignment. The nonprofit would need to raise several million dollars every year, significantly more money than it had ever collected.

Another criticism was the speed with which the plan had been loosely put together, and that a solid proposal did not even exist. Lyon and the concept's biggest champion—school board President José Escarce—said there was no need to establish a complete policy until later. The priority was to get the concept approved.

Lyon gave a PowerPoint presentation showing school districts where she said this concept had worked, but Lyon admitted she had not done the research to find districts where it had failed. She also said she had not done any outreach with district stakeholders.

Following several hours of public testimony, a majority of the Board of Education made it clear they supported the plan. The next week, . It featured nearly 100 public speakers and lasted until the early morning hours. Speakers included supporters from Santa Monica and opponents from Santa Monica and Malibu.

One parent said it is "almost laughable to call this a public school system" because of the disparity in fundraising. In one extreme example,  in Malibu plans to spend $1,096 per student this school year on instructional personnel through money raised from the PTA, while  in Santa Monica is expected to spend $65 per student.

Another parent said, "Angry parents will not give. I'm sorry, they won't."

Many people said more information was needed before the board should give its OK. Malibu parent Charlene Underhill Miller quoted Simon & Garfunkel's 59th Street Bridge Song, saying, "Slow down. You move too fast."

A week and a half later,  (Ralph Mechur sat out because his life partner heads the Education Foundation) to approve the plan. The board called for the formation of a 30-person committee composed of SMMUSD stakeholders that would determine how to transform the ambiguous plan into a policy. Its recommendation will go before the school board for final approval.

In an attempt to assure Malibu residents that their schools will not suffer, a statement was written into the plan expressing the district's commitment to sustaining existing specialty programs at individual schools, such as the marine science program at PDMSS. Critics said this was a promise that could not possibly be fulfilled.

The policy could go into effect as early as the beginning of the 2013-14 school year, but no later than July 2014. By that time, Malibu could be on the path to forming its own school district. The night before the school board approved centralized fundraising, .

Mayor Laura Zahn Rosenthal, who is spearheading the effort, said this was not influenced by the centralized fundraising issue, but rather it was a plan many months in the making. However, community support will be needed to form a Malibu school district, and there is little doubt centralized fundraising will push many locals toward pro-secession sentiment.