HomeSchool Board Restores 9 Teaching Spots

School Board Restores 9 Teaching Spots

Encouraged by passionate pleas from community members and former students to rescue programs that have positively impacted their lives, the San Marino Unified School District Board of Education last Tuesday night voted unanimously to rescind layoff notices for nine of the 13 certificated employees remaining on the list of pink-slipped employees.
Using more than $848,843 that was donated to the San Marino Schools Foundation’s “We Are San Marino” campaign, the board was able to restore most of San Marino High School’s popular and successful speech and debate and drama programs, its Japanese language class, a full-time music position, four elementary core teachers as well as full-time science and elementary positions.
All that remains of the 31.2 full-time teaching positions who received “reduction in force” notices at the board’s March 10 meeting are two teachers, a counselor and a speech language pathologist. The other educators either elected to take an early retirement or accepted other positions. The Schools Foundation has since launched an incentive program that will include matching funds in hopes of filling the final four spots.
The previously eliminated speech and debate program received substantial support from the many who wrote the district or called into the meeting; among them is Matt Spence, a 1996 graduate of San Marino High School and national champion. Spence later received a diploma, studied at Oxford and served as a national security advisor for President Barack Obama. Spence was in the situation room with Obama during the raid that killed Osama bin Laden and he said that his experience in speech and debate was “instrumental” in his career.
“I think back to at least four different times that I feel concretely how speech and debate made an enormous difference,” said Spence. “It was the skills of careful listening I learned in speech and debate that allowed me to do that. It was the skills of rapid preparation that allowed me to brief the president of the United States.”
Board member Chris Norgaard acknowledged those who participated.
“All of the students who wrote and spoke for all of these programs and all of these teachers, just the most eloquent, heartfelt messages I have ever read,” Norgaard said. He then thanked Grace Davis, a senior at San Marino High School who serves as the ASB representative to the school board, who “turned this battle ship in the right direction,” according to Norgaard. At the March 10 meeting – the last in-person meeting before the COVID-19 shutdown, San Marino High School’s speech and debate program was honored for its excellent showings earlier in the school year. Later in the same meeting during a discussion on budget cuts, it was suggested by Assistant Superintendent Linda de la Torre that speech and debate be changed from a class to a club. During her student advisory vote, Davis pointed out the irony of honoring the speech and debate program at the beginning of the meeting while later entertaining the notion of demoting it to a club. Davis voted “no” on the agenda item on March 10, but last week supported the re-hires.
“I wish to recognize the extraordinary efforts of Schools Foundation President Erin Bilvado,” said School Board president Joseph Chang. “I acknowledge her excellent leadership with her fellow trustees and staff. She and her fellow trustees have worked countless hours to spearhead the ‘We Are San Marino’ campaign.”
Additionally, the board heard the second reading of and later approved a legacy inter-district transfer permit program, whereby the grandchildren of those who have lived in San Marino for 10 years will be eligible to attend SMUSD schools to help offset declining enrollment. The motion was approved by a 5-0 vote, with Davis approving as well. The program will go into effect immediately, but the prospective students must be released by the district in which they legally reside.
“I recognize the reality,” said Board member Corey Barberie. “Young families can’t afford to buy $2-plus-million-dollar homes in San Marino.”
Board member Lisa Link said she has heard “a great deal of positive” about the program, which was first implemented in Beverly Hills.
The board also voted unanimously to take out a $6.8 million tax and revenue anticipation note, or TRAN loan. The district received a similar loan for the 2019-20 school year and expects to pay it off by July or August of this year. The loan carries a 1.85% interest rate.
“This is to manage our cash-flow situation,” said de la Torre.
“This is a pretty typical thing for a district our size,” Barberie added. “A district our size without significant reserves can’t make it through the year.”
The district has a monthly payroll tab of $2 million and its reserves have dropped to about 3%.

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