Malibu PTA Members Briefed by School District’s New PR/Fundraising Firm by Kristina Kell

Grassroots Group Explores Legal Ways for Private Donations to Be Used Solely at Local Schools

Linda Gross, the executive director of the controversial Santa Monica Malibu Education Foundation, arranged a meeting Monday afternoon at Webster Elementary School between the SMMEF’s newly acquired public relations/fundraising firm, PRP Fundraising, LLC, and Malibu PTA members. PRP executives Paul Lanning and Richard Mahan addressed a group of Malibu PTA members, to describe their new role as paid consultants specializing in public relations, marketing and fundraising.

SMMEF is the entity that is slated to replace the Malibu and Santa Monica PTAs as the sole fundraising organization in both cities and is responsible for all funding disbursements to the schools under the direction of Superintendent Sandra Lyon. The SMMEF’s website states it is “the sole fundraising organization equitably serving the entire Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District.”

Opponents to the new fundraising model claim that when the model is implemented (likely by fall of 2013), the “equity” part of the SMMEF description doesn’t apply to Malibu because Malibu schools stand to lose hundreds of thousands of dollars of their private PTA donations to Santa Monica.

Only when particular Santa Monica schools have “raised their boats” for per-student spending, can any PTA private donations return to Malibu for essential programs and staff that Malibu PTAs have traditionally funded. In order for the funds to return to Malibu, the SMMEF, which last year raised approximately $400,000, would need to raise roughly three million dollars—donations they expect in large part to come from wealthy Malibu residents.

During the meeting with PRP, Malibu PTA members repeatedly recounted the feelings of animosity and resentment that developed when local residents learned they would have to adhere to a new fundraising model that, in their opinion, was implemented hastily with disregard for the entire Malibu community.

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School board to Debate Malibu Split

 

 

 

 

 

Wednesday, May 2, 2012 11:00 AM PDT

District staff estimate a $3.5 million operational deficit for Santa Monica if Malibu secedes. But Malibu activists say they are perplexed at how the figures were arrived at.

By Jimy Tallal / Special to The Malibu Times

With the school district Board of Education set to discuss the financial implications of Malibu and Santa Monica dividing into separate districts on Thursday at Malibu City Hall, the district’s financial staff on Monday released an estimate projecting a $3.5 million deficit for an independent Santa Monica school district should Malibu separate. The projection was met with disappointment among Malibu education activists, who say they do not know how the district arrived at the numbers, and have been prevented from working with them collaboratively.

The Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District (SMMUSD) Board of Education is scheduled to meet Thursday at Malibu City Hall at 6 p.m. to discuss the prospect of a split. The board decided at its March 1 meeting to study the prospect of a split at the request of the Malibu City Council and citizen group Advocates for Malibu Public Schools (AMPS).

SMMUSD Superintendent Sandra Lyon said Tuesday the estimate provided by staff in the report did not mean that staff was recommending against a separation.

“We’re not making a recommendation one way or the other. We’re going to present the data and the information and we’ll draw some conclusions from there,” Lyon said. “We wanted to make sure that what we could get was accurate as possible and enough for the board to make an informed decision.”

But Malibu parent Craig Foster, who has been heavily involved with AMPS’ drive to explore the possibility, said he did not understand how the district arrived at its numbers, or why it refused offers from AMPS to pay for consultants and study the process jointly.

To read more, go here.