PLEASE do not give anything at all to the Del Mar Schools Education Foundation (DMSEF) for ESC programs. This annual drive is a ridiculous sham.
As residents of the Del Mar district, we supported the foundation for years, and gave more than our share, but ever since the school district’s Board of Trustees and Superintendent, Jim Peabody, squandered the Federal Jobs Funds money that the district was awarded last year, we said enough’s enough.
What happened was the district received over $700,000 from the feds, solely for saving jobs, and instead of saving ESC positions (and under apparent pressure and in cahoots with the teacher’s union), they decided to give each classroom teacher a $1000 bonus with $500,000 of that money! It’s absurd, especially when that big chunk of money could have actually saved several, if not all, ESC positions. Instead, they chose to try to get the parents to buy the ESC positions by donating to the foundation because the Superintendent and Board, for some reason, thought the money would be better spent making nice with the teachers by giving them each a $1000 bonus.
It baffles me that people are still even considering enabling this broken system, but it sounds like they’ve pressured even you – wise flu! – into considering it.
There was a lot written about the issue this past summer in the local papers, and I think Marsha Sutton spelled it out very well in the following piece in the Del Mar Times, titled, “Where’s the Outrage?” Here’s part of her article, cut and pasted from the full statement (which I’ve linked at the end) –
“As recently reported, the current DMUSD school board, with three new trustees who were championed by those who vilified the previous board, approved two controversial allocations of the district’s allotted $763,000 in Federal Education Jobs Funds, which was federal money intended to save jobs.
Del Mar’s decision to give $1,000 in “cash incentives” to all employees amounted to about $500,000. Most of the rest was spent on a Supplemental Employee Retirement Plan (SERP).
After this news was released, comparisons were made to other local school districts that chose instead to save temporary teachers’ jobs or use the money to offset the impact of statewide budget cuts to the general fund.
No district other than Del Mar used the money to give cash to employees.
The question most asked by readers was whether the DMUSD should have contributed the money to support the Extended Studies Curriculum program.
Every year, parents are asked – begged, really – to give to the Del Mar Schools Education Foundation specifically for the ESC program (consisting of classes in science, technology, art, music and physical education), which costs a bundle to operate. Parents are told frequently by the district that ESC jobs are in jeopardy as a result of state budget cuts, and programs will be cut if donations fall short.
Many parents now want to know why the district didn’t apply that federal money (and there was a lot of it) to the ESC program. Five hundred thousand dollars could have made a huge impact.
A good question. A better question is why the school board didn’t denounce this giveaway and ask the same question before unanimously approving the $1,000-per-employee payout.
An even better question is why parents didn’t loudly and publicly condemn the school board for supporting the proposal.”
flu, I would hate to see them swindle you! Spend the money instead on whatever lessons you want for your kids – music, art, technology, language, whatever. The PTAs are doing good work for their own schools so feel free to give there, but the idea of a district-wide foundation, especially operated in this manner (which seems like a slush fund for the board and superintendent) is just wrong, and I hope you see through it.
Here’s Marsha Sutton’s full editorial from last summer, explaining the debacle last year –
