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TUESDAY
01.26.16 Volume 15 Issue 60
@smdailypress
SMMUSD audit finds student tracking error BY JEFFREY I. GOODMAN Daily Press Staff Writer
A misinterpretation of enrollment in discounted school lunch programs led to an error in the Santa Monica-Malibu school district’s bookkeeping.
WHAT’S UP WESTSIDE ..................PAGE 2 WRITER-IN-RESIDENCE ................PAGE 3 FLUFF AND FOLD ............................PAGE 4 EARTHQUAKE GRANTS ................PAGE 6 MYSTERY PHOTO ............................PAGE 9
Santa Monica Daily Press
smdp.com
Cookies, confidence comin’ to town Santa Monica’s Girl Scouts acquire financial, leadership skills through Cookie Program
The error was discovered in an audit of SMMUSD finances by Christy White Associates, an accounting firm hired by the district to examine its coffers. The finding was considered SEE AUDIT PAGE 7
Courtesy Photo
COOKIE TIME: Local Girl Scouts will be selling cookies to support a variety of activities.
BY JENNIFER MAAS Daily Press Staff Writer
LEAGUE WIN Morgan Genser
Santa Monica High School hosted Beverly Hills in an Ocean League game on Jan. 24 and won 3-1 to improve their record to 4-0 in league play and 8-5-2 overall. Pictured are Santa Monica players Antonia Fuller, Maggie Lena and Dai Williams.
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Last weekend, nearly three million boxes of Girl Scout Cookies arrived in Greater Los Angeles to be sold by roughly 40,000 scouts. Of those 40,000 girls, over 300 are Santa Monicans. The Westside scouts, who are divided among 35 troops, sold over 60,000 boxes of cookies last year and, according to troop leader and Girl Scouts’ Santa Monica service unit manager, Lisette Gold, they are on target to meet that same benchmark this year. Gold said that the money each troop raises through the Cookie Program is used differently, as they get to decide how it’s spent. Gold’s troop has used their funds for travel in the past, going snorkeling in Catalina and on kayaking trips. But Gold said the girls have to use their financial skills to make those trips a reality. “The girls become very savvy about money and budgeting,” Gold said. “They have to find
out how much the trip is going to cost. … They do their inventory, set goals. It is a business they are running to raise money. And there is no other possibility for girls as young as third graders or fourth graders to set and meet these goals.” Gold said that because the girls are too young to have jobs, the Girl Scout Cookie Program is the only way for most girls to gain real financial skills. But Gold said the girls are achieving financial success in the same way they would if they were employed. “We will have one afternoon where we sell $600 in cookies and I will tell the girls they earned more than they would in most minimum wage jobs or babysitting,” Gold said. Gold said that the Cookie Program is also one of the very few opportunities for girls to learn leadership, speaking and business skills. “It is an opportunity for girls to carry skills they will use into the future. It let’s them be SEE COOKIE PAGE 7