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LOCAL WRITERS FEEL THE PINCH PAGE 3 TAKING ON A SOURCE OF GREAT SORROW PAGE 16
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2008
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Volume 7 Issue 76
Santa Monica Daily Press
GOING PLACES SEE PAGE 14
Since 2001: A news odyssey
THE SHOWBIZ ISSUE
District’s consultant listens up Parents previously afraid to talk openly discuss special ed BY MELODY HANATANI Daily Press Staff Writer
SMMUSD HDQTRS A cloud of fear lingered over a group of parents that gathered in the Board of Education meeting room on Wednesday night, cautiously airing their frustrations over a special education program that has come under fire in the past year for an alleged culture of secrecy. The meeting was the first of four pub-
lic input sessions held by district consultant Lou Barber & Associates, a Northern California-based firm that was hired late last year to conduct an audit of special education at the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District, examining both the financial and programmatic aspects of the controversial program. “We want to give parents an opportunity to talk about the special education program,” Lou Barber said on Wednesday before the meeting started. “They can say nice things about the program and how wonderful things are going, or they can talk about things that they aren’t happy about.” Parents have long complained to school officials about the district’s practice of brokering settlement agreements
with confidentiality clauses, a process that occurs if previous negotiations over a child’s Individual Education Plan (IEP) — a process that involves a team of special education experts — falls through. The frustration lies specifically in the settlement proceedings, which many parents allege happens in a hostile environment behind closed doors, one-on-one with one of the senior district officials who would coerce the parents into signing off on an agreement that would shortchange the services their children would receive. The issue came to a head last year when the City Council threatened to withhold an increase in city funds to the school district unless an independent audit of the special education program was conducted.
The public input session was meant to serve as a safe haven for these parents to present their concerns, speaking out in a meeting that district officials intentionally did not attend to make parents feel more comfortable, according to Barber, who moderated the sessions — three of which were held on Thursday. But there was still a sense of angst touching on the words of many parents who needed to be assured by Barber on more than one occasion that they or their children would not be placed in a compromising situation by speaking out. Almost all parents chose to leave their names out during the public input session, afraid to have their experiSEE DISTRICT PAGE 11
City remembers segregationist past with candor The Ink Well was a place for black beachgoers to escape BY MELODY HANATANI I
Daily Press Staff Writer
OCEAN PARK Before progressive Santa Monica, there was a considerably less racially tolerant beachside city. A piece of the city’s little-known past was remembered and literally set in stone on Thursday when city officials unveiled a monument dedicated to honoring the history of the Ink Well — a slice of sand off Bay Street that was unofficially designated as a gathering spot for black beachgoers. “The Ink Well: A place of celebration and pain,” the monument, located off the bike path, reads. “Many African Americans have found sanctuary on this portion of the beach we sit on today,” City Manager Lamont Ewell said during the unveiling. The unveiling of the plaque was the culmination of a more than two-year effort to recognize an often forgotten chapter of Santa Monica heritage, an effort initially brought forth by Rhonda Harper, the chief executive officer of Inkwell Surf, to the City Council to commemorate the historical significance of the site, said Jessica Photo courtesy Ric McGill
SEE INK WELL PAGE 10
Gary Limjap
PROUD MOMENT: City Manager Lamont Ewell (left) and Rhonda Harper unveil a monument to the Ink Well on Thursday.
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