INSIDE SCOOP
COMMENTARY
STATE
LAND SWAP RAISES QUESTIONS PAGE 3 GRILLED TO PERFECTION PAGE 4 DROUGHT HITS CALIFORNIA PAGE 7
THURSDAY, JUNE 5, 2008
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Volume 7 Issue 175
Santa Monica Daily Press
FINALS FEVER STRIKES SEE PAGE 3
Since 2001: A news odyssey
THE GO LAKE SHOW ISSUE
Transparency issues lead to grassroots school group BY MELODY HANATANI Daily Press Staff Writer
DOWNTOWN In light of a string of contro-
June 3 primary, including in Los Angeles County which saw only 18 percent of registered voters cast a ballot. The winner — Prop. 99 — makes it illegal for governments to seize homes for private developers, the measure drafted in
versies that have plagued the school district, each centered on questions of accountability and transparency, a group of parents have formed a grassroots organization aimed at bringing in a new era of leadership. Powered by active and vocal school parents, LEAD — Leadership, Effectiveness, Accountability, Direction — organized in response to the issues of financial management and special education that have cast a shadow on the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District, the coalition hoping to fuel stronger leadership on the Board of Education and in central administration. “We feel there is something we can bring to the process and while we intend to be constructive, we want to hold the district leadership accountable,” Debbie Mulvaney, one of the co-chairs of the organizing committee, said. “We want to be part of the process because we want a positive outcome.” The announcement on Wednesday came just days after Superintendent Dianne Talarico announced she is leaving this month to head the Burlingame School District in Northern California. The superintendent’s departure did not influence the timing of the organization’s announcement, organizers said. Mulvaney, whose son will soon graduate from Lincoln Middle School, said she would hope the school board will seek public input in the selection of both the interim and permanent replacement for Talarico, emphasizing transparency in the process. Several board members have pledged to an open process that will include public input sessions. “Being Santa Monica with a very active resident population, I expect leaders to emerge and to push the envelope,” school board President Oscar de la Torre said about the formation of LEAD. “In the end, I think we are all on the same page.” The district has faced trying times in the past two years, starting with the resignation
SEE ELECTION PAGE 11
SEE LEAD PAGE 10
WET BEHIND THE EARS
Brandon Wise brandonw@smdp.com At the Santa Monica Swim Center on Wednesday Lifeguard Rick Tang (right) along with two other instructors partnered with the Santa Monica Red Cross to teach 18-22 year olds from other countries basic lifeguarding skills that they will then take with them to camps across the United States this summer. The class features four days of lifeguard training and one day of water safety instructor training.
Thanks to voters, rent control lives on BY MELODY HANATANI Daily Press Staff Writer
CITYWIDE The Santa Monica tenants rights faction is celebrating after a statewide ballot measure they deemed would ultimately abolish rent control protections was defeated in the California primary election on
Tuesday. Two competing ballot measures — Propositions 98 and 99 — faced off in the primaries, both of which sought to restrict eminent domain, one of which would have phased out rent control statewide, the other coming out victorious. California had a low-turnout for the
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