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TUESDAY, OCTOBER 14, 2014
Volume 13 Issue 282
Santa Monica Daily Press
CANDIDATES ANSWERS SEE PAGES 6 & 11
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THE POST-SQUIRM ISSUE
More teachers, lower enrollment at district schools BY DAVID MARK SIMPSON Daily Press Staff Writer
SMMUSD HDQRTRS Schools have more teachers and fewer students this year. Enrollment at the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District dropped for the second year in a row but student-to-teacher ratios improved significantly for the first time since the early days of the economic
downturn. There were 11,274 students enrolled in the district as of Sept. 16, according to district officials, down from 11,315 students last year. Over the past decade, enrollment has dropped by more than a thousand students. In the 2004-05 school year, 12,545 kids were enrolled in the district but, with the exception of a couple slight upticks, that
number has decreased steadily. District officials are predicting a slight gain next year. Enrollment, they say, will be back up over 12,000 in seven years. Staffing, meanwhile, has risen districtwide, with almost every secondary school and several elementary schools seeing some kind of increase. Franklin Elementary School, for example, gained the equivalent of two full-time staff
members last year. Class sizes in Franklin’s first, second, and third grades dropped this year. Last year there were an average of 29.5 kids per class in the third grade and this year it’s 25. Class-sizes in the fourth and fifth grades rose at Franklin, each up to 29.5 students per class. At the high schools, average class sizes SEE ENROLL PAGE 7
City Hall: stop private sale of public parking spaces BY DAVID MARK SIMPSON Daily Press Staff Writer
CITYWIDE A street parking app may run out
HOMECOMING
of gas before it even has a chance to put its turn signal on. City Council will consider banning the sale of public parking spaces in the city, tonight. In August, after some controversy in San Francisco, MonkeyParking announced it would soon be available in Santa Monica and Beverly Hills. The app allows users to sell their parking spaces to the highest bidder. Let’s say you found a great spot near the beach and when it comes time to leave, all the spots around you are filled up. MonkeyParking bets that you can do better than to give that spot away for free. They allow you to sell it - after taking a cut, of course. MonkeyParking applied for a business license in September and offered to share some of its profits with City Hall. Santa Monica officials are saying, “No thanks.” “This ordinance would not reflect a rejection of innovation,” they say of their recommendation to council, “but rather would address potential circulation and safety issues created by such a service when users reserve on-street parking spaces and engage in online bidding wars while driving, which
Morgan Genser
Above: Zachary Cooper from the Santa Monica High School boys varsity football team rushes with the football into end zone for a touchdown during the Homecoming game on Friday Oct. 10 vs Hawthorne. Samohi won 47-0 to improve their record to 1-0 in league play and 3-3 overall. Right: Homecoming Queen Bianka Franco and King Mark Marin stand next to each other after being named Homecoming Queen and King at the Santa Monica High School homecoming game.
SEE PARKING PAGE 7
15
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