INSIDE SCOOP
COMMENTARY
Q-LINE
PUTTING DRUNKS BEHIND BARS PAGE 3 BIG BLUE ADVENTURE PAGE 4 SOUND OFF ON THE ELECTION PAGE 5
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 11, 2008
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Volume 7 Issue 309
Santa Monica Daily Press MAKING CARS FUN TO DRIVE SEE PAGE 6
Since 2001: A news odyssey
THE HOMEWORK ISSUE
Calling for a contract extension Editor’s note: This story is part of an ongoing series that tracks the city’s expenditures appearing on upcoming Santa Monica City Council consent agendas. Consent agenda items are routinely passed by the City Council with little or no discussion from elected officials or the public. However, many of the items have been part of public discussion in the past.
BY MELODY HANATANI Daily Press Staff Writer
File photo
HARD AT WORK: Students work on homework at the Teen Center's computer lab at Virginia Avenue Park. After parents expressed concerns about the amount of homework their children receive, school district officials are looking at reforms that could reduce the load.
District reviews homework policy BY MELODY HANATANI Daily Press Staff Writer
SMMUSD HDQTRS While most kids tend to tune out their parents when it comes to homework, perhaps they should pay closer attention. They may just learn that their parents on their side. It seems some parents are concerned that their kids are getting too much homework, which is taking time away from other activities, such as family bonding. Officials with the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District are planning on reviewing and possibly revising the current homework policy after hearing concerns from parents and the Health and Safety District Advisory Committee that students receive an inordinate amount of afterschool studies. A new policy is expected to be sent back to the board in the coming weeks. A group of parents addressed the issue at
the Board of Education meeting last Thursday during a discussion about the 19year-old policy, complaining that the heavy workload every night cuts into students’ ability to participate in extracurricular activities and spend time with their families. Leslie Butchko, who has a fourth grader at Roosevelt Elementary and a sixth grader at Lincoln Middle School, said she has noticed her elder child reading less for fun as he spends more time on his homework, opting to watch television after finishing his assignments. “He was a kid who didn’t want to watch TV before because he wanted to read and couldn’t put down his book,” said Butchko, who took interest in the issue last year when her son was still in the fifth grade. The district’s policy currently states that students in grades 1- 5 should be given about 10 minutes of homework per day, per
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grade level, which means that students in the second grade would receive about 20 minutes of assignments every day. Students in middle school receive anywhere from one to two hours of homework, depending on their grade level, and high school students are expected to spend anywhere from two to three hours daily. The policy states that high school students should on average spend 30 minutes per subject every day. Some parents argue the guidelines are not being followed, adding there needs to be communication between teachers when giving assignments to avoid overloading students. The Health and Safety District Advisory Committee has brought up the issue a number of times over the past few years, concerned about the stress level of students.
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CITY HALL The Annenberg Community Beach House may be just six months away from its grand opening but there remains clean-up work for leftover hazardous materials. Construction workers during a recent excavation of the site at 415 Pacific Coast Highway discovered asbestos-encapsulated pipes and soil fill containing the mineral that is often used for insulation. The City Council will be asked tonight to extend Midwest Environmental Control’s contract by $429,000, which would cover the cost of cleaning up the contaminated materials. The contract extension is part of a nearly $3 million spending package that includes street light improvements and new traffic signal controls. The former estate of silent film star Marion Davies is currently in the process of transforming into a public beach house, believed to be the first of its kind in the country. Midwest Environmental Control has spent the past few years providing abatement services of asbestos and other hazardous material, receiving a contract in November 2006 for approximately $747,000. That contract has ballooned since then as more asbestos and lead-containing material were discovered during rehabilitation activities. The contract has been amended numerous times since it was originally signed. If approved, the new contract total would stand at $2.36 million. Another contractor for the project — Smith-Emery Company — is also expected to receive an approximately $54,450 contract extension to perform deputy inspection and materials testing. LET THERE BE LIGHT
A handful of streets will be getting new SEE CONSENT PAGE 9
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