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Health & Fitness

Patch Blog: Setting the Summer School Record Straight

The LCFEF summer school contributes only .09% of LCUSD's revenue. There's no "conflict of interest," and the LCFEF's good work shouldn't be dragged into the policy debate over Hillside.

Chalk it up to “no good deed goes unpunished.”

When the LCUSD realized it could no longer fund summer school, a group of intrepid volunteer community members took up the cause. Working through the La Cañada Flintridge Educational Foundation, a committee led by Jinny Dalbeck, Barry Reed and Deborah Weirick worked tirelessly to create a full-service summer school program for parents and kids.

There was an entire staff to hire, a curriculum to set, a website to build, registration to run and facilities to secure. The committee faced a looming deadline, and with no past performance to serve as a guide, a very real possibility that enrollment wouldn’t be high enough to sustain any number of classes being offered.

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But it worked. It worked beautifully, and Jinny, Barry and Deborah managed to do more for our kids and community last summer than most of us could ever hope.

I’d say it was an unqualified success, but regrettably and confusingly, the Foundation’s summer school program became an unlikely—and unwarranted—football in the District political battle over Hillside School & Learning Center.

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In a nutshell, the District determines which summer school programs qualify for credit. Hillside currently qualifies, but its students receive significantly less instructional time than those at other qualified summer schools. The question the District faces: should Hillside continue to be qualified?

The Educational Foundation has absolutely no position on this question, nor should it. The LCFEF is a non-profit, non-partisan organization.

And yet, School Board member Andrew Blumenfeld (then a candidate) :

…any profit could be donated back to LCUSD.  Our School Board suddenly had a very strong interest in the success of the Educational Foundation’s summer school… our School Board suddenly had a very strong interest in establishing criteria for these "outside agencies" that would inevitably narrow the field of competing summer school options… Clearly, our School Board faced a significant conflict-of-interest.

Get it? The LCFEF summer school puts big money in the pockets of the District, so the District is motivated to eliminate all your other choices!

That sounds terrible, doesn’t it?

Happily, it’s completely and utterly false. Better still, it’s demonstrably false.

Let’s take a look at the myths and facts at work here.

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MYTH #1: Because the Foundation can charge tuition and then donate the “profit” to the District, the District has a conflict of interest.

FACT: The LCFEF brought in a “profit” of $30,000 in its first session, which it donated to the District. The District currently receives funding in excess of $32 million dollars. The “windfall” the District received from the Foundation program made up a whopping .09% of the District’s revenue.

One-eleventh of one percent.

The notion that the District would expend this much energy and endure this much debate and public outrage over one-eleventh of one percent of its revenue is laughable.

The LCFEF summer school program isn’t designed to be a cash cow. If anything, the Foundation has a real fear it may run at a loss, but is willing to underwrite the program up to a reasonable point, because they believe it is a service the community wants and deserves (and they are right).

In all likelihood, even the miniscule .09% number will be reduced for this next session, because additional staff will be required to maintain the program after so many volunteer hours were utilized in the first year.

MYTH #2: The District decided to eliminate choices and options for parents and students, in order to drive business to the Foundation.

FACT: If the Foundation and Hillside were the only choices for summer school, this point might be worth considering.

They’re not, so it’s not.

LCUSD students currently receive summer school credit from PCC, GCC, Flintridge Prep, St. Francis, Arcadia, South Pasadena, Glendale Unified, LaSalle and a number of other programs. If the District wanted to drive everyone to the Foundation program, it would be debating the status of multiple programs, instead of just one.

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The Board is divided on the Hillside issue, but it’s divided because of Hillside, and not because of the Foundation summer school program. This debate isn’t new; it predates the Foundation summer school by quite a bit.

The Foundation and its summer school has nothing to do with it. It’s a bizarre charge that fails to withstand even the slightest scrutiny.

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