With 2024 beginning to wind down, the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District Board of Education caught up on progress reports from district maintenance staff and the Santa Monica Education Foundation.
As the board’s November 21 meeting, Maintenance and Operations staff gave the board its progress report from the 2023-24 school year, which kept the division busy, closing 4,065 maintenance work orders and 969 operations work orders across the district. Both Santa Monica High School and Malibu High/Middle School took priority from the crews, including over 1,000 maintenance work orders closed on the Samohi campus.
As part of the presentation, school sites’ 2024 Facility Improvement Tool (FIT) scores were shared, an integral metric in the Local Controls Funding Plan that ranks the overall condition of a school site via evaluation of 15 components.
Staff said that they were “proud” of their work at Samohi, which scored a “Fair” rating in the 2023-24 FIT scoring and was upgraded to “Good” for 2024-25. Projects on the campus included replacing AC Split Units in the Music Room, replacing 68 broken windows in the Business Building and pumping water from the elevator pit in the Language Building.
On the middle school level, maintenance staff dealt with a rodent infestation over the summer at John Adams Middle School. Seeing that rodents were getting into classrooms, staff worked to seal off any openings the small animals were using to enter the building, able to knock down the population, killing 75 rats just from the construction. Staff added that they don’t use any kind of harsh chemical to kill rodents, instead using the sealing method.
Lincoln Middle School also presented “quite a bit of projects,” including replacing HVAC drain lines on the campus’ roof, glass window repairs, and removal of water from an elevator pit. On the elementary level, staff dealt with work orders like water intrusion at Edison Language Academy and a renovation of the Roosevelt Elementary School athletic field.
Shifting over from maintenance to fundraising, the board heard a quarterly report from the Santa Monica Education Foundation, with new Executive Director Raymur Flinn sharing fundraising progress this year. Flinn stated that she has had an “amazing welcome” to the “very generous” community of Santa Monica.
The foundation has been able to fund $2.48 million in school programs, including adding a $50,000 contribution for middle school athletic programs. As of October 31, the foundation was 46.7% complete in its goal of $1.8 million to the district for next year, with 20% of Santa Monica families donating thus far.
Families of SMASH (39%), Roosevelt (31%) and Franklin Elementary School (30%) have been the most giving as of October 31. Flinn said that last year’s donation period ended with 34% of families giving, hoping to have more families participate. She added that “Pledge Week” from October 6 through October 13 was a “strong week,” with over $200,000 raised for the foundation.
thomas@smdp.com
