The Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District Board of Education will have a special meeting on Tuesday night at the district offices prompted by an urgent need to retain or let go temporary employees.
The main purpose of the meeting, district staff states, is for the Board "to adopt annual time-sensitive resolutions regarding the notification of specific employees that their services might not be required for next year." The Board wrote a resolution pursuant to Education Code Section 44954 that the Board "may release a certificated temporary employee if the employee is notified before the end of the school year of the District’s decision not to reelect the employee for the next succeeding school year."
A total of 11 employees on temporary contracts were not reelected for the 2024-25 school year. Additionally, the Board decided not to reelect two probationary employees and one probationary certificated administrator/manager position. The Board also chose to release one employee from an administrative position and salary placement at the end of this school year, and that employee will be reassigned to a teaching position for the 2024-25 year.
Another Board resolution deals with the reduction or discontinuance of particular kinds of classified services, determining it "necessary to reduce or discontinue particular kinds of classified services due to lack of work or lack of funds for the 2024-25 school year." At the conclusion of this year, there will be reductions in both district physical activities specialists and media services coordinator positions.
The board will look to approve several independent contractor agreements, such as a contract for PS Arts to deliver in-person visual art lessons for 5th-grade students at Grant Elementary School.
Informational items are also on the agenda, such as a request for sexuality education for those with developmental disabilities. Parents of students in moderate-severe special education programs requested that students receive sex education, as the students do not take Freshman Seminar in high school, therefore not receiving a health/sex education curriculum.
The curriculum created by Katherine McLaughlin of Elvatus Training, LLC and Green Mountain Self Advocates focuses on topics like friendships, gender, consent, social media safety, healthy and unhealthy relationships, public vs. private, body parts, sexual acts, sexually transmitted infections and pregnancy. The curriculum is created specifically for students with disabilities, and presentations will be given by the UCLA Title X team of health educators.
The district states that UCLA "has the capacity to build a multi-year partnership with (the district) to educate all students enrolled in moderate to severe (Life Skills and Social Skills, for example) classes in 6th grade through 12th grade." Administrators and certificated staff will identify which lessons will be presented to the classes, and teachers may also use the curriculum for presentations in the classroom throughout the school year. There will be no financial cost to the district for the curriculum, and materials will be provided through UCLA staff.
