Community members, MBUTA address Board on district budget discrepancy

By Kate Robak
Executive News Editor

Teachers and community members expressed concerns at the Manhattan Beach Unified School District Board of Trustees meeting on Wednesday regarding $1,033,000 that the Board claims to have mistakenly charged to the incorrect fund.

At the meeting, teachers, parents and students’ speeches were met with applause from the public as they repeatedly stated that they have “lost trust” in the school district due to this accounting error and a series of poorly-implemented district projects.

“[The Board’s] latest efforts to whitewash this budgeting error continue a long tradition of spinning a serious issue as a minor problem and abating the real issues,” history teacher Bill Fauver said at the meeting.

MBUSD parents Kim Leserman and Melissa Stein, co-writers of an email that helped inform the community of the situation, also voiced their discontent at the meeting.

“Accounting standards drive fiscal responsibility, but fiscal responsibility is driven by management, and that is exactly where this went wrong,” Stein said. “Our management is not fiscally responsible and is putting all of our teachers and kids in jeopardy.”

When the Board opened the budget item to public questions, Leserman attempted to get Superintendent Dr. Michael Matthews to admit that this problem had been brought to his attention by teachers two years ago, without success. She then made a direct address to Matthews, requesting that he resign from his position as superintendant.

“I, as a parent, and all the teachers in this district have lost trust,” Lesserman said. “Therefore, I don’t think you are going to be effective at your job, and I would like to go on record to ask for your resignation for the good of our district.”

Mira Costa junior Sachin Deepak and seniors Hannah Camel, Brian Martin and Lynn Wang expressed their thoughts on the budget discrepancy, district policies and how the stagnant negotiations are affecting students.

“The next negotiations meeting is three days before AP tests,” Deepak said. “How will we have time to prepare? How are you going to change this so that next year’s students will not have to go through suffering?”

Former MBUSD Board member Nancy Hersman was one of few speakers who spoke in defense of the Board.

“These people were elected and wanted to be on the Board to work with teachers and administrators to make the best district possible. Our Board is highly ethical, and I trust [them],” Hersman said.

MBUTA and MBUSD’s next negotiation meeting is planned for May 2.