By Leo Shaw
Editor in Chief
and Abby Watkins
News Editor
Manhattan Beach Unified School District officials took responsibility on May 10 for a lack of communication and implementation of facility use guidelines that allowed the shooting of a film on campus that is inconsistent with the values of the district.
District officials attributed the mistake to a change in the company that occurred after the district issued a facilities use permit. Assistant Superintendent Dr. Steve Romines initially approved a facilities use application for The Loop Entertainment, which assured Facilities Coordinator Jiji Mara by e-mail that the content being filmed was G rated.
“It was going to be a G-rated film,” Romines said. “It evolved into something else.”
According to a MBUSD press release on May 10, the film’s production was switched from the Loop Entertainment to another firm that the district had no previous contact with. The company that arrived on campus on May 8 was The Yard Entertainment.
“It turned out to be a film that gives a picture of high school that we don’t condone,” Romines said. “There was a mistake in this whole process, and it was my mistake.”
According to Romines, the MBUSD business office did not communicate with the makers of the film between the time the permit was issued and May 10, when he called the film’s producers to cancel the permit. No MBUSD administrators knew that the film starred Snoop Dogg and Wiz Khalifa or featured drug use until concerns were voiced after filming took place on May 8 and 9.
“Once we learned the true subject matter of the movie, we immediately canceled the contract,” Romines said. “The district will not be receiving any facility use fees for this canceled project.”
Although the application requires the signatures of the principal and vice principal of a school site, Mara confirmed that no administrator had given prior approval in this instance. In addition, Dale indicated that he was not given an application to approve and had never been part of the approval process in any way.
“I didn’t even know I had a signature block on there,” Dale said.
Though the administration was not involved in an official capacity, Vice Principal Paula Spence had been in contact with the production company since May 2 and was present for both days of filming. Spence also assisted the production company in locating filming locations on campus.
According to Mara, a 30-day processing period for approval of all facilities use permits stipulated on the application was also not observed. Romines indicated that the company is required to complete an application but in practice, the process is mostly conducted by e-mail.
“They define what they want to use and why they’re using it,” said Romines. “A staffer contacts the production company, and I check with my staff. Nobody filled out any forms.”
However, Romines acknowledged that a lack of communication between the district office and the film’s producers allowed the production of a film whose values were inconsistent with those of the district to occur. He indicated that the district would be revising the process it uses to approve facility use applications that the district receives in the future.
“We’re going to take a look at all of our board policies for facility use. I’m going to ask a lot more questions,” Romines said.
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