The First Week of School: It’s All about the Numbers

• Declining Enrollment Allows More Out-of-Area Students Access to School District Campuses

BY HANS LAETZ

Hundreds of Malibu students, and seemingly that many SUVs, returned to local campuses this week as school began, with enrollment up at every school except one.
The biggest changes clearly are at the two campuses in Winter Canyon that were left slightly charred after last winter’s Malibu Canyon Fire. Both Our Lady of Malibu and Webster Elementary schools have completed the cosmetic painting and gardening tasks left after the fire, which took out one classroom each at the neighboring campuses.
But one classroom at Webster remains sealed; its contents burned and its blueprints for remodeling held up by bureaucratic delays in Sacramento, said principal Phil Cott.
“The Office of the State Architect has to sign off on the blueprints, and they can’t find the original set of blueprints, so we’re stuck right now,” lamented Cott, as he supervised a new crop of kindergartners slurping ice cream and making friends at a Friday party.
The closed classroom means band classes, reading help and other school activities are happening in the cafeteria or library.
Across the street at Our Lady of Malibu Parochial School, trenching began last week for a new computer lab to replace the one lost in last October’s fire, said co-principals Edie O’Brien and Suzanne Ricci.
Changing demographics in the Point Dume Marine Sciences Elementary School have resulted in a student drought, with enrollment dropping to 252 pupils and the school losing two classes, down from 14 to 12, said principal Chi Kim. The school has accepted some youngsters from outside the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District that were turned down by the other two local schools, which are full.
In fact, waiting lists exist for non-Malibu residents for most elementary classes at Webster and Juan Cabrillo elementaries, their principals said.
At Webster, enrollment is up by 20 to 400, said principal Cott. “We have new kids in every grade, probably some of them coming from the private schools during this little economic downturn,” he surmised. “Good thing we had room for them.”
At OLM, the school has been recarpeted and the office remodeled, and enrollment is up 5 to 160, said Ricci. The school has hired a new Spanish teacher, Irma Seminario.
At Malibu’s westernmost elementary school, Juan Cabrillo in Malibu Park, principal Barry Yates said enrollment is up 20 to 310 kids. “We are closer to capacity than we ever have been before, as the school board has decided to allow us to enroll more children from outside the district, but whose parents are in Malibu during the day,” he said. “That certainly adds to our strength and diversity.”
Cabrillo has added Smart Boards, those computer-linked combinations drawing slate/ whiteboard/TV screens, in 10 classrooms and will have the remaining four rooms equipped soon, “Thanks to the generosity of our PTA,” Yates said.
A new class for special education students has been added at Cabrillo, with the school now able to have each child start the day in a mainstream classroom and then receive individual instruction, as needed, Yates said.
A new teacher, Tamara Anderson, joins the Cabrillo staff this year, Yates said, and Sheryl Murdock transfers west from Webster. Margo Dunn has transferred from Point Dume to Webster, as the district dealt with the loss of two classrooms on the point.
At Point Dume, “Through the generous donation of our PTA, we have Smart Boards in every classroom,” principal Kim said. That school lost two teachers due to declining enrollment, and has no new teachers this year.
All three public elementary schools have new math textbooks, and they are integrated into the Smart Board systems so that math lessons and drills can be projected onto a screen, and students can use their fingers to manipulate objects or solve problems, Kim said.
LEAP programs, an after-school enrichment program for elementary students, are going to be offered at Cabrillo and Point Dume. CREST before-school and after-school education programs are still offered at Cabrillo.
At Malibu High School, enrollment is up slightly to 1180 students, said principal Mark Kelly. No major changes are seen there, with the exception of a new middle school principal, Jennifer Tedford. She comes to the local district from a teaching position at Beverly Hills High.
Kelly said there are no changes in class times, parking rules or circulation patterns on jammed Morning View Drive.
New teachers at Malibu High this year are John Allen and Wendi Hoffman, Spanish; Chris Byrne, science; Jordan Ervin, social studies; Amy Loch, vocal music; and Laree Reynolds, humanities.