We Can No Longer Let Fear Lead Us

December 7, 2011 --The following speech was delivered by Santa Monica - Malibu School Board member Nimish Patel at a special meeting November 29, where the board voted unanimously to move forward on a district gift policy. The policy would bar PTAs from raising funds to pay for teachers and other personnel as well as "premium programs" at specific schools.

Thank you to everyone for coming and being a critical part of our discussion and deliberation. This has been one of the hardest months for me in my memory, and will be the hardest vote that I will have to make and probably will ever make during my term on the board. I knew when I was running for the school board that there would come a moment in time when I would have to take a position on an issue that would be at odds with my community of friends, neighbors, and supporters. That there will be a moment in time when I would have to make a decision that I believed was the right action for our District, but that my supporters will have to trust me because it will take time to bear fruit. That moment in time is now. I support whole heartedly the Superintendents modified policy recommendation and believe we should take action to approve today.

I know for many that my decision to support this policy comes as a shock. I owe it to you to let you how I came to this decision. When my wife and I began our family, we did a lot of research on which school we wanted our children to attend. There were many factors that went into our decision including how the school was performing, what families had to say about their experience, and yes how much PTA funds were raised annually because to me it was intuitive…greater the funds, the better the educational experience. Although we would have been happy with several choices, after talking with friends and family, we decided to buy a house in the Franklin Elementary school neighborhood. We were glad that Franklin was the right fit for us because we would be spending a lot of time there.

We immediately became involved parents. My wife decided to stop work and take on the full time position of being a school mom. She was a room parent for many years in our children’s classroom, chaperoned lots of the school events including local field trips and the school’s famous Astro Camp. She eventually became the co-president of the PTA organizing and overseeing all the fundraising events at the school. And when she felt she wasn’t doing enough, she enlisted me to help. At first, I went in kicking and screaming, but I too found joy and fulfillment in being involved in the education journey of my children. Every year since our children were in kindergarten we contributed to the direct investment drive and tapped our rolodex for other donors. We volunteered countless hours at our Halloween Carnival fundraiser, and made generous bids on silent auction items at the gala fundraisers. Truth be told many of the auction items that we “won” were never really something that we would care to have, but it was important, because we knew that the money we were giving was going towards helping our children’s school.

As parents we knew that the greatest gift you can ever give your children is a good education and no parent should ever have to apologize for wanting the best for their children. So for the past 6 years, my wife and I did what we felt was natural which was to focus on making Franklin Elementary the best that it can be. Life was great, we were living in a community that we loved, and best of all our children were going to the school that in our minds was better than any private school.

In early 2010, I had a crazy idea that it would be fun to be on the school board! Well it’s been exactly 1 year this month that I have had the honor of serving on the board. During this past year, I had the opportunity to do what many parents never really get a chance to do. Because of my position I got the chance to visit with many of the other district schools, meet with the teachers and administrators, and also talk to students and parents from the south side Santa Monica to Malibu and those in between.

It was during this year that I truly realized that we in fact have two communities. One is the community that I am a part of that has the ability to raise $600,000 at our school every year so that my children and their schoolmates have access to the best technology and high quality educational programs assisted by classroom teacher aids. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not easy raising this much money. A lot volunteer hours goes into it and sometimes blood, sweat and tears are involved to make this happen. But the point I am making is that there are enough resources from the parents at this school that raising this kind of money was even a possibility.

But there is another community that doesn’t have those same resources; where more than 60% of the families of the students in one of our Title I elementary schools are at or below the poverty line. This is a community that many people do not see on TV or read about in glamor magazines. We have children in some parts of our neighborhood that come to our schools in the morning that are hungry and end their day even hungrier. We have children who are not completing all their homework not because they are unwilling or do not care, but because they don’t have electricity in their home. We have children who share an apartment with 2 or 3 other families and yes some of them are the lucky ones because we also have children that have no homes at all. It is hard to imagine but the reality is we have poverty in various degrees in neighborhoods of Santa Monica and Malibu.

And what I have found as a board member is that the PTAs of our Title I school do not raise the same amount of funds as our affluent schools but it’s not because of lack effort, but because they lack resources. Not because they don’t want to volunteer their time, but because they have to work two jobs. Not because they don’t want to donate $500 to their school, but because they need to pay this month’s rent….because their neighbors are not celebrities or producers, or CEOs of companies.

But the families from Title I schools also have much in common with the affluent schools. They believe in public schools and the power of education. They love their teachers and principals and want to support their school as best as they can. And when I sat with some of the mothers and fathers from the Title I schools to understand where they were coming from, they didn’t wish that my children would have less so that theirs could have more. They asked me, as their school board member, can I not imagine a future that can provide for all? And that’s when it hit me. Yes, I can imagine that future and this board policy that we are considering today, will be our map that will navigate us there.

The fear of the unknown can be very scary and when it comes to our children that fear is magnified 10 fold. But are we letting our fears make us forget what kind of community we are? Do we really believe that the consequence in adopting this board policy will result in a nuclear winter for our community? Can this really happen to the same community that time after time has shown resiliency and creativity? Have we not demonstrated that we have it in ourselves to expand our possibilities and resources? The fact that only 20 percent of our community members have children in our schools, somehow we can’t even imagine a way to tap into the other 80 percent? We have vibrant businesses in Santa Monica and access to the entertainment world in Malibu but we can’t think of creative fundraising events? That the same community that raised $1.6 million in 8 weeks in the summer during the worst recession since the great depression is incapable of raising $5 million a year starting 2 years from now? If districts like Manhattan Beach, Palo Alto, Beverly Hills, and Carlsbad are able to raise more money under centralized fundraising than under the individual site model, that somehow with all of the talent and passion that we have in our community, we can’t do the same?

During this past month, we forgot who we are because of fear. We forgot that we value high quality public education for all students in our community. We can no longer let fear lead us or keep us in our status quo. We can do this and we will not fail if that is what we decide. Let’s unite our community let us show to those that look up to Santa Monica and Malibu what is possible. I urge my fellow board members to do the same.