School Board Engages in Heated Battle over Interviews

By Teresa Rochester

What started out as a discussion on whether or not Board of Education members should interview candidates for a mandated Financial Oversight Committee quickly spiraled into a bitter and nasty debate Thursday night, and ended with one board member walking off the dais minuets before a vote.

The motion, crafted by Board President Todd Hess and Vice President Tom Pratt, failed in a 3 to 3 decision, with Hess and Pratt casting split votes. Hess along with board members Julia Brownley and Brenda Gottfried voted for the interview process, while Pratt, Margaret Quinones and Pam Brady cast dissenting votes. Board member Dorothy Chapman walked off the dais just before the vote in search of aspirin.

Hess and Pratt, who comprise the subcommittee reviewing applications for the voluntary seven-member committee - which was mandated by the Santa Monica City Council in exchange for a $2.1 million bailout grant -- asked the board to consider interviewing the 14 applicants. They also called for creating a board member subcommittee to conduct the interviews and extending the deadline for picking the committee to July 20.

"I'm infuriated to hear this," Quinones said. "This is dishonest. This is undermining the process that we approved. I will go to the City Council and ask them to withhold their money because this is an undermining our credibility... I watched the City Council tear us apart. For the sake of our children we need to honor our word."

"I cannot come up with only seven people," Gottfried shot back. "More information will help me make a better decision. Asking the council to withhold its money, that's not in the best interest of the district and Margaret I hope you'll realize it."

"I keep hearing how excellent and amazing they [the applicants] are," said an exasperated Brady. "Then why interview them?"

Pratt, who helped craft the plan, said he initially supported it because there had been no clear consensus among the committee member recommendations submitted by board members. By Thursday night's meeting, however, all board members had made their recommendations and seven of the 14 applicants had received three or more nods from board members.

Chapman, who was expected to vote in favor of the motion, walked off the dais right before the vote in search of aspirin for a headache she had developed. After the meeting she said she did not regret missing the vote. During the debate she had forwarded a failed motion to involve the Superintendent's Financial Task Force in the interview process.

"In thinking more about the item, I support interviews. But I support independent interviews," Chapman said after the meeting. "Having children in the district you're just more emotional. I'd like to have people who are cool and rational."

Parent Gloria Reisner, who is one of the 14 committee applicants, sat through the mudslinging debate.

"I'm surprised they are not interviewing anyone," Reisner said. "Who wouldn't want to be interviewed? If you wouldn't, then that's a problem. These are two to three year appointments."