By Lookout Staff

June 18, 2010 -- In a rare Friday night meeting, the Board of Education will vote on the budget for the 2010-11 fiscal year. The approximately $106 million spending plan has already been endorsed by the board members, and this decision will mostly be a formality. Because of reduced revenue and the failure of the recent parcel tax proposal to pass, the District was forced to make $7.1 million in cuts, most of it being in the area of teaching positions. The District is currently doing a fundraiser so that some of the employees who were laid off can be brought back by August in time for next school year .(See article of June 8, 2010 Board of Education Fundraising)

Also at the meeting, the board will consider a boycott of Arizona due to the recent passage SB 1070, an illegal immigration enforcement law that some say will lead to racial profiling, and HB 2281, which prohibits “ethnic studies” courses in K-12 education. Board member Oscar de la Torre requested the boycott be placed on the agenda.

A proposed resolution states, “SB 1070 encourages racial profiling and violates Fourteenth Amendment guarantees of due process and equal protection for U.S. citizens, legal residents and visitors who are detained for suspicion of being in the country unlawfully … (the passage of HB 2281) further (condones) ethnic bigotry and discrimination in the administration of Arizona's laws.”

Similar boycotts have already been approved by the City Council and the Santa Monica College Board of Trustees.