By Jonathan Friedman
Lookout Staff

June 23, 2010 -- Board of Education President Barry Snell was accused of “trying to eliminate” people when he attempted last Friday to modify a proposed policy to streamline membership terms for the District Advisory Committees (DACs).

There are eight DACs that advise Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District (SMMUSD) officials on various subjects, including financial oversight, special education and health and safety. These committees, especially the one for special education, sometimes conflict with District officials, and they are praised by many for being watchdogs.

For some time, membership terms for the DACs have not been monitored, District staff wrote in a report. A proposal presented to the board on Friday called for those who have served on a DAC for more than four year and others whose terms will expire at the end of the month to submit applications if they want to serve new terms. Their terms would automatically be renewed for a length from one to four-years, to be determined by a random drawing.

The purpose of staggering the terms is so a large number of membership terms would not be up for renewal at the same time in the future. With the proposed policy, new members could also submit applications. They would receive appointments based on whether space is available.

Snell at the meeting asked that the feature calling for automatic renewal for current members be removed. Only Board member Jose Escarce supported this. The original proposal was eventually approved by a majority of the board, but not before the members heard from two special education committee members who said Snell’s proposed modification was an attempt to eliminate them. They also criticized the general DAC policy revision process, which has been going on for nearly two years.

“It has had the appearance since the beginning that the intent of the DAC policy revision was to remove certain members of a DAC who are whistleblowers,” Claudia Landis said.

Tricia Crane said, “If I am a problem and you want me off, then send me an e-mail. But don’t rewrite policy to get rid of me. Because I’m not going anywhere.

She added, “If you don’t want a DAC that is a watchdog group that comes to you with problems, then you should just disband it and keep your PTA committee.”

Crane said Snell was likely embarrassed by the modification he proposed, and was forced by District staff to suggest it. Snell later noted that Board of Education members actually select the DAC members.

“All I’m trying to do is begin a process,” he said. “No one is talking about eliminating anybody from the DAC.”

Board member Oscar de la Torre said he could not support Snell’s proposal because of the suggestion by the speakers that it was an attempt to marginalize them. He said even the perception of this being true made it so he could not vote for it.

“We do not want to marginalize anyone in this community, especially parents whose children have been historically marginalized because of their educational challenges in the school district,” he said. “That is something we have fought for on this board and something we’re committed to, ensuring that nobody is marginalized.”

Board member Maria Leon-Vazquez said she did not understand why Snell wanted to change the proposal since it came from a board subcommittee he was a member of.

“We have other bigger issues on the table than working on something as simple as trying to figure out how we’re going to move forward with selection of DAC membership.”