Schools Are Back in MB; An Appreciation

The crossing guards are out again, the bells are ringing each hour, and the buzz of students back on campus is being heard again all over Manhattan Beach.

Yes, it's still super weird that school starts in August. August! But it's not shocking anymore.

While the MBC littles are all finished in the Manhattan Beach school district (and they've stopped being "littles"), we still have a vast appreciation for our local schools.

Certainly, all local homes do get a lot of appreciation that comes out of having such great public schools. 

And we always have clients moving into town where the schools a big factor.

Here's a quick appreciation of some of what's been going on for our local schools, and the vast network of support that comes from the community for the schools.

(Many links go off-site to our sister site, MB News, which has had the best ongoing coverage of local schools for years. For more about local schools and individual campuses, see MBC's page about Manhattan Beach Schools.)

Bigger, Better

Local campuses have seen big improvements in recent years.

Most recently, Grand View elementary debuted a new 3-story building as part of its campus-wide upgrade. The new building will house a performing arts center and music rooms, a new cafeteria, administrative offices and a staff lounge, according to MB News.

That comes after Grand View got a big facelift and new 2-story classroom buildings.

Pennekamp, too, added new "modular" 2-story classroom buildings in 2022, along Peck Ave., then last year reworked the northern edge of the campus by demolishing old buildings and adding a parking lot and drop-off lanes.

Each elementary campus has made a range of improvements and repairs thanks to local voters' 2016 approval of Measures C & EE, which provided bond funds for the projects.

The Manhattan Beach Middle School, long renowned for its music program, just added a dedicated music building. That was also part of the Measure C projects.

And at Mira Costa High School, once known to have the most decrepit, unusable gym and locker room facilities in the South Bay, students are now almost 2 years into enjoying state-of-the-art facilities. High-stakes home games for basketball and volleyball have hosted full crowds in gorgeous new buildings, while campus athletes have access to workout facilities that rival their parents' pricey gyms. (The Mira Costa athletic facilities were made possible by Measure EE funds.)

Extraordinary Support Outside the Classroom

The local schools have improved in recent years, even as state funding has faced cuts and uncertainty.

State formulas for funding of local school districts have been oriented toward giving higher shares of funding to districts where students have higher needs and more difficult challenges than in districts like Manhattan Beach.

That's where non-profit support comes in. 

This is the 40th year of the Manhattan Beach Education Foundation (MBEF), which collects funds from parents and a wide range of community supporters. One event, the annual Wine Auction, has raised $1.3M in one evening each of the last two years.

MBEF grants fill in where state funding falls short, providing funds for extra teachers (enabling class size reduction), counseling and support, physical education, reading/writing & libraries, STEAM and visual and performing arts. Without MBEF and its network of supporters, the schools we have here today simply would not and could not look anything like they do.

A parallel organization, the MBX Foundation, just celebrated 20 years providing support for athletics booster clubs, enrichment classes, summer school, and much more. The organization is increasingly seen as the "fourth leg of the stool" supporting local schools, joining MBUSD, MBEF and local campus PTAs to provide essential services.

Those PTAs are always active, benefiting from a core of engaged parents who value the public schools and contribute time and effort into making individual campuses great. 

Local Governance, Funding Challenges

The Manhattan Beach Unified School District is governed by 5 elected board members. 

Within the past year, 3 board members have been replaced, and one re-elected to a new term. (In this photo, Wysh Weinstein [new], Jen Fenton [returning] and Tina Shivpuri [new] are sworn in to their roles in December 2022.)

The board now has a measure of stability after a 2022 election season that had appeared contentious, with effectively two blocs of 3 candidates each vying for three school board slots on the ballot. Voters chose one incumbent member and two allied candidates with, on average, 32-40% more votes than the other bloc received.

Controversy had also swirled earlier in 2022 when voters were asked to weigh in on an ambitious 12-year parcel tax plan, which was decisively rejected. 

A current, modest local parcel tax, known as Measure MB, was approved in June 2018 and runs through June 2024. It imposes a $225 per property levy, with exemptions for seniors and low-income residents with disabilities. It generates approximately $2.5 million per year from just over 10,000 properties for Manhattan Beach schools.

The district is now planning for a replacement parcel tax, which would have to face voters before next June's expiration.

While the current parcel tax was crafted by the district and got 69.25% of the vote in 2018, the more controversial citizen-initiated measure saw a 68% "no" vote last year, leading to caution on the part of district leaders. Voters will be asked for something, however, as state funding is likely to again trend downward in the coming years.

While parcel taxes for schools are pretty new in Manhattan Beach, there's little doubt that they pay off in multiples, especially in home values.

There is somewhat more doubt about the value of homework, however. Are you ready for that nightly debate again?