by Mark McDermott Like every public school district in California, the Manhattan Beach Unified School District this month is faced with a daunting task.
by Mark McDermott Fred Taylor was mad as hell and he wasn’t going to take it anymore. The 45 year Manhattan Beach had rarely involved himself in local…
by Mark McDermott
At the beginning of last week’s Kids Need Classrooms rally outside City Hall, organizers stood before an audience of about 100 people and held placards aloft that were stamped with headshots of four Manhattan Beach Unified School District board members, Superintendent Mike Matthews, and teacher union leader Shawn Chen.
Rally organizer Tiffany Wright told the audience of about 100, which included Mayor Suzanne Hadley and City Councilmember Joe Franklin, that those six people were responsible for kids not being in classrooms.
“Those people are the red lighters,” Wright said. “We’ve got Shawn Chen the teachers union….Mike Matthews, superintendent of our school district here.”
by Mark McDermott
The Manhattan Beach Unified School District has been gradually increasing the number of students returning to in-person classes, welcoming back its TK-2 students earlier this month and almost 100 high needs middle school and high school students this week.
Next week, the district plans to bring back grades 3 to 5, four days a week on a rotating morning and afternoon schedule, and 6th grade for its humanities classes. By April 12, the district intends to begin some form of in-person instruction for grades 7 to 12, depending on forthcoming LA County Department of Public Health guidelines.
Despite the plans, district leaders continue to face criticism for the pace of reopening. MBUSD superintendent Mike Matthews has come under particular fire from frustrated parents. But Matthews, in an interview this week, defended the pace MBUSD has taken and expressed optimism that some sense of normalcy could return sooner rather than later.