Part of digital story:"Santa Monica Unified & Community College Districts"(Pages 84 to 87)
Manuscript Page 87

Manuscript Page 87

everyone because the children are not learning as much as is expected and are behaving like "heathens." In my opinion, the teachers are being persecuted for the failure of adults to do their jobs as parents and as financial and spiritual supporters of our schools. Nothing is as expensive as a cheap education for a child.

At any rate, we added a new employee to our staff and he handled the "labor" problems out of the Personnel Division. The new employee was Peter Sweers, a retired Army Colonel, who had been Editor and Chief of Stars and Stripes in the Asian Theater. He was a very well educated man and I had worked with him at Inglewood where he was Public Information Director. Peter did not stay at Santa Monica very long but left when the Superintendent "retired." He became Personnel Director in a large trucking firm in Palo Alto, Calif.

I found the College Faculty at Santa Monica to be completely different from the Unified District. The college had a Faculty Senate and they appointed a Salary Committee to work out an arrangement for the pay of college faculty members. During each of the years I was in Santa Monica we were able to make a joint recommendation to the Board of Education on teachers pay. It was a real pleasure to work with the college teachers on salaries and the whole area of "working conditions" was never mentioned while we were conferring.

I must note that my whole experience at Santa Monica was a very pleasant one. The Board of Education was very stable and supportive, the Superintendent was the best one possible, and the community was very proud and supportive of its schools.

I also served on the Board of the Chamber of Commerce with some of the most successful business men in the country. I don't know whether the Chamber helped the local business men or not but they surely helped the schools and, as a result, Santa Monica had an outstanding school service for its children.

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