by Garth Meyer
“A quarter of a million dollars has been siphoned off to boardmembers,” said Redondo Unified School District boardmember Rolf Strutzenberg at their regular meeting May 14, describing a previous payment of $250 per month to the representatives since 2005.
Strutzenberg is also a member of the Redondo Beach charter review committee, which has been combing through the city charter to update it, the first time since 1992. In the process, he noticed last October that the charter prevents compensation of any kind to a school district boardmember.
“This is a violation of the city charter, a criminal offense. Has a police report been filed?” Strutzenberg said in last week’s meeting.
He brought this up in October of last year and the district in turn stopped the payments.
On May 14, the board voted to remove the stipend practice from its bylaws.
“The whole point was to strike the $250 payments so we are in compliance with the charter,” said Superintendent Nicole Wesley.
Last Tuesday’s vote also calls for the school district’s attorney to draft a letter to the city, requesting the question be put to voters whether to erase “without compensation” from Article 16.1 of the city charter.
The clause in the city charter, which goes back to the 1949 version, reads as follows, including the phrase that the school board proposes to cross out:
The government and control of the public schools shall be vested in the Board of Education, consisting of five (5) members… They shall be elected at large by the registered voters of the district and shall serve for a four (4) year term, without compensation, except necessary expenses when acting as a designated representative of the Board of Education as provided in the Education Code of the State of California.
“Words matter,” said Board President Raymur Flinn. “This wasn’t done to siphon off funds. I don’t believe there was ill intent. Since 2005, it’s been a transparent policy whether it was correct or not.”
Strutzenberg, who has become more vocal about the school district budget in a time of deficit spending, pointed out there has been multiple amendments to Article 16.1, but “without compensation” has remained in place.
“I’d like to get this cloud off our back,” said Boardmember Dan Elder. “Just getting the language out so I don’t have to worry about lawyers and just focus on kids… We’re used to being unpaid volunteers.”
Expense reports, Elder said, have a certain vagueness of what is allowed to be reimbursed, and what is not; for example eating breakfast at a conference which no other school officials were present, nor business discussed.
Previously
Last fall, as part of the city charter committee review project, the school board voted 4-1 to keep the board in the charter (Strutzenberg against). Later, the clause about compensation came to light and the board then reacted to it.
Strutzenberg told Easy Reader he’s been tracking his own expenditures as a boardmember, and it averages $15 per month.
“We weren’t spending close to $250 per month and we were getting paid that,” he said. “It’s just wrong. Is this how we are going to lead? To teach our kids if you can get away with it, go ahead?”
He said he is not opposed to payment to school board members, as long as it is done legally, and if reinstated, that it not be for current boardmembers.
Last week, the board refrained from taking out a part in their bylaws about covering expenditures for health & welfare. The district offers to pay boardmembers’ health insurance, with each making an accompanying contribution.
“Health and welfare are deemed to be compensation,” Strutzenberg said, referring to several court rulings and California attorney general opinions over time.
“That’s not been decided,” Flinn said. “We can debate it or not debate it, or we can take the (phrase out of the city charter),” she said. “That would cover it.”
“The $250 was always meant as a sort of expense reimbursement, for mileage, etc.,” Flinn said. “I could probably produce that much in expenses to match that, easily.”
She added that the stipend also made for less work for the district processing expense reports.
“For the school board, an eight–year member, that’s $24,000 each,” Strutzenberg said. “I got paid illegally. I don’t want anything to do with that.”
He paid back the money to the district.
Strutzenberg was appointed to the charter review committee by the city council, shortly after his election in 2021.
If the “without compensation” phrase is ultimately taken out of the city charter, the school board would be free to vote back in a stipend/payment according to the California Education Code rules – which sets the limit at $240 per month for districts the size of RBUSD.
Because Redondo Beach is one of 121 charter cities in California – and the school board is part of that charter – it has more flexibility in its bylaws.
“I would imagine we would probably bring back the stipend, but that would be up to the board,” Elder said. “Potentially future members of the board.”
Elder, Strutzenberg and Rachel Silverman-Nemeth conclude their first terms next March.
“It hadn’t been an issue for 20 years, then it kind of got made into an issue, so we want to make it not an issue again,” Elder said. “Let’s fix it and move on.” ER
