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Santa Monica : School Board to Pay Itself

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Members of the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District board, who serve without pay, have voted themselves a $240 monthly salary.

The pay, effective Jan. 1, was approved Monday by a 6-0 vote, with board Vice President Patricia Hoffman abstaining. “Philosophically, I’m in favor of (the pay), but I don’t want to vote something that I wasn’t elected to receive,” Hoffman said. She said she will not take her pay but have it remain in the district’s coffers. Board members are not required to accept the money.

But board President Dan Ross said later that, although “any political body is always self-conscious in paying money to itself,” the money will compensate members for their hefty and increasing workload. It may be an incentive for people to run for the school board, Ross added.

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“We were all authorized to receive (the pay) at the time we were elected,” Ross said at the board meeting. State law allows board members to be paid according to the size of their school district. In Santa Monica-Malibu and other school districts with between 1,000 and 10,000 students, each member may receive up to $240 a month.

The Santa Monica-Malibu board authorized members to be paid for board meetings they miss while they are away on district business and for up to two meetings a year because of illness. Other absences are unexcused, and members will be paid a pro-rated amount based on the number of meetings they attend in a month.

Culver City school board members are paid $240 a month. Beverly Hills members are not paid. Board members of the Los Angeles Unified School District, where attendance is 610,000 students, receive $2,000 a month.

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