After weeks away, there was a great deal for the Culver City Council to catch up on at the September 8, 2025 meeting; most urgent was the request for funding for the Culver City Unified School District. Agendized as a part of the Consent Calendar, (Item c-15) it was pulled out so that there could be more information and discussion.
At the end, the Council did vote to approve the $2.5 million request that will allow the District to keep control of it’s administration. Without the funds, CCUSD would have been required to submit to oversight from Los Angeles County, and would have been forced to make steep budget cuts going into the future.
The newly arrived CCUSD Superintendent, Dr. Alfonso Jiménez, spoke from the podium, saying “We greatly appreciate the city’s partnership…our shared goal is one of long term financial stability…and continued excellence in our schools.” Jimenez also requested relief from some of the conditions that were set on the funding.
One of them, a condition that there be further discussion of housing on CCUSD owned property, heard Council member Bubba Fish citing the Brookwood report, a study commissioned by the previous CCUSD Board, that noted housing could bring in between $10 and $50 million dollars of income for schools.
The motion that the council voted on separated the terms of the agreement from the financial appropriation itself. While both Mayor Dan O’Brien and Council member Albert Vera, Jr. voted against the terms, the majority passed the motion. The vote to grant the funds was unanimous.
Some capital improvement projects that had already been approved by the city were de-funded to create the availability of the monies for the support of the District.
The District will be asking voters for a parcel tax, either in November of 2025 or June 2026, to shore up the funding issues created by the drop in student enrollment.
Judith Martin-Straw
